Why you should buy a camera that takes AAs

July 21, 2006 12:08 PM

My girlfriend's luggage got lost on the plane to Spain. Any hope it can catch up with her on her trip? And where can she replace her camera battery charger?

The bag is still apparently MIA, and it sounds like the airline wants to just send it back to the states if it's found. I think she should try to get it sent to where she's going to be, but they're moving around a lot, so it would have to get to a particular place on a particular day (or slightly before). Is this hopeless?

My more immediate concern is that the charger for her camera battery (Olympus LI-12B) was in the bag, and the camera is already out of juice. Is there anyplace she would be able to find a replacement? They're traveling through northern Spain (San Sebastian, etc).

posted by bjrubble to Travel & Transportation around Spain (6 answers total)

If she does get them to send it to her in Spain, have them ship it to someplace ahead of her by a day or two unless her schedule is flexible. We took a bus tour around Europe once, and a family from Singapore spent 2/3 of the trip constantly missing their baggage by an hour or two. Whether that makes sense depends a bit on how long the trip is. If it's only a week, probably not worth it.

The airline should be willing to pony up, however, for at least a minimal number of things she might need to replace because of the missing baggage.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:14 PM on July 21, 2006

Go to an El Corte Ingles department store. All the big cities have them. If you can't find the charger there then you may be out of luck. Bilbao has 4 stores.
posted by JJ86 at 1:15 PM on July 21, 2006

What a coincidence. Brad Fitzpatrick (founder of LiveJournal) also lost his luggage on a flight to Spain today.

Consider you could order online and send it somewhere Poste Restante, if all else fails.
posted by wackybrit at 1:16 PM on July 21, 2006

Lufthansa only gave me a t-shirt, some boxers, toothpaste, toothbrush, shaving foam and razor when my bag went missing in Germany last time. Things seemed hopeless when I left the airport but they found it within hours and had it at my hotel. But I was in a major city. Her airline might want to send it back home just because it will be difficult or expensive to deliver to smaller town.

She could find a power adapter in a big city like Madrid in larger stores that carry Olympus products. The smaller cities will be a challenge. She could buy one online through expansys [Spain site here]. 71€ seems a little steep for a new charger. She'll have to have it sent priority to where she's going to be so that will be even more expensive -and a chance it misses it. I don't know how much she paid for the camera, but she might want to get a new camera to take photos why she's there. It doesn't have to ahve all the bells and whistles, just enough to capture what she's seeing. She'll need to get a converter plug to use either the camera or its charger back in the US. It would be easier for her to get one of those Continental Europe -> US adapters in Europe vs. in the US.

I hope she gets her bag back soon.
posted by birdherder at 1:25 PM on July 21, 2006

I think any decent camera store should have a generic charger. I bought one a while ago which is a base unit with a snap on adapter which fits my particular make of camera. They had a whole shelf of adapters to suit all major brands.
posted by tomble at 3:24 PM on July 21, 2006

Check your travel insurance too. This happened to me when I went to Portugal for a couple of weeks, and I was gutted until I realised I could buy a hundred quid's worth of free clothes, courtesy of my insurers! (Well... they were free when I eventually claimed the money back).
posted by penguin pie at 9:32 PM on July 22, 2006