To lose one bag is careless…
…but to lose an entire aircraft full is impressive
KL965 last night from AMS to NCL. After arrival at NCL, luggage handler looks inside hold, sees nothing and goes away. Not a good sight for those of us just off the flight and watching this from the baggage reclaim area. Could only hope that hold previously emptied and baggage about to appear on conveyor. However, only things to appear on conveyor were five musical instruments marked ‘fragile’. One remained unclaimed to continuously, and pathetically, circle alone watched by an increasingly unhappy crowd of passengers. Eventually, supervisor tells us not to expect our bags and make a claim at the Groundstar desk.
Entire flight duly descends upon Groundstar desk to demand baggage irregularity forms. While I was content in my amused acceptance of the situation (too much reading of PPRuNe leads to tolerance, plus it delays having to do accumulated washing from a long trip), a number of fellow passengers were less amused to the point of anger by the whole business. Cannot imagine that the Groundstar staff found it amusing either, and when I phoned later got clearly stressed person at Groundstar, so guess sorting out the mess provided ‘entertainment’ for some poor sod.
Amused tolerance ran out this afternoon. Groundstar continuously engaged, so decided to go to the airport to find out what is happening. Met big pile of luggage stacked in front of Groundstar desk. Apparently expedite labels printed for entire flight were attached at random to the luggage, so the delay informing passengers was Groundstar staff having to double check each bag by original and expedite label. Guess their sense of humour was taking a further knock, especially judging by the relief when I told one member of staff that I could see my bag sat on top of the pile. Expedite label did not have my name, but enough of the original label survived for positive identification. Exit one happy Evening Star with his bag. However, judging by size of the pile and the checking required, imagine that some passengers are still waiting.