It appears some air travellers are experiencing more frustrations in addition to delayed flights and passport wait times these days.
Arielle Thibodeaux is one of a number of Air Canada passengers who have been waiting to be reunited with their luggage after travelling from Europe to Canada, before landing in the U.S. this past week.
Thibodeaux tells CityNews she and her friend arrived in Montreal from Venice, Italy last Sunday on a delayed flight and their flights were rebooked for the next day at different times.
“We both had Apple AirTags in our bags, so we could see that the bags did indeed make it to Montreal airport, so we knew that they were there,” Thibodeaux said.
She adds she was assured by Air Canada staff her checked bag would be on that Monday morning flight on her way home to Indianapolis, Indiana.
“As soon as I got on the plane I checked my AirTag to see ‘is it on this plane with me?'” Thibodeaux said, “and I could see that it was not, and I could see that it was sitting in the exact same place that it had been Sunday night.”
Thibodeaux said when she landed in the U.S., she saw her bag was still in Montreal, and then filed a claim.
“When I did that, they kept saying ‘no your bag is still in Venice, it hasn’t scanned anywhere beyond Venice,” Thibodeaux said.
“I was like ‘well I have an AirTag so I can show you right here, it is not in Venice, it is in Montreal.'”
“Essentially the airline keeps thinking my bag is in Venice because Air Canada never scanned my bag in, which seems to be what they’re doing with all of these bags because my friend is in the exact same boat,” she said.
Thibodeaux said she heard from the local baggage claim a couple of days ago that there’s a list of people who flew with Air Canada to south of the border who do not have their bags, and from different dates.
Thibodeaux found out on Facebook she’s not the only person frustrated by the wait for their luggage after flying with Air Canada, saying, “I just kept seeing post after post of exactly the same situation that we had experienced.”
Some are sharing advice to future flyers, including to put a GPS or Apple AirTag in their bags to track luggage, to take photos of their luggage to be able to describe it in detail, and to hold on to luggage receipts. Others are also sharing photos and videos of piles of luggage in airports.
“Once I saw the videos of all the bags just sitting out there in the open, that’s when I was concerned because I was like, ‘anyone can walk up and grab any of these bags,’ so that was a concern,” she said.
“It’s also really irritating because Air Canada is basically hiding the problem by not scanning bags in and just piling them,” Thibodeaux said, “If I didn’t have an AirTag in there, I wouldn’t know that my bag has just been sitting there, right now it looks like it’s stuck somewhere in Europe,” she continued. “I know a lot of people think that’s what’s going on with their bag and they’re repeatedly being told ‘we’re trying to find your bag, sorry, we don’t know where it’s at’ when more likely than not it’s sitting in one of those piles in Montreal out in the open.”
Air Canada could not make a spokesperson available for an interview with CityNews, but sent a statement, which reads in part, “the vast majority of customers arrive at their destination with their bags, you can see this at airports as most people leave carrying them,” and, “in some cases bags may not arrive with the traveler and there are many reasons for this, a lot of them outside the airlines’ control.”
The airline said avoiding baggage delays is “a top priority” for it, and each delayed bag is costly for the passenger and Air Canada itself because it has to handle and deliver post-flight, “so we are doubly incentivized to have bags arrive with the customers.”
“With the resumption of travel there have been more instances of delayed bags, and this and the other challenges the industry is facing around the world are well-understood and have been well publicized. One reason for this is that there are simply more people travelling and more bags. Just ourselves, we now carry about 120,000 or more people a day, versus 23,000 a year ago,” the airline said.
Globally, Air Canada also said the operating environment has changed from what it was before the pandemic.
“Notably the well-documented issues such as security and customs lines, aircraft being held at gates unable to unload passengers at airports, and limitations on the number of flights by air traffic control that force airlines to make last minute cancellations,” it said, adding these incidents, as well as weather events, can interrupt its schedule and flow of passengers and baggage.
Air Canada wrote it appreciates and understands the importance of having bags arrive with their owners and it makes every effort to ensure that happens, adding it recently announced last week it’s taking steps to improve the customer journey, which includes baggage handling.
