[Steve L.]

I flew from JFK to PHX Arizona on an a Friday evening flight. The purpose was to attend a funeral service for a friend. Jetblue lost my garment bag with everything I needed. I was told to buy what i needed and the supervisor will reimburse me. I was only there for the day, so I picked up essentials. Underwear , socks, t shirt, P.J.'s, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, q tips. The morning I flew out I gave the supervisor the receipt. He told me he would cut me a check for my purchase and 25 dollars for the per diam. He would have to mail it to me. Well I got a check for 25 dollars and was told that was to cover my purchase, there was a miss understanding. Now the good part. They still haven't found my bag. And they told me they will only reimburse my stuff if I give them the original receipt! Then they will give me the depreciated value of my things! We are talking 1500.00 worth of stuff. I pay cash for my things, not a fan of credit. How am long am I suppose to keep a receipt for? Can any one shed some light on what I can do?

[PHXFlyer]

I would, while it is still fresh in your mind, make a list of everything you packed in that bag. Try to remember to the best of your recollection approximately what you paid for each item and when it was purchased. Also don't forget the bag itself. It is unreasonable to expect that you would have a receipt for every single item!

I believe the airline has 60 days to find your bag before declaring it lost. You'll have to wait until then to file any sort of loss claim. In the mean time work on your list and call JetBlue every few days to see if there's any word on the whereabouts of your bag. You were on a non-stop flight to Phoenix so it either never made it out of JFK or was loaded on the wrong flight and is somewhere else.

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

We are talking 1500.00 worth of stuff. I pay cash for my things, not a fan of credit. How am long am I suppose to keep a receipt for? Can any one shed some light on what I can do?

The airline knows people don't hold onto receipts forever. That is why they do this. If you are talking $1,500 worth of clothing and incidental items, there should be no problem. If, for example, you are claiming a $1,000 diamond ring, you may be out of luck because you're not supposed to put high-value items in your checked baggage. On the chance that $1,500 is mostly clothes, be prepared to produce proof, in court, as to your earnings for say the past five years. This would establish your ability to make some clothing purchases at Macy's, Nordstrom's, or maybe even Nieman Marcus. Also, you should be able to show the relationship between the type of work you do, and the clothes you wear, and document same. Are you a pharmaceutical salesman? Or do you work with the bore on an oil drilling rig? You said you don't use credit much. However, if you did charge a big ticket item (ie: a business suit) the credit card issuer may be able to provide a copy of the statement showing that purchase. Same thing would apply if you used a "check card." The bank, for a fee, may be able to provide the statement showing the name of the merchant. Again, the main purpose of this documentation is not to provide "receipts," but rather convince the court that your don't buy all your clothing out of Walmart (which is NOT a bad thing!) Once you have all your documentation together, write the airline; include copies of your documentation, and say this material will be used in a small claims action if they continue to refuse to pay. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

[jimworcs]

All good advice.... is it my imagination or is PHX becoming more helpful?

One more thing.. I was with you all the way on your essentials until you got the Qtips!! lol...

[Jetliner]

Contrary to what was stated, you are asked to provide a receipt to show proof of ownership of the items. I have seen quite a few where people filed the loss claim, and the bag later showed up, but what was inside was not even close to what was claimed. It sucks, but unfortunatly too many people try to scam the airlines.

There is no real time limit before they declare it lost and go for settlement. Some airlines are sooner than 60 days, some later. The other part to keep in mind is the airine will have a warehouse of bags that have been found in the airline, but they can't match an owner most because the tags hve come off, and the owner didn't put a good nametag on it. That is why when you file the claim they ask what some of the contents are. This is the only way left to try to match a bag with it's owner.