Upvote:6
What? 50 EUR? And what about their Conditions of carriage which state:
VUELING shall be liable in cases of destruction, loss, delay or damage to luggage, up to a sum of 1,131 Special Drawing Rights per passenger.
1131 SDR is 1429.23 EUR right now. And this is not something Vueling came up with, this is Article 22(2) of the Montreal Convention. Every airline will have the exact same condition for this AFAIK.
So either they need to repair it to original condition which looking at this will be quite hard or if you can prove via original receipt or just a website link they should compensate you and this very quote is what you should point to. They can not limit the damage to 50 EUR. They believe (rightly so) that most people won't fight too hard. Important: if you have signed something already it is possible you waived your rights already, however. It's classic dirty trick, right at the airport as you file, they offer you a token amount of cash or even a voucher and if you sign for it, bam! case closed. Many will accept and will not even realize they waived their right to further complaints. Who wants to read fine print at the end of a tiring flight with the added frustration of a damaged bag??