Lost Luggage Insurance -
Why It IS Important

Costa Cruises cares for you?
Judge for yourself. Royal Caribbean
isn't much better.

Here are two case studies of why travel insurance coveringAnyone who has ever cruised knows how carefully luggage is guarded and scanned before it is loaded on the cruise ship.

After the luggage is unloaded, it is usually left in groups according to different colored tags. And there is absolutely no security to ensure that the luggage leaves with its owner.

If someone else takes it? You are out of luck, as far as Costa Cruises is concerned. You had better have baggage insurance on this cruise line.

Read this report from Greg Dawson's consumer help column in the Orlando Sentinel that appeared May 7, 2009.

Dear Greg: I am a travel agent and have a client who went on a cruise with Costa Cruise Lines on Jan. 4. When we returned (I escorted the group) Mrs. La Penna's suitcase was not there. It was taken by an employee of Costa on the ship and sent to Mexico City airport to another passenger, who knew it was not his and left it. The luggage is still sitting in Mexico City airport racking up storage fees at Customs since Jan. 11.

At first, Costa said they would get the luggage back, then claimed it wasn't their responsibility. The storage fees are now around $1,200 plus $165 shipping and Costa has offered Mrs. La Penna only $150.

Dear Marie:
The Costa living just went up. "It was not a Costa employee who took the bag and sent it to Mexico," said spokesman Dana Dominici. "According to Mrs. La Penna's file in our claims department, another passenger took took the bag, believing it to be that of a travel partner. This passenger then sent the bag to Mexico."

It all sounds like secondhand information from everyone involved. Some companies would give Mrs. La Penna the benefit of the doubt. Not Costa Cruise Lines.

"Costa's limit on liabilities of this nature is $150," Dominici said. "According to our records, Mrs. La Penna is also eligible to receive travel funds from travel insurance she purchased.

This is how you can return home with no luggage--and still be left holding the bag.

So, Costa admits someone did take the bag though Costa disputes exactly who it was. That's Costa's fault.

Where was the Costa security to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen? That else someone doesn't take your bag? If it happens again with Costa, you know what to expect:

No luggage insurance, no protection, at least with Costa Cruise Line.

Other cruise lines seem equally callous. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line would not reimburse me a pitiful $25 repair even though their on-site rep acknowledged the damage to my suitcase and gave me a claim form.

They didn't bother to honor it.

If you have a similar story, please send it to tim@gtcv.com with the subject heading Lost Luggage Hell.

In the meantime, where was the cruise line security to match passengers with bags?

The port security to prevent baggage theft?

Or Homeland Security to prevent a deadly weapon wasn't imported?

Seems all the "protection" is intended to protect the cruise lines, not the homeland.

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