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Hi everyone,

so my cousin Riccardo Leccese went to compete in Sylt, Germany for the kite racing championship and aparently Air France tells him that they can't find the board bags. They declared them lost.

How can an airline lose a board bag 2m long ??

The Mike lab boards were traveling with his friend Alvaro Cadena and Melissa Gil, because my cousin had a full board bag already and left before them.

Alvaro and Melissa left via Caracas, Venezuela. When they arrived in europe, the board bag never got there so they took the flight for Germany or else the plane would have left without them.

We think that the board bag never left Venezuela and got stolen or something.

Air france says that the board bag got to Paris afterwards and after that they lost it. I smell alot of bullshit, but thats what they said. I Told my cousin to ask to show the manifest that the bag actually got to Paris.

So i guess people from France or Venezuela be on the look out if you see some of these boards. They are not common boards to have and you have to wait alot to get them. They were almost new , with barely any use on them. what a shame.

Now Air France told my cousin that they only give back 1200 euro. There was like 10 000-15 000$ worth of equipment. People that have had their gear lost in the past, what did you do? Its clearly the airline's fault.

can my cousin get back most of the value back ?


here are some pics of the boards

the boards are 65cm wide.





I know that if the bags were stolen, we will never find them , but we can at least try to tell people to be on the look out if something comes up.

All the racing riders that were in Germany all know about the lost board bag, but since Kiteforum is a big kite community it can reach alot of people.

if you see or know anything , you can send me a PM or an email at ferra_lecce@hotmail.com.

thanks.

That's a shame. Hopefully they will show up in the near future.

Just passing on some advice I heard recently: In every bag that you check or carry on you should put a copy of your itinerary. Assuming it is an innocent case of lost or mis-routed baggage the itinerary will make it very easy for the airline/handlers to get it back to you.

Fingers crossed for you and the others. It's hard to believe many people would even know what to do with these boards.

Unfortunately the airlines will probably impose their insurance limits unless you take out the additional coverage.

robertovillate wrote:That's a shame. Hopefully they will show up in the near future.

Just passing on some advice I heard recently: In every bag that you check or carry on you should put a copy of your itinerary. Assuming it is an innocent case of lost or mis-routed baggage the itinerary will make it very easy for the airline/handlers to get it back to you.

Fingers crossed for you and the others. It's hard to believe many people would even know what to do with these boards.

Unfortunately the airlines will probably impose their insurance limits unless you take out the additional coverage.

The airline already declared them as lost , so I imagine they won't keep looking...

hopefully they show up. thanks for the advice for the itinerary. never thought about that. My cousin will surely read this soon.

well in the bag there wasn't just boards , but other equipments like kites , bars, etc...

so your saying if they didn't take the additional coverage, they won't be able to request for full
compensation? I would understand for simple luggage to put the limit at 1200 euro. But sport equipment is much more expensive and even make you pay good money to bring them on the plane these crooks.

anyone else with lost sport equipment experience with an airline?

Don't expect much from airlines. US Air let my new double wheelie board bag fall off the luggage cart onto the runway. The train of luggage carts ran it over, catching the strap and dragged it across the runway with the asphalt burning all the way through the bag wrecking the bag and ripping into the tail and rail of one board.

Airline paid $200 USD.

Another airline flew me with a windsurf board from Puerto Rico to Tampa, Florida. No board arrived. A week later they called and told me they'd discovered it in their luggage claim in Barbados. No explanation was given. Another week later it arrived in Tampa ... crushed and unrepairable.

Airline paid $50 USD.