B.C. tribunal orders Flair Airlines to pay woman $500 for lost jewellery

B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered Flair Airlines to compensate Henriette Tams for jewellery that went missing from her checked bag after a February 2024 flight from Mexico to Vancouver.

Tribunal member Amanda Binnie ordered Flair to pay Tams $500 for the lost items, plus $38.68 in pre-judgment interest and $67.50 in tribunal fees, for a total of $606.18. Tams said that when she unpacked the morning after a late-night arrival in Vancouver, she found her bag had been repacked and its jewellery pouch was missing.

Tams said the pouch held nine items valued from $15 to $535.24, with a claimed total value of $868.73. She did not provide receipts or other documents establishing their value. She reported the loss to Flair by text message and later through the airline’s website. The decision says Flair acknowledged and apologized for the claim, but denied it because she did not provide an itemized list or receipts.

Flair argued that Tams had not proved it was responsible for the loss. It also said its international tariff did not allow jewellery in checked baggage and permitted it only in carry-on luggage, but did not provide a copy of the tariff or other evidence to support that submission.

Binnie found that Tams’s Flair baggage tag established that the bag was registered. Under the Carriage by Air Act and the Montreal Convention, airlines are liable for the loss of registered baggage while it is in their care. The tribunal found Flair did not specifically dispute that the items disappeared during that period, and did not show that it had warned Tams before the flight to carry valuables only in cabin baggage.

Because Tams did not establish the jewellery’s actual value, Binnie applied the legal principle of betterment, which is intended to prevent an award from exceeding the value of what was lost. She found $500 to be appropriate compensation.