We arrived in Lisbon at around noon local time on Sept. 30, 2025. Our luggage did not arrive with our flight, and we filed a lost luggage report at the airport with Portway. The reason for traveling to Lisbon was to take part in a several hundred kilometer bicycle tour from Lisbon to Lagos along the Atlantic coast of Portugal. The tour was leaving Friday, Oct. 2 at 9 AM from the NH Hotel where we were staying. There was a tour kick off dinner scheduled on Thursday evening Oct. 1.
While on the metro traveling to our hotel from the airport after we filed our claim, we were informed via the Brussels Air app our luggage had arrived, and we immediately got off the train and went back to the airport.
Upon arriving back at the airport we found the single phone that could be used to contact Portway (the luggage handling agent). Someone picked up and informed us the Brussels Air app was wrong and Portway does not have our luggage in hand. Dejected, we got back on the Metro and set off once again for our hotel.
We missed the bike tour’s kick off dinner Thursday, Oct. 1 and the start of the tour on Friday Oct. 2 because we were replacing medication and trying to find replacement clothing for our bicycle trip– still hoping we would be able to join.
The next correspondence from Portway was sent Friday morning (Oct. 2 around 1:30 AM) and was read that same morning at 9 AM. It said the luggage had arrived and asked to confirm the delivery location, which we did. Because we were not able to join the bicycle tour as scheduled, we traveled to to the next tour stop via an Uber hoping our luggage would arrive sometime on Friday.
On Saturday morning, the bicycle tour again departed at 9:30 AM from the hotel, and we did not have our luggage. At this point, we decided to stay at the hotel for as long as they would allow us and wait in the hopes our luggage would be received.
The luggage arrived at the hotel at around 11 AM on Saturday Oct. 3. Since the tour had already departed, we had to take a very expensive taxi to the next tour stop hotel to be able to catch up with the tour.
Our expenses for the 3 days we were without luggage, included taxi and metro fares, medications that needed to be taken daily and were filled locally in Lisbon, toiletry items, a few meals and a few clothes. We also missed 40% of the tour (5 days total riding, 2 days missed) which was pre-paid and included hotels, transfers, and meals.
I am asking for full reimbursement for all expenses incurred because of Brussels Air losing our luggage. I am providing receipts for all these expenses, with cost in euros noted. The total amount is 1,138.40 EURO. All receipts have been submitted to Brussels Airlines with the claim.
I also feel strongly we should receive some reimbursement for the loss of the experience on our bike trip. I paid $5,650 for that trip for my husband and myself in January 2025. By losing 2 days of the tour experience, I feel strongly we should receive one-third of the tour cost back, which would be an additional $1,880 USD.
I might also add that the communication with Portway, and Brussels Air was deplorable. The grief and aggravation is incalculable.
Below is one example.
Friday around 1 PM, I proactively contacted the number provided (a call center) to find out when the bag might be delivered. I was told my case was closed because the luggage had been transferred to the delivery service. Repeated calls yielded the same result with no one being able to say when the luggage would actually arrive to me. At 6:30 AM, on Saturday morning in a desperate attempt to determine if I should leave the country and give up on the bike tour, I called one of the 3 numbers provided to me at the time I filed the claim. Someone answered the mobile number and when I asked when my luggage would arrive, was told “sometime today”.
After filing this claim on Oct. 18th and after repeated emails and phone calls, Brussels Airlines has yet to contact us. I am asking for your help and intervention. The airlines process and system is broken, the agents who answer the phone sit in a 3rd party call center in India. They have no empathy, and by losing our luggage for 3 days the airline ruined what was supposed to be a once in a lifetime biking trip along the Portuguese coast.
