A passenger waited two months for Qantas to send his misplaced bag back to him, only to find upon opening it that his belongings were covered in mould.
Regan Hyde had flown from Vancouver, Canada to Auckland, New Zealand via Sydney, Australia just after Christmas to visit his father.
After a late connection, he and his son Oliver just made it onboard the Auckland leg, but their luggage wasn’t so lucky.
One of the missing bags turned up back at their home in Canada a month later, in early February, with the contents “coated in slimy and smelly water”.
The other didn’t arrive for another month. The bags had been stuck at Auckland airport during severe flooding earlier in the year, which could explain the state of them when returned.
“I had my passport and NZ birth certificate in there and it was sealed and protected from the water so I was happy to receive that,” Mr Hyde told Stuff Travel.
“I was pretty angry that they had my suitcase there during the flood and managed to send one suitcase to me immediately after the flood and were too lazy to send this one along. It sat there for approximately five weeks after the flood and it took me bugging them to take action.
“I opened this suitcase around my kids, and it was full of mould. I have no idea what kind of effects that can have on their health. If I were to send that to the Qantas head office they would probably press charges.”
Th Australian flag carrier offered Mr Hyde almost C$7,000 (£4,205) in compensation for his ruined items, but he was less than impressed after being forced to throw all the bag’s contents, and the bag itself, away.
”I think their customer service has failed and I think leadership has failed their frontline employees. In order to get them to answer me, I called their booking agents, harassed them on social media, called their head office, emailed, and even crossed a few boundaries by finding Qantas employees and contacting them directly through their social media accounts.
“It was hard to get answers from them, and I think the customer service team does not have feet on the ground to actually look for missing baggage.”
He added that it was “a big learning experience. Next time I am packing stuff that is expendable.”
A Qantas spokesperson said: “While we apologised and paid Mr Hyde compensation as we were initially unable to locate his bag, once it was located we also ensured it was returned to him quickly.”
