TORONTO– Kaitlin Osborne embarked on a six-week trip to France with a carry-on bag and a suitcase stuffed with the essentials she figured she’d need, including a dress for a wedding, jeans, soaps and shampoos.
Eighteen days after leaving Toronto, she’s still waiting for the checked bag.
“You expect when you get onto a plane you’re looked after,” Osborne told Global news from southern France, expressing frustration with the process of having the bag located.
She says she’s spent hours dealing with Jet Airways and Brussels Airlines, the two carriers she used to get to Paris.
“It’s been a whirlwind of this and that,” she said, describing phone calls and in-person efforts to locate the suitcase. She says neither airline has offered her any kind of interim compensation to pay for clothes or personal items she needs.
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“Never, they haven’t said anything about that, you’re dealing with it on your own,” she said.
In fact, airlines are duty-bound to provide compensation when checked baggage doesn’t turn up as expected.
“That is the law but sadly airlines don’t always comply,” said Gabor Lukacs, a Halifax-based air passenger rights advocate. He says airlines often mislead customers by not educating them about the rules governing compensation.
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“Most ordinary travellers will believe what’s on the airline’s website and quite often that is wrong and misleading,” Lukacs said.
He points to a recent case he brought to the Canadian Transportation Agency against Toronto-based Porter Airlines. Between Feb. 13, 2013 and Aug. 14, 2015, Lukacs said Porter “published false and /or misleading advertising on its website concerning the lack of entitlement of passengers to monetary compensation for expenses incurred as a result of baggage delay,” contrary to its tariff.
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The CTA case is still pending; however, Porter has changed its website.
“An outdated summary of the policy in another section of the website was brought to our attention and we immediately updated it,” explained Robyn van Teunenbroek, senior communications and public affairs specialist at Porter.
Lukacs said Porter’s customer service agents also verbally insisted customers with delayed bags had no right to monetary compensation. The airline offers $25 a day in vouchers toward future flights, to a maximum of $125.
In one recorded telephone conversation, shared by Lukacs with Global News, a Porter representative who identified himself as Darryl was asked whether the airline would pay compensation for clothing, toiletries or other essentials.
“Our general policy is that we don’t actually issue any kind of compensation for those kinds of costs incurred, unfortunately,” the agent said.
Lukas says Porter is obligated to pay up to $1800 in compensation for delayed luggage, according to its rate tariff.
In France, Kaitlin Osborne has so far paid out about $600 (CDN) for essentials while she waits for her luggage to be located. She has saved her receipts and intends to file a claim with Jet Airways.
“I plan to hopefully get some money back,” she said, adding that in future she will likely stay away from connecting flights, and the airlines the lost her luggage.
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