Breaking hurdy gurdy news (sorry - couldn't resist):

We got a response from Continental! The first cautious spot of optimism in this whole mess. They didn't exactly say "we will pay for this," but they did say that Mr. Cook was absolutely wrong, both in his understanding of their policies and in his handling of the situation, and that they're forwarding our complaint to his immediate superior. Yeah. The guy every person we've talked with at Continental up 'til now insisted didn't exist! And she also apologized profusely for taking this long to respond [9 days]; they were phoning in response to Mike's first complaint, when I'd just been Policed away from the baggage "service" desk.

Tania & unbroken gurdy, in Crail Town Hall
(Fife, Scotland) back in April.  >

Thanks to Steven Beard for the photo!

After what we've gone through with them over the past week, I'm not overly inclined to trust them. There was still no hint of "we'll pay for the damage our handlers did because it's the right thing to do," rather it was "this is covered because you were on an international flight, which means the Montreal Convention has forced us to adjust our policy." In other words, if this happens on a domestic flight, the customer is out of luck. Bear this in mind when choosing an airline. I've been hearing very positive things about Southwest and Delta. And Alaska Airline has always been very good to me.

So just in case this is a stalling tactic - and I hate having to be this suspicious - to take me outside the 14 day limit for making a claim that I've been told about over and over again, I'm still going to send, by registered mail, a hard copy of the nine page long pdf with an account of the entire situation, an invoice for damages and all supporting documentation.