The saga of my wife’s lost backpack from her summer vacation continues, as we now attempt to get compensation from Air Transat, compensation that they are legally required to give under the “Montreal Convention” that covers air travel and lost luggage. What should be a simple process isn’t.

She filed her claim on return from vacation, by email, with receipts, as instructed. There was no acknowledgement that the claim had been received, except for an auto-reply. Two and a half weeks later she received a response. Or maybe she didn’t.

The famous backpack: left behind by Air Transat on Saturday, finally delivered on Friday. Still waiting for compensation more than four months later!

The email from Air Transat’s Baggage Department read:

Dear Mr. Hinds: We are sorry to hear about this incident. Please note that we have brought your concerns to the attention of our claims agents. Kindly every claims file could take up ten weeks to be settled. We thank you for your patience while we ensure that the matter is given due attention. Kind regards. Air Transat

I have no idea who Mr. Hinds is, except that he’s not my wife. I gather he also had a lost luggage incident with Air Transat, though at this point I must admit I can’t even be sure of that. Given how inefficiently they handled the luggage in the first place, how stunningly inept their customer service was, the poor Mr. Hinds may have been inquiring about the cost of a ticket to Paris and received instead a message about lost luggage.

Certainly that it would take ten weeks to settle a claim is less than impressive. The luggage was lost. Okay, technically it wasn’t lost, it just wasn’t put on the plane. Air Transat always knew where it was. The fight was Saturday, the backpack was delivered Friday. Pretty simple and we have the emails that went back and forth as we tried to explain to Transat and its representatives that no, no travel plans (with non-refundable pre-paid rail passage) would be changed to make it more convenient for them. There must be someplace I can nominate Air Transat for some sort of “worst customer service” award for that suggestion.

Mistakes can happen. Airlines handle a lot of luggage and occasionally pieces do go astray. I think every air traveler accepts that, though that acceptance is rather frayed when it happens to you. However, when something goes wrong a corporation needs to take responsibility and fix it. With its email to “Mr. Hinds” it seems to me that Air Transat hasn’t yet identified that it has a customer service issue, and therefore there is no chance of fixing the problem.

My complaints to the president of Air Transat have been received. I know that because his underlings have told me so. However he himself has never acknowledged any of the correspondence I have sent him. Shoddy customer service to say the least. I guess a complaint to whatever federal government agency regulates the airline industry is our next move.

Postscript: I wrote this post in September when the email addressed to Mr. Hinds was received, but delayed posting it until today, wanting to give Air Transit their full ten weeks to respond, though why it should take ten weeks I have no idea. Earlier this week my wife sent an email to Air Transat to find out what the status of the claim was. The response:

“Please accept our apology for the delay in treatment and response to your claim; as we are experiencing higher than normal volumes.
We wish to inform you that the review of your file is well under way with one of our claims specialist. Rest assured that a settlement is imminent and should take place within the next days.”

That was five days ago. Higher than normal volumes? I guess they lose a lot of luggage!