What is a Complaint?
-A complaint can be defined as: An official statement from a customer about his unhappiness with the service or operation of the service provider. A complaint can be issued in the form of a letter, an e-mail or a phone call, generally directed to the customer service organisation of the carrier.


What is a Claim?
-A claim can be defined as: A written complaint about any aspect of the performance of an organisation in relation to a contract, combined with a demand for financial compensation. Main categories for claims are:

• -Damage : physical damage to the shipment
• -(Partial) loss : loss of an entire shipment, or one or more entire parcels from a larger shipment
• -Theft / pilferage) : loss of items out of a parcel, or a (partial) loss of a shipment that is certainly caused by theft
• -Delay : delivery of the shipment later than the agreed or reasonably expected delivery time

Claims from an end-customer to a forwarder, or from a forwarder to an airline or, in more general terms, also from a carrier to a subcontractor, must be filed timely according to the applicable transport conditions, either as a full claim or as a preliminary claim notification. It is important to always mention the air waybill number and flight / routing when a claim is filed. And it is important for the forwarder / airline / carrier (or other parties in the chain) to immediately back-up the related shipment and operational information from the IT-systems involved.