EDMONTON – An Edmonton photographer who flew to Kelowna Thursday for a weekend holiday in the Okanagan was shocked by what she found when she opened her bag.
“When I opened my bag in Kelowna in my hotel, a beer fell out. So immediately I thought, ‘Oh no, I picked up someone else’s bag,” said Nicole Ashley Squires.
But, that wasn’t the case. As she continued to look through the bag, Squires found four more cans of Coors Light, a full man’s outfit-which was dirty-and slippers.
“I didn’t know what to think. I still don’t know what to think.”
The flight was run by WestJet, so Squires called the airline to inquire. She said she was told to fill out an online complaint. Unsatisfied with the answer, Squires took to Twitter to see if anyone had experienced anything like this in the past. And when the airline responded to her tweet, again, she wasn’t sure what to think.
“I have a pretty good sense of humour. I didn’t know if I should laugh or be angry,” she said. “It seemed very uncharacteristic of WestJet, for a huge company that prides themselves on customer service.”
WestJet sent out a follow up tweet asking her to contact the company if she had questions or concerns about the incident.
Squires said the representative she spoke with was very sincere. She told her it was the first time she’d ever seen anything like this and apologized for the inconvenience.
In a statement to Global News, WestJet said it was very sorry for what happened.
“When the guest’s bag came down the baggage belt into the room where all bags are separated and loaded onto carts to be taken out to our aircraft, the bag room staff noticed that it was partially open. They also noticed some clothing and cans of beer next to the bag,” WestJet spokesperson Robert Palmer said in an email.
“Putting two and two together, they assumed the items had fallen out of the bag and put them back inside so it wouldn’t be delayed and miss the flight. Of course, as we now know, the items did not belong to the guest and – against all odds – obviously had fallen out of another bag,” he continued.
“As weird as it sounds, that’s what happened. We are very sorry that our guest found items in her bag that did not belong to her, but they were put there by people with the best of intentions who were only trying to help. We appreciate her understanding,” Palmer added.
Squires said she still isn’t happy with the response, though, and worries what might have happened if she were on an International flight.
“What’s frustrating is that they took light of the situation. It wasn’t just a man’s clothes. It was a person’s alcohol and if I wasn’t on a domestic flight I could have gotten in a lot of trouble for stuff that I didn’t put into my bag,” she said. “I don’t know how many people would believe someone if there was some sort of contraband in his pockets or something and then I had to take the hit for it.”
Squires said she has never locked her luggage in the past, but she will now – every time she flies.
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