Allegiant Air checks carry-on bags and denies damage claims

Date: 24 Sepetember 2011
Location: Bellingham, WA
Airline: Allegiant Air, flight 278

This complaint is against Allegiant Air flight 278 dated September 24th 2011; flight from Bellingham, WA to Las Vegas, NV. The flight attendant inappropriately handled our carry on baggage to checked baggage on the plane without notifying us in advance.

Our carry on baggage has been scratched extensively and our 2 cell phones inside the carry-on have been malfunctioned after this incident. We reported this immediately at the airport and pursued the compensation for the carry-on and our two cell phones when we were back from vacation.

However, Allegiant Air claimed the carry on bag was just "minor" damage (Which we showed them the picture of our carry-on at the airport as well as picture through email)  and the malfunction of cell phones were unrelated to this; we found Allegiant Air didn't commit this fault which entirely made by them and didn't even take any further investigation and just gave us 2 $65 next flight voucher in order to settle this without paying attention what their customers lost from this incident!!!

Details of this complaint:
The flight we took through Allegiant Air on September 24th 2011; flight no 278 from Bellingham to Las Vegas . We have 0 checked bags and 2 carry-on.  My husband and I was at different section and when I tried to handle my carry-on to the top compartment ; a female flight attendant yelled to me said she could handle my carry-on for me ; she took my carry-on and asked me to go back to the seat. The flight attendant didn't tell me how to handle my carry-on and I thought at that time she just found some other vacant compartment on the plane to accommodate it.

After the plane arrived Las Vegas and I asked the flight attendant of my carry-on ; surprisingly  she told me I needed to go to baggage claim for my carry-on !!!! I was totally shocked at that time as my carry-on was a almost new and glossy colored which can't resist to any throwing and scratching and all my electronics were on the carry-on !!! My husband and I rushed to the baggage claim to wait for our poor carry-on ; and we found it was devastatingly scratched during the rough handling from the baggage storage area into the baggage claim area.

We reported this to Allegiant Air customer service at the airport and a guy called Jonathan gave us a Damaged Baggage report C 137 and we said and reported. When we flew back to Bellingham and back to our home town Vancouver BC, we found our cell phones haven't worked properly and shut down suddenly during calls ( we just bought the cell phones with 3 year contracts with Rogers Communications 1 year ago ) We report to Allegiant Air through email said other than our damaged baggage; our 2 cell phones also malfunction because of this incident.  There is a guy called Denise communicating with us for the claim ; at the beginning he asked the claim amount, all the receipt, pictures and evidences.

We gave them all and explained the situation in details. However, at the end, he said the claim department said the phones would not be covered because what he said at email " the on working phones cannot be related to the damage done to the bag, the bag has some minor damage but not such that the contents would be damaged; especially two cell phones within the bag and no other contents were damaged "  We were so furious when we received this comment as we found Allegiant Air just tried to shift back the responsibility back to us and thought we wanted to take an advantage from them !!!!

Firstly , we had two cell phones plainly placed on carry-on without extra protection ; we had two cameras with extra protection camera bag on the carry-on ; we had oneGPS with GPS bag on the carry on and we had some clothing on the carry on too. We reported to Allegiant air the malfunction of the two cell phones; we reported the two cameras seemed have no problem because of the camera bag; we report our GPS having little problem like very slow motion and didn't response sometime but we can accept even
without compensation; clothing? For sure no problem for checked bag.

Secondly, supposingly that was our carry on and all electronics items could be safely protected ; however, it is totally the flight attendant's fault that put our carry-on to be a checked bag without telling us !!! Should Allegiant Air responsibility for all the consequence ???? The last but not the least, we showed them the pictures of our scratched bag and it is 80 % of our carry-on  has been scratched by the throwing through the transportation ; can you image your cell phones dropped at least 5 times on the ground and still functioning properly ??? We don't think so...

As an airline company and has taken customers' complaint at 1st place ; we feel very disappointed and frustrated . We really want someone can help us in this issue and help us to get back the compensation which we deserve to get. Thank you .

-Mei