Dear Tripped Up,
After spending last February in Palm Beach, Florida, my husband and I flew JetBlue back to Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York. My husband begged me to FedEx our suitcases, but I felt safer checking them. My mistake. When we arrived, my soft Louis Vuitton bag – a treasured heirloom bought by my late mother when she visited me in Paris in the 1970s – had not shown up with the other bags. When it finally emerged, it was torn apart. I filed a report the next morning but have since been redirected by JetBlue, both by phone and through their website’s chat feature. For example, they said I sent photos in the wrong format and rejected the receipt I sent them, demanding the original from half a century ago. Both LVMH (Louis Vuitton’s parent company) and American Express said they don’t keep receipts for that long. A woman from LVMH told me on the phone that the company couldn’t repair such damage, so I took the device to the local shoe repair shop I trust, which did a pretty good job for $600. At least JetBlue owes me something for that. No one has the right to damage property and make it impossible to make a claim. Can you help? Jamee, Southampton, NY
Dear Jamee,
JetBlue is fully liable for any damage to your baggage. That’s exactly where it says in the US Code of Federal Regulations:
“An airline may not limit its liability for provable direct or consequential damages resulting from the disappearance, damage or delay in delivery of a passenger’s personal property to less than $4,700 per passenger on domestic flights.” Vintage Louis Vuitton bags similar to yours sell for between $1,000 and $2,000 on eBay.
But liability is in the eye of the beholder, and airlines seem to be focusing a little too much on the word “provable,” insisting on elaborate documentation and then using opaque formulas to calculate compensation.
In this case, it seems excessive to ask for a receipt – yes, because the purchase was made half a century ago, but above all because the bag was not lost. It can be seen in the before and after photos you sent me and JetBlue.
I contacted JetBlue, who has now reimbursed you $600 for repairing the bag and given you a $500 credit toward future JetBlue trips.
“We are pleased to have reached a resolution with our customer and to know that they are happy with the outcome,” Derek Dombrowski, a JetBlue spokesman, wrote in an email to me. “We also apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you during the claims process.”
You confirmed all this and, to your credit, did not deny that you would never again fly with the airline that wronged you. (All airlines make mistakes. If I decided not to fly with the airlines that readers have complained about, I would be doing a lot of hitchhiking.)
This is usually the point in the column where I delve into the details of the airline’s incompetent customer service. But I can’t do that here because you didn’t save any of your chats with JetBlue and couldn’t find any of your emails.
They tried to request recordings of your conversations with the airline after I asked, but told me you were on hold for an extended period of time. I then asked Mr. Dombrowski if he could provide it to me and he declined.
However, Mr. Dombrowski mentioned in his email that JetBlue offered to have your luggage evaluated and possibly repaired by an outside contractor, but you declined, which you later confirmed to me. You said you no longer trusted JetBlue with such an important item.
So instead of teaching the airline a lesson, I want to teach Jamee and other travelers a lesson: always keep records of your interactions with airlines, favor written communication over phone calls, and take screenshots of online forms or chats before they disappear.
Yes, I know that airlines record calls, but just as JetBlue denied my request to provide chat transcripts, no airline has ever given me customer service call recordings, no matter how much I would beg and plead with them.
Let’s return to the topic of receipts when luggage is damaged, delayed or lost.
No airline can reasonably require you to provide receipts for pre-pandemic socks, souvenirs from a Moroccan souk, or a designer bag purchased before the Reagan administration. However, you should keep email or paper receipts for anything new and valuable that you plan to take on a trip, including the luggage itself. (Credit card statements are a good, but not ideal, substitute.)
But even with good documentation, the process can be frustrating. I wish airlines were more transparent about their procedures and formulas for determining compensation, but the U.S. Department of Transportation provides some pretty good guidance: It’s normal for airlines to require receipts, consider devaluation of older items, and negotiate compensation when these receipts are missing.
Your best strategy may be to avoid tempting fate in the first place. Get a good insurance policy, keep your valuables in your carry-on luggage or leave them at home, and, as unpleasant as it may sound, consider giving in to your spouse’s advice if they urge you to mail something instead of paying by check that you can’t easily replace.
If you need advice on an optimal travel plan that went wrong, Email TrippedUp@nytimes.com.
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips for traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Are you dreaming of a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 destinations in 2026.