Woman says her baggage has been lost for a month after flying with Air Canada
One Ontario woman’s Christmas vacation turned into a nightmare after her baggage was lost by Air Canada and has been missing for 28 days.
Sudbury resident Ashley flew into Toronto Pearson Airport from Sudbury on December 21. She had a connecting flight to Phoenix, Arizona, after, where she enjoyed a vacation over the holidays.
Ashley flew back to Toronto on December 27, and had a scheduled flight back to her hometown the next morning.
However, the nightmare began on her flight back to Sudbury. The plane was forced to stay in the air for two hours before retreating back to Pearson Airport due to icy conditions in Sudbury.
“After that, we went to the Air Canada customer service booth and just said, ‘hey, we got to get home. We have no accommodation sorted out for two days,'” she told blogTO.
She said Air Canada offered to fly her free of charge back to North Bay instead, which is about an hour and a half drive from Sudbury.
“The number one thing we said, we’re like ‘please tell your staff to make sure our bags from the flight to Sudbury make it onto the North Bay flight because we have really important cargo,'” Ashley said.
After landing, she made her way to the baggage carousel and was shocked to discover that only four pieces of luggage came out despite there being 25 people on the flight.
Ashley spoke to the Air Canada desk in the North Bay airport and was told they would file a lost and delayed baggage claim for her. The agents also told her to reach out to customer service if her baggage was not returned within three days.
“Everyone’s bag except for mine made it back to them within three days. But, the person who delivered the bag was not branded Air Canada, FedEx, or any reputable name, it was just a guy in his own personal vehicle bringing back bags,” she told blogTO.
She asked the courier about her missing 40-pound suitcase, to which the man replied that he only had information for two bags at the address and that she should contact Air Canada.
After only receiving automated replies from the airline, Ashley decided to call the baggage hotline. She was finally able to connect with a live agent, who told her the airline didn’t have information on the whereabouts of the bag, which was last scanned at Pearson.
Another agent told her that the bag actually might’ve made it to the Sudbury airport. However, after driving to the airport to speak with Air Canada staff, the airline told her they had no trace of the bag being flown to Sudbury at all.
“Another week goes by, I called the baggage line again, and I put pressure on them,” Ashley told blogTO. “I said, ‘listen, we’re coming close now to about 21 days of no answers.'”
She began sharing her story on social media, and even got in touch with Nakita Rees, who told how her luggage was donated to charity on behalf of Air Canada after deeming it lost.
Ontario couple tracking lost baggage shocked that Air Canada gave it to charity https://t.co/KfTxvt8HYU #Ontario #AirCanada
— blogTO (@blogTO) January 22, 2023
After copying every single Air Canada executive (including the CEO) in an email, Ashley received a call within two hours from the airline.
“They called me and they said, ‘hey we got your email, we still can’t find your bag. But about 2,000 bags have been shipped from Pearson to the Montreal processing facility,'” she said.
“The agent said every bag has to be opened by hand, one by one there, and there’s 2,000 pieces. So she asked for some time to look through those bags to see if we could find a match.”
Ashley provided key information about the contents of her bag, including golfing equipment that had her name scribbled on it.
“In about an hour, she called me back and was like, ‘I think I found your bag. It matched to being in the Montreal facility, it’s one of the 2,000 that were tagless,'” she said.
Finally, the whole ordeal was squashed when the agent told Ashley that her baggage would be shipped overnight to her. She’s received the tracking link for her luggage, but at the time of writing, she still hasn’t been reunited with her belongings.
In order to avoid similar instances, the airline agent who spoke to Ashley recommended always putting a piece of paper with your name, phone number, or address inside your bag.
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