az85331

Would you, please, share your Port agent's contact? We were given the Wendy Machos phone and email, but she did not respond yet to all our attempts to contact her.

Thanks for your clarification. Yes, you are right: Athens Convention does not require it to be "completely in Europe". However we live in the USA and USA never ratified this convention. It's impractical for us to travel to Europe to sue them there. Then comes the question about how US courts will treat it. I am not a lawyer but I did some research and this issue appears to me to be quite complicated. Here is some legal reference on the subject: https://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2504&context=umialr Somebody smarter than me and with some legal background can, probably, make some conclusion from here, while I, to be honest, am confused about this.

FYI: "$250 goodwill" from Cunard is not an additional! That's all what they will pay total. And it is exactly what their liability is. Where here is any "goodwill"?

Is it $500 per bag or total? Because in our official letter from Cunard they say all the same: "not their fault, gesture of good will, submit claim to port", but only $250 per bag with $500 total for two bags.

Big Thank You to everybody who took time to reply to my post. I feel that I just need to clarify something here. We do understand quite well that Cunard is legally responsible for just $250 per bag. As for Athens Convention I suspect it won't apply here since our final destination was New York, which is in the USA. And if I understand it correctly, Athens Convention is only applicable to cruises completely in Europe with no stops in any US ports. Further Bitob and others are quite right: every homeowner’s policy has a list of covered perils regardless of deductible. And drowned luggage is not one of them. At least in our case with our HO insurance. Also, we live in Arizona and it would be quite difficult to pursue Small Claims Court path from here, if I understand it correctly. The question, which I was trying to ask was: if I even have any legal stand against Long Shoremen's and NY Port organizations. I never gave them my luggage nor had any contracts with them. So for me this avenue seemed to lead to nowhere. However, the fact that Cunard's Insurance rep. informed me about submitting my claim to them raises some question. I am somewhat confused about it.

I just received an answer from Cunard Insurance rep. She said that Cunard will only pay their limit of $250 per bag and that she will forward our itemized Lost Luggage list to the New York longshoreman company "for their consideration". I do not even understand what can I possibly expect from this company and what should I do now. We've lost much, much more. Any lawyer's opinion?

Here is the email for insurance rep. vsanchez@hagroup.com I am not sure, though, if she is assigned specifically to my claim or to the whole group. Also FYI she almost never replies to my emails. More info on how it was with our claim. The Cunard service rep told me in the very beginning that we (because we've filled the Lost/Damaged form on pier) are on their claimants list. They also gave us the email of their claims dept to apply: propertyclaims@princesscruises.com We've applied there and got the acknowledgement from the insurance rep. All it was almost three weeks ago. Since then there was virtually no movement on our claim and no replies to our emails and phone messages. That's what got us really upset.

Exactly! BTW, I just received some reply from their insurance rep. She says: "This incident is still being reviewed by management. Please provide an itemized list of what was able to be saved and what items were damaged beyond repair. Once received this can be reviewed further. Thank you so much for your patience with this unfortunate situation." For how long are they going to review it? 25 days past and they still review it! What a travesty!

That's exactly what the problem is. I've sent a number of emails plus phone messages (since nobody ever answers their phone). Nobody ever answered! I've also sent emails to their execs in CA and GB - same result.

Do you know if it even matters what your claim is? It appears that Cunard's responsibility is just $250.

We feel exactly the same. We also have some already booked Cunard cruise from NY to Southampton, which we think about cancelling. Incidents, happen, that's life... The real and huge problem here is how Cunard handled the situation. Exactly as you say: total lack of communication and compassion. And I would add any sense of responsibility. It appears to us that nobody simply cares. However... I kind of doubt that Princess, for example, or any other liner under Carnival leadership would do anything differently - it's their company's leadership and culture problem. Maybe more expensive companies would handle it differently, or maybe not. But then you'd have to spend at least two or three times more. Should we stop buying cruises?

For those of you who was asking for some photos, here you are.

This is the Cunard liability insurance their own Customer Service rep. specifically referred us to file a claim. And their insurance just ignores us!!!

Today we've received by Fedex truck our two large suitcases. Outside they were dry with some stains and rust, etc. Inside mildly wet with some mildew. Some clothes had stains of different color (probably from one to another). Almost everything is total loss, although few items survived but dirty. A gift package of cognac, for example: all outside package - complete garbage, but the glass bottle inside seems to be OK after I washed it. Some hard souvenirs also survived after good wash. But all shoes, suites, dresses, blouses, etc. - is just an unsightly junk. Overall everything is so bad that we did not even dare to bring them insight our home - we'll keep them for a while in our garage while we sort them out, taking pictures and assembling a list. I tried to contact Cunard (actually Princess) insurance for instructions on how to proceed with our claim and for how long should we keep all this junk. For health reasons we do not want to keep them for too long. I used both: the telephone number and e-mail of the insurance agent assigned to us. And guess what - no response at all. A couple of weeks ago they've acknowledged the incident and told us that they are working on it and will notify us after finishing their investigation. Not a single word since. They did not even give us our claim number. Really shameful handling of the whole incident, in our opinion!

And FYI: we did not pack jewelry nor money in those suitcases. And I never mentioned having those "valuables" inside. Missing salvo!

The answer is quite simple. In our age we can not carry heavy luggage and we were assured by Cunard representative on board that ALL our luggage will be safely delivered to the pier. BTW this was exactly our expectation as well. And if you've read my post, we are mostly upset not just by this misfortunate incident but by the way Cunard handled this whole situation. Absolute lack of care and timely information.

The answer is quite simple. In our age we can not carry heavy luggage and we were assured by Cunard representative on board that ALL our luggage will be safely delivered to the pier. BTW this was exactly our expectation as well. And if you've read my post, we are mostly upset not just by this misfortunate incident but by the way Cunard handled this whole situation. Absolute lack of care and timely information.

You're 100% right! It's so obvious by now how little respect and care Cunard shows for their passengers. I can understand that mistakes and accidents happen. But how you deal with them and address the problem is very showing. Absolutely unacceptable for the Company pretending to be the industry leader. After 13 days they've sent to us our two large suitcases by truck. They both were 50 lb. prior to the incident. Now, according to Fedex, they are 64 and 73.5 lb. Can imagine how much water they ship to us! I doubt much survived inside. Formal clothing, expensive prescription medication, some irreplaceable family memorabilia, one piece of art (painting), gifts from Europe for our grandson, etc. Most likely all lost! I am just wondering is there any will on part of our fellow passengers to make it more public somehow? Shame on Cunard!

Cunard rep contacted us and said that they did recover our luggage and maybe next week they'll send it to us. What can be salvaged is another question.

Thanks for your reply. Your list to do looks so reasonable. But why Cunard execs did not do it on their own? Rhetoric question, sorry. We've lost a lot of goods plus some irreplaceable memorabilia. My wife is really, really upset. Now it's been a little bit more than a week and still nothing from Cunard. I am puzzled with the Cunard's attitude toward their passengers. Any company like that must be much more responsive and proactive dealing with the damage caused by their own negligence. Oh Lord!

Thanks for your suggestion. But Lucky us - our TA quit just a day prior to the incident. We've talked to the TA's company and some other agent supposedly will try do something for us. But we do not expect much. What TA possibly can do if Cunard does not care?

We've lost two large suitcases. As of today, after 6 days,we still can't get its status from Cunard. Just very general responses like we work on it and will get back to you God knows when. They say that their Guest Relations dept. has up to 6 weeks to reply. We are very upset. Don't know what to do. Cunard just ignores us. Any suggestions what to do?