A small claims court this week ordered LOT Polish Airlines to pay a passenger NIS 7,350 after one of her two suitcases disappeared on a trip to Miami. Judge Avner Yifrach sharply criticized the airline’s conduct and rejected its claim, based only on computer records, that she had checked in just one bag.
According to the lawsuit, the passenger was traveling on a complicated itinerary with stops in Paphos, Budapest and Warsaw before her final destination in Miami. Before her connecting flight from Warsaw, she handed over two suitcases to the airline’s staff. When she arrived in the United States, she discovered that one suitcase had vanished without a trace.
The plaintiff said airline representatives promised to file the lost-baggage report but did not do so, forcing her to handle the process herself. She said she then had to buy replacement items and deal with frustrating customer service, suffering significant distress. The airline insisted that only one suitcase had been handed over and argued that its computerized systems contained no record of a second bag, so it bore no responsibility.
During the hearing, the court noted that the passenger gave a consistent account supported by documentation and contemporaneous complaints, while the company sent a secretary from its law office who had no personal knowledge of the case. Yifrach said the absence of a system entry does not prove the suitcase was never checked in, adding that “computerized records and the paperwork produced by an airline’s systems are not the be-all and end-all.” The court accepted the lawsuit in full and ordered payment of the compensation plus legal costs.
