Jetstar flies back to Christchurch with Wellington passengers' bags
A plane-load of Jetstar passengers were left with only the clothes on their backs after a plane flew back to Christchurch with their bags still on board.
While the bags were finally flown to Wellington on Thursday, Jetstar's communication about the issue was criticised, with a passenger saying no one seemed to know where the bags were or why they weren't offloaded in Wellington.
The Christchurch to Wellington flight arrived at 11.30am on Wednesday and passengers waited for an hour for their bags to appear on the carousel, only to learn that the plane had flown back to Christchurch with their bags still on board.
William Te Ratana and his son had flown to Wellington to visit relatives during the school holidays and were left without spare clothes or a car seat after the incident. However, he was quick to point out that others were in a worse position.
"There was a mother there with three kids under 5. They had no clothes, no stroller and no car seats.
"I was lucky that my son was over 5 and the size of a 10-year-old so can sit in the back seat, otherwise we would have been stuck."
Passengers were told the bags would be on a later flight, so Te Ratana rang Jetstar's 0800 number at 5pm.
"The lady that I spoke to said there wasn't anything filed about our flight and no record that any bags had gone back to Christchurch.
"I'm a cruisy person most of the time, but I just wanted my bags back."
Te Ratana said the phone call was just once incident during which no one seemed to know what was happening.
He said the two Jetstar representatives collecting passenger details in the baggage lounge after the flight had been telling different stories, while the customer service centre could still not tell him anything when he rang again on Thursday morning.
"There was no communication whatsoever from Jetstar when we were trying to find out what was going on or even why the bags were sent back to Christchurch."
Te Ratana eventually went back to Wellington Airport on Thursday and was told his bag was with the couriers.
"I asked if they were going to tell me that and if I could have a tracking number. They were very unhelpful. I eventually found out who the courier was, and went and picked my bags up from them. There were a lot of bags there just waiting."
Jetstar has yet to comment on the situation, despite repeated requests.
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