Another Lost Luggage Story

A month-long Air Canada saga: from Congo to Newfoundland; bag found via Facebook in a restaurant in Philadelphia! This is definitely the one to beat.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AQMk14AFR68
Full CBC story including AC finally reimbursing all expenses and shipping costs: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-2-as-it-happens/clip/15961796-the-lunar-new-year-eclipsed

Comments

  • Air Canada is awful. Though I got my bag back after a month (Egypt trip), they still haven't reimbursed me, 2 months later, for purchases I made. Great customer service - NOT!

  • That's terrible. Don't give up; maybe find an ombudsman via your local newspaper who handles travel complaints, or BBB. The Newfoundland traveler claims to have spent 15 hours on phone, so at some point you have to wonder whether it's worth it. Carry-on is increasingly becoming my choice whenever possible, but AC once left my "carry-on" on the rack beside the plane.

  • Air Canada's call center is horrible. You sit on hold for hours, then get someone in India who is very polite, but hard to understand and absolutely useless in accomplishing anything. All they say is they'll send a priority email to the appropriate department.

    Just last week I emailed their VP of customer service. No response.

    I also filed with Chase Sapphire Reserve baggage insurance, but they only review and pay claims after the airline responds with a payment or denial. Catch 22.

  • I wonder if Air Canada reads the forum (or maybe my email to the VP of customer service last week?). Just got this email this morning:

    _Thank you for reaching out to us. I’m sorry your baggage didn't arrive with you. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.

    After evaluating your claim, a cheque in the amount of $420.01 USD has been issued which will be sent via regular mail. Please allow 3-4 weeks for processing and postage.

    As a goodwill gesture, we are pleased to offer you a one-time promotional discount code. Your promotional discount code is for 20% off the base fare on your next booking. This is valid for three years from today and applies for up to 4 customers on the same booking.

    You can apply your discount at www.aircanada.com or through your travel agent. Please see ABOUT YOUR TRAVEL DISCOUNT below for further details.

    Thank you for choosing to fly with Air Canada. We appreciate your business and hope to see you on board with us again, very soon._

    BTW, the amount issued is exactly what I requested in my claim to them.

  • Congratulations! That extra penny is sure to help. Your perseverance paid off.

  • I submitted a claim with Air Canada on July 22 and still haven't heard anything. I have called AON a couple of times, and it is as though the person on the other side of the phone is reading from a script from another country. I have followed my claim at aontravelclaims.com to check my claim status, and there has not been any progress. It has been exactly 6 months.
    This leads me to another question because I am flying Air Canada again. THe price of the airfare was really good compared to others business class. This time we are arriving into Montreal instead of Toronto so I am crossing my fingers and toes that this makes a difference and our luggage will arrive this time. I am still contemplating sending my luggage ahead to its destination in France and using a company that I have heard about on this forum and try luggage forwarding for the first time. It would just be one-way to the designated hotel. There are quite a few companies that render this service with a fee of course and upon researching it seems as though these companies use DHL. I was wondering if anyone has taken his or her luggage to a DHL shipping store and forwarded luggage without the middle man involved? I would also inquire to the hotel that the luggage is coming ahead of our arrival. It's a good question and I am just pondering. I have done this within the states via UPS and it worked like a charm. Any thoughts?

  • Hope it all works out for you.

    I don't want to make you nervous, but I flew to Cairo via Montreal and they are the ones that lost my bag, In 2019, I flew to Tel Aviv (I/J tour) via Toronto and no problem.

    According to AIr Canada, my bag did miss its flight from Montreal to Cairo (no excuse as the layover was 1h45m) , but it arrived the next day. The problem was the Cairo airport workers did absolutely nothing with the bag for a month. I had concierges at both Cairo hotels call the airport's lost luggage number and they both said the same thing - they called multiple times and nobody ever answered the phone. As AlanS likes to say, inshallah.

    If you want to give Air Canada one more shot, here's where I got contact info: https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/air-canada/
    I emailed Twyla Robinson, Director Customer Care & International Operations, listed under executive contacts. You should have a CAS number assigned to you claim. Be sure to reference that. Good luck!

    Re your question, I've never shipped luggage, but my daughter was on an extended trip to Europe last summer. She shipped part of her luggage home from Italy to the US and no issues. I believe she used Fedex.

  • I’m a great believer in writing to the ceo of a company and copying customer service. It never makes it to the ceo but it gets quick results.

  • Great news, BKMD! You may owe Darryl Pope and the CBC a big thank you. Still I'm thinking you may not want to fly AC anytime soon lol.

  • Still I'm thinking you may not want to fly AC anytime soon lol.

    You may be right. They just do so many things poorly. I remember when I booked my flight to TLV in 2019 on AC, I mentioned it to a friend of mine who lives in Calgary. He said, "you'll be sorry..."

  • After 7 months of patiently waiting including a few e-mails and one phone call to AON, my delayed luggage claim is finally resolved.

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