Recent experience suggests they are playing a new adventure game with random pax who choose to fly with them. It seems to go like this: We'll fly you to your destination(s), but we’ll somehow make sure your luggage is not put on the same flight as you are; you can then go through the interesting game of “where’s my baggage?” whilst we try to establish where we've lost it.
In our recent example it's taken nearly three days after the passenger waited forlornly - and eventually in vain - at the carousel at the destination EU airport for one case to arrive in the destination country. It was established that it was still back in SYD! It was finally delivered at the passenger’s overseas address somewhere around 120+ hours after it was checked in at the Australian departure desk with the reassuring "Your bags are checked right through to xxxx" .
They also managed a two day delay with the same bag on the earlier trip from LHR to Oz, but there was a valid and understandable reason for that, and to everyone’s credit, it did eventually arrive at the Oz address within a couple days. There is no such acceptable reason for the second “loss”, or the subsequent tardiness in getting the bag to its intended destination other than complete incompetence and/or a flawed system.
This happened to a Gold Pass Frequent Flyer and member of the Q Club - what confidence can an ordinary cattle class traveller muster from this sequence of events?