A Calgary man is looking for answers from the airline after his luggage was lost on a return trip from Europe over two months ago and he says he is frustrated by delays and a lack of information.
Lance Baker returned from a vacation to Ibiza a few months ago and says his luggage disappeared on the trip back from the Mediterranean island.
He says he flew back on Lufthansa through Frankfurt, where the bag was scanned, but that the luggage somehow missed making it back to Canada after he connected to an Air Canada flight.
Baker studies Ju-Jitsu and his bag held his martial arts equipment plus his cowboy boots, clothing and souvenirs.
He says the items are worth about $3000 and that the bag has been missing since August 24th.
Baker and his girlfriend had to cancel their passports because there were photocopies in the missing bag and he says the whole thing has been a frustrating experience.
“It's frustrating, it's my first intercontinental flight and it's frustrating. You come back, you lose all your stuff, right? Like all your souvenirs, sure they can give me a refund or whatever but are they going to be able to get me all the stuff that I bought there? No, it's frustrating,” said Baker.
Baker says he has made numerous calls to Air Canada, trying to find out more about the airlines efforts to track down the bag, and says he has had little response.
“Initially, I was calling every day, so an hour to two hours on hold every day,” said Baker.
Air Canada responded to an inquiry from CTV News about the situation and a spokesperson said that the bag ‘misconnected’ from Baker's flight with Lufthansa and was never delivered to Air Canada.
A passenger rights advocate says frustrating stories of lost luggage happen all too often in Canada.
“The common experience of passengers when they tried to get compensation from airlines, Air Canada or WestJet, is that they are facing a brick wall. Airlines tend not to respond or tend to provide false information to passengers about their rights,” said Gabor Lukacs, air passenger rights advocate.
Media Relations Advisor for WestJet, Lauren Stewart, reached out to CTV Calgary on Wednesday regarding Lukacs’ comment and said…
‘Of the millions of guests travelling (more than 21 million in WestJet’s case), the vast majority perfectly satisfied with their experience and for those who encounter some form of irregular operations, the vast majority of them receive a reasonable or even exceeding their expectations response from the carrier and again are quite pleased with the outcome. This silent majority simply do not take the time and effort to document their experiences for public consumption.’
“It kind of wrecked both of our trips when we came back because we’ve been doing nothing but filling out forms and calling and having to replace stuff,” said Baker.
The airline says it has completed an in-depth search for the bag with no conclusion and that it plans to talk to Baker about compensation.
(With files from Shaun Frenette)