An American whose luggage went missing a month ago has flown back to Dublin in an attempt to find her lost bag.
Lisa Buckley was in Europe last month for work and was scheduled to travel with SwissAir from Nice, to Zurich to Cork on June 24. However, her flight from Zurich to Cork was rerouted to Dublin Airport and when she touched down in the capital, her luggage was nowhere to be found.
Lisa told Dublin Live: "I landed in Dublin at 1am with no bag and was told by Swissport and Sky Handling that my bag would be with me within two days. My family live in Cork and they drove up to Dublin to collect me in the early hours. We eventually got home at 4am.
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"I was staying two days with family and then returning back to Los Angeles. Needless to say my bag never showed up in Ireland for me to take back to the US."
Lisa said in the days that followed she checked Swiss Air's website "furiously for days".
"The website crashed everyday. I called, the phones rung out and continue to and I emailed and no one replied. I completed a lost luggage form on worldtracer- who manages the airlines baggage all over the world."
Lisa received a notification on June 29 that her bag "may be on a flight to Dublin" but has had no information since.
She was travelling back to Europe for a work trip this week and chose to divert to Dublin on the way to try and locate her bag, but she sadly had no luck.
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Upon arriving, the piles of luggage that were previously in the baggage arrivals hall in recent weeks had been cleared and Lisa could not find anyone to help her find her bag.
"There was not one person there to help," she said. "There's rooms filled with luggage and a Swiss port telephone that goes to voicemail. Apparently there is one person responsible for getting bags back to people."
Lisa said that she understands Covid-19 has impacted many industries, but said that airlines should be accountable for passengers and their belongings.
"We pay airlines not baggage handlers," she said. "I had a lot of personal items in my bag and I only checked my bag because the flight was full.
"I think more pressure on the airlines is needed, demanding accountability and better customer service. The prices are outrageous and yet service continues to be appalling.
"Travel is stressful at the best of times, when it goes wrong it is incredibly upsetting. Their lack of action communicates to me that they do not care."
Dublin Airport Authority has said they have no role in baggage handling as it is the responsibility of individual airlines or their local ground handling agent at the airport.
A spokesman for Swiss International Air Lines told Dublin Live: "We are sorry to hear that the bag of Ms. Buckley seems to have gotten lost and hope the situation will be resolved through the appropriate channels soon.
"The entire aviation industry is currently suffering from resource bottlenecks. This affects airports, ground service providers, air traffic control as well as airlines, which are all equally affected by the situation. Due to these bottlenecks, there are currently more irregularities in baggage handling worldwide.
"We regret this and at the same time would like to point out that as an airline we have little influence on the respective airport processes. All information and contact details on the subject of baggage irregularities can be found here: https://www.swiss.com/ie/en/prepare/baggage/baggage-irregularities "
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