20 days without a suitcase – a nurse is desperately looking for her valuable luggage
Created: 08/18/2022, 06:24
By: Nina Bautz
For Heike Balke, a beach holiday in Turkey is only associated with stress.
She has been missing her suitcase for 20 days and has not reached anyone.
Munich – Heike Balke (45) keeps checking her emails and sticks to the phone.
She is always disappointed.
For 20 days, the specialist nurse from Planegg has been trying desperately to find out where her suitcase from her vacation in Turkey went.
"I feel so powerless."
Munich Airport: suitcases worth 2,000 euros are missing
On the outbound flight to Antalya for a beach holiday on July 19, everything is still going smoothly – apart from a two-hour delay.
Back in Munich, however, one of the two suitcases belonging to her and her partner is missing.
"It's a new Samsonite suitcase with branded clothing in it, all in all it's worth around 2,000 euros," she complains.
On top of that, she misses objects of non-material value: "There are also two bracelets in the suitcase that my partner and I once gave each other."
Heike Balke was still happy: a photo from her vacation in Turkey.
When she returned, the suitcase was gone.
© Private
Apparently, the series of mishaps still doesn't stop.
In the past few weeks, a number of holidaymakers have reported to our newspaper, and we have also reported several times that luggage is not being loaded on time or not at all due to a lack of staff in Munich and the holiday resorts.
The suitcase mountains continue to grow.
Munich Airport is not responsible for lost luggage
But what to do when the suitcase is gone?
"In this case, the airport is not responsible because it does not have the passenger data at all for data protection reasons," says Edgar Engert from Munich Airport.
The lost and found office at the airport is also not responsible for lost luggage.
“The passenger must contact the airline.
Either the airline itself or the service provider responsible for baggage tracing can then take care of it further.”
Heike Balke not only contacts Sun Express every day.
She now also knows that the passenger service provider AHS is responsible for this airline.
"But you can't reach anyone there." Heike Balke hopes for a so-called pass.
However, according to Munich Airport, the airlines can only issue this in individual cases, for example if important medication is contained in the luggage.
In addition, the suitcase must be demonstrably identifiable on the premises, i.e. it must be safely parked there.
Thus, the pass can only shorten the process and the passenger can pick up the suitcase himself and not look for it himself if it cannot be found.
Heike Balke must therefore continue to wait.
A company spokesman for Sun-Express said on request: "We very much regret the inconvenience caused to our passenger by the delayed piece of luggage.
We are in contact with the passenger and do everything we can to ensure that the luggage is delivered to our customer as soon as possible.”
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Unlucky vacation without a suitcase: Munich doctor flies to Turkey, but her luggage stays where it is
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