Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
A passenger on Jetstar's Sunday morning flight to Dunedin said dozens of people were left without their bags after Jetstar off-loaded their luggage and did not tell them until they reached their destination.
Alison Boyce was heading South for a trip to Stewart Island but was forced to rebook her onward travel and wait for her bag, which was left in Auckland and contained vital gear and medication.
She told Checkpoint, she waited half an hour at the carousel before the airline fessed up, but she said Jetstar did not provide any details of when the bags would arrive or offer any compensation.
"We got over the loudspeaker, 'if your bag hasn't arrived on this flight, can you please go to the Jetstar counter' and I didn't sort of register at first, but so the next time I went I registered cause obviously the bag wasn't there."
She said there was a long queue at the Jetstar counter.
"They also had a policeman there, they looked as if they expected trouble, but I spoke to the assistant, but they sort of just said 'we had to offload bags because of an overweight scenario."
After Jetstar told the passengers their baggage had been off-loaded before their flight, they were asked to fill out a form.
"It was sort of akin to if you've had something stolen and they say, 'well, just go and fill out the form at the police station so you can present it to your insurance company cause basically nothing was going to be done about it."
Jetstar gave her a photocopy of the form to take away, but did not say when she could expect her luggage.
"Later in the day I phoned a number from the link on the form and eventually after waiting, they said it was a 10-minute wait, it was over three quarters of an hour wait, until I got to talk to somebody."
"They said it should be put be put on the same flight tomorrow and you'll get it at 11.15am. But we were heading to Stewart Island at 8:30 in the morning. So that wasn't going to work well."
She said nothing was mentioned about luggage being offloaded when they got on the plane.
"I think it's disgraceful and I understand they had the same issue the day before and it's just as if even though they knew it was a problem, they had no operational systems to cope with it. They just left you to flounder."
Having her bag was important as it contained her medication and gear specific to her trip, that she would not be able to replace on Stewart Island, she said.
"I should not have put them in the bag, but I was taking a small handbag to make life easier on the plane. They didn't fit in there and these were pills I had to take for asthma, blood clotting and blood pressure."
"Because of coming to Stewart Island and the trips we were doing there, there was clothing I had that I couldn't just pop out and buy."
"Without my luggage it was going to absolutely destroy the whole trip that we'd planned, well over six months ago."
When she arrived the next day at the airport at 11.15am, she was told her bag was arriving with an Air New Zealand flight, just after 1pm.
"We had to get a hold and rearrange our ferry crossing and our plans."
"It was very inconvenient and at no point was anybody saying, look, 'I'm sorry this has happened for you or anything to say what can we do to help?' In actual fact, I was seen as a nuisance."
There was no mention of compensation, she said.
"We were waiting with the car parked all that time. I said at least you can do something about our parking and which they did do. But I mean, it wasn't something that they were offering. I had to ask for it."
"I think it's disgraceful and I would certainly never fly them again and I would be telling everybody, do not bother."
She said Jetstar not putting things right has put her off the airline.
"It's also the absolute lack of care, empathy or consideration for the inconvenience and distress it causes people."
Boyce said she thought dozens of people were affected as there was 70 people the next day waiting for their bags at the Jetstar counter.
"In front of us was one poor young guy. He was just about on the verge of tears and he was explaining that he was going to lose his job because he had an important presentation he was making the next morning."
"When he tried to board the plane and take his hand luggage, they said that's too much and insisted it went into his check in luggage. His bag was taken off, he was unable to do that presentation and he was beside himself."
She said the biggest cost was the mental and emotional stress.
"If they'd at least shown some care and sympathy, it would have helped a huge amount."
Checkpoint received a statement from Jetstar which said some passengers on that flight still had not received their bags.
It said all bags were expected to be delivered to passengers on Tuesday.
The airline said they are sorry for the delay in delivering Boyce's bags and know this would have been a frustrating experience.
It said that unfortunately, some customers' bags had to be offloaded shortly before departure to ensure the safe weight and balance of the aircraft.
The bags were put on the next available flight to Dunedin. It said Jetstar thanked customers for their understanding and patience.
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