The lost bag nightmare

On February, 10, 2014 I flew from Denpasar to Sydney with Jetstar, flight JQ38. When I arrived at Sydney airport at the Luggage Carousel I found out that my bag was lost. I filled a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) with a staff member of Aero Care. This is the company that looks after lost luggage for some airlines, including Jetstar. The staff member advised me that Jetstar would contact me and deliver my bag at my residential address. He also provided the number 1800 687 374 for me to track down information about my bag. However he did not mention that I had the right to get $40.00 AUD straight away from Jetstar for emergency expenses. I found out about the $40 reading at home.

From that morning the nightmare started. I tried to call the number above and could never get through. They had a recorded message saying they were experiencing higher than usual volume of call. When I finally got through I discovered that the luggage customer service was based in Philippines and they had no idea about what happened to my bag or what to tell me. They said they were going to find out and call me back; but they never called. Then I would call them again. One lady said told me that my bag wasn't in Denpasar and wasn’t in Sydney either. I said where is it them? She said “I don’t know”. Is that a customer service? I don’t think so….

Then I called customer service in Philippines again to find out if there was news about the bag. One of the staff (a guy ) said “ we have information on our system that the bag has being delivered to the passenger”. I lost it. Delivered? I’m the passenger and haven’t received anything, I said to the man on the phone. Customer service gave me the carrier phone number in Sydney and said I would have to track it myself. I called the carrier and they said they didn’t have anything for me there. It seems that nobody knew where my bag was and the worse thing is they kept giving me wrong information each time I called them and they didn't bother even to call me back.

At the same time I was calling Aero Care for 2 days but nobody ever pick up; even though I was calling within their operating time 7am to 5pm. Three days later, on the 13th of February, I went to Aero Care office at Sydney International Airport. On my way to Aero Care I tried once again calling them. A man answered the phone. I explained my situation to him and he said he was going to find out and call me back. He did call me about an hour later but I was just about to walk in to his office.

In the office I asked for a chair to seat down and the man refused to provide it. He said “we don’t have chair available”. Then I set on the floor for about an hour. After I think he felt guilty and gave me a chair to seat. He let me waiting for about 2.5 hours to tell me that my bag was delivered in the wrong address and the other passenger who had it was a way and the bag would only be retrieved about 5 days later. I asked for more information because I was confused and couldn’t understand how my bag would end up in someone’s house, if it had a tag number and my name or my partners name on it. The staff member wasn't supportive at all. So I asked to speak to the manager. The man hesitated in giving me manager’s name and said manager was busy and wouldn't see me. I insisted! I also said to to him that I wanted to apply for the $40 for emergency expenses. He said I wasn't entitled to.

I finally convinced the staff member to call the manager. He sent one of the supervisors to talk to me. She gave me the payment authority to apply for the $40 and told me that my bag would be retrieved on Monday 17/02/2014.

Again I was taken for granted and didn't receive my bag or even a call from Jetstar. I had to call them. Jetstar customer service is terrible and staff treats passengers like shit; they couldn't care less about customer’s lost luggage. My bag was only returned to me on 18/02/2014 because one the managers of Aero Care put some effort on the case. Jetstar was simply hopeless. It’s unbelievable how unprofessional Jetstar is till a point they deliver a bag with tag number and passenger name to the wrong address and takes 8 days to fix the problem.

I don’t want to deal with the uneducated and disrespectful Jetstar staff ever again. I promise jetstar that I going to tell as many people as possible about the airline unprofessionalism so they stop flying with this rubbish airline.