I recently left an item in an Uber. It was a $50 baby blanket and I was pretty upset. Thankfully, I was able to contact the driver who turned out to be extremely special and came back to me to return it. But later it occurred to me. Hey, maybe the item would have been covered by the lost luggage insurance which is a benefit on my credit card (Amex Platinum). You may think I’m crazy but let’s dive into the gritty terms and see if I’m right or wrong.
Intro to lost luggage insurance
Many credit cards including the card I used to book the Uber which was an Amex Platinum card (thanks to the $15 monthly Uber credit), include a protection called lost or damaged luggage insurance.
With the luggage insurance, you will get refunded in a case where your luggage is lost or damaged when traveling with a common carrier.
You can see a full list of cards offering lost luggage insurance here. But in this post, we’ll focus on the terms of the Amex Platinum card as that’s the card I used.
Amex Platinum terms for lost or damaged luggage Protection
The Amex Platinum will cover you for any item lost or damaged when travelling with a common carrier for up to $3,000 per covered person, as long as you pay the fare using your Amex Platinum card.
Here are the exact terms
Is Uber a common carrier?
When we read the word common carrier we often think of an airline. And to be honest, the benefit was probably designed for lost or damaged baggage when flying with an airline.
But a common carrier does not necessarily mean only an airline.
A google search for the definition of common carrier shows the following results.
Amex terms gives you the following definition for a “common carrier”.
Based on these definitions I do not see why Uber should not be considered a common carrier.
You can also reference these sources: Court rules Uber is a common carrier – subject to duty to care for passengers, Is Uber a Common Carrier?
If I am at fault for a lost item, will that be covered as well?
While trying to determine whether my lost baby blanket was entitled to be covered, I came up with a second question. Is an item left behind by the consumer included or does the item have to be lost or damaged by the employee of the common carrier? My automatic thought was that it likely would not be covered since it was my fault that I had left it behind. But with this one, I was shocked as well.
With Amex Platinum terms it states the coverage is provided when you accidentally part from the item. That definitely sounds like it includes items left behind. Nowhere in the terms did I see any exclusions for an item left behind by you.
Conclusion
As I noted before, the item I left in the Uber was later returned to me by the gracious driver so I did not end up needing to file a claim. But in a scenario where the item is lost or left behind in an Uber , based on how I understand the terms, the item should be covered by lost luggage insurance as long as you paid the Uber fare with your Amex Platinum card. Uber is considered a common carrier and an item left behind should be eligible for coverage. Do you think I’m wrong? Let me know in the comments.
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Hi,
Great article!
Let me say what I think, when you file an airline claim you would need to fill out some type of lost item claim or report with the common carrier and you’d probably need to send in that form for Amex in order to process the claim with Amex. I don’t think Uber or Lyft has such form.
Do they ?
Let us know.
I never filed a claim. But if I’m right that items lost by you are covered and uber is a common carrier then you can force Amex to cover without a claim form from Uber (if uber cant provide one). If the front rep does not know how to process it then escalade it to s supervisor or write to the legal department