It has been a game of sit and wait for one Saskatoon family as their luggage continues to be missing after a trip to Mexico for Christmas.
“I was so looking forward to a holiday, but that holiday was not the holiday by any means that I was prepared for,” said traveller Michelle Linklater.
She began her trip on Dec. 21 when she flew into Calgary, where she was told her luggage would follow her to Cancún.
It never made it there.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of carry-on luggage and neither did my daughter, so we didn’t have the essentials,” Linklater explained.
“You hear people say, ‘you should carry that,’ but I was just like, ‘it’s just a day or so’… then when we landed in Cancún, that is when they said you likely won’t receive your luggage.”
After paying for clothes, toothbrushes, luggage for the trip back and more, she tried to enjoy her trip. And for her daughter, things did turn around.
“My daughter actually received her luggage on December 25, so it was kind of a Christmas miracle,” she said.
For Linklater however, it’s a different story.
After attempting to search through multiple luggage storage rooms in Cancún, Calgary and back home in Saskatoon in hopes of finding the bright green suitcase, she never found it.
But WestJet did.
“I got home on Dec. 31 and that was when I got the first email saying we have located your luggage,” Linklater said. “Your luggage was located in Mexico on Dec. 23.”
Yet over a week later, she has yet to receive her luggage with no update on arrival.
In a statement to Global News, WestJet said, “Our baggage teams across our network continue to sort through the delivery of baggage after the large backlog of cancellations experienced over the holidays, but they are working around the clock to get them moving and delivered to our guests as fast as possible.”
“We sincerely apologize for the impact this has had on guests and appreciate their patience as we work to deliver their baggage as quickly as possible.”
And while WestJet may be working on getting luggage back to hundreds of customers, it doesn’t make it any easier for Linklater and she doesn’t expect to receive her luggage at all.
“There is too much luggage they are dealing with,” she said. “I am not hopeful anymore.”