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I was on a flight from Milan (MXP) to Paris (ORLY) where I checked in two bags. Upon arrival to Paris, I noticed that one of my bags didn't arrive. I reported it immediately and they said it was left in Milan and it will arrive the next day. There were around 7 people waiting in line to report missing bags / items, all from the same flight. The guy in front of me reported that his wallet was missing from a checked-in bag (at that moment I thought, who in the world puts their wallet in a checked in bag).

Once I arrived to the apartment, and I opened my bag, I noticed my stuff was missing. Since I was in a rush, I put a jewelry box inside the checked-in bag. They stole the box, and one designer handbag, which was also inside.

Where should I report that incident? I am no longer in Italy to report it to the police, nor am I at the airport to report it there. I tried to contact the airline (Vueling), but it seems impossible to reach an actual person and not the automated line.

Considering multiple people got affected, this should be an incident. My end goal would be to retrieve the items because a few of them are of sentimental value.

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    You thought ”who in the world puts their wallet in a checked in bag” but you put a jewelry box inside the check in bag? Neither make any sense to me
    – Traveller
    Commented Mar 18 at 17:03
  • I am trying to contact KLM at the moment and I am finding it very difficult. Their feedback options only accept a few specific issues. I was not looking for theft but I don't recall seeing it. I have been unable to contact a human. It seems that the airlines don't like to hear from their customers.
    – badjohn
    Commented Mar 18 at 17:12
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    What makes you think it necessarily happened in Milan and not in Paris. Do file with a report with police. They prefer going after iPads with Find My turned on, but for more difficult cases patterns are important to them.
    – jcaron
    Commented Mar 18 at 20:11
  • @badjohn I had the same issue. When you get the automated call, just try to request a new booking. That way you will end up with the actual person, and not stuck in an automated loop. How ever, even when you end up with the actual person, they won't be helpful considering its theft case.
    – Dino
    Commented Mar 19 at 11:55

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When I had jewellery stolen from my checked bag I had to do two things.

  1. Report it to the airline. They are the ones responsible for your baggage. You should be able to file a report without speaking to a person, and they should get back to you. There may possibly be some compensation, but the maximum they are liable for is quite low.
  2. Report it to the police where you are. They aren't going to do anything about it, but the airline will probably require a police report. It's a precaution against people making false claims. Your insurance, if you have it, will require that also.

If you have travel insurance of any kind then check to see if it covers the loss. Even the basic insurance that comes with credit cards will sometimes cover this.

However it's pretty unlikely that the items will be recovered. Small, high-value items are very vulnerable to theft in checked bags.

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  • I once had a camera stolen from a checked in bag (actually a pelican case), that was securely locked. The TSA cut the locks off, which IMHO enabled the thief. As the replacement price of the camera was so low (and it was really outdated, and I never noticed until over a month later anyway) I never followed up. But I could have imagined the TSA and the airline both pointing at each other a la Spiderman
    – Peter M
    Commented Mar 18 at 18:15
  • Don’t expect much in terms of compensation from the airline. The cap set by the Montreal Convention is quite low. Also make sure you file well within the deadlines.
    – jcaron
    Commented Mar 18 at 20:09

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