An experience with lost luggage in Africa

An experience with lost luggage in Africa.

On Sunday 1 July 2018 my wife and me started our journey back to South Africa from a short visit in Switzerland and boarded Lufthansa airlines in Zürich for Frankfurt (FRA) with a connecting flight to Johannesburg (JNB). The take-off in Zürich at 18h05 was held up more than an hour by Zürich airport control.

Arriving at the nearest Lufthansa counter in FRA we found that we had missed our connecting flight to JNB. We were then directed to another Lufthansa counter for rebooking the flight. The lady at that counter was quite helpful but told us the next flight to JNB later that night was full.

That's where I made the mistake of not insisting that returning in time to JNB was critical due to business commitments and that there must surely be two unoccupied seats in the plane even if it's in business or 1st class. That's where you need to be a s****ed negotiator.

She gave us 2 options: 1. To take the flight to JNB the next evening by which we would land in JNB on Tuesday. 2. To take a flight to Luanda (LAD) later in the evening and from there a connecting flight to JNB with the Angolan airline TAAG. It was explained that due to regulations our luggage would have to go through LAD's airport security check and then checked in again with TAAG.

We chose option 2 because of the time constraint. In LAD however, we were refused access to our offloaded bags because we would need a visa to go into that luggage area. I took us about 3 hours during which we almost lost our passports, to find an english speaking airport service staff member who was willing to escort me to the luggage, taking it trough security and checking it in for JNB.

We touched down at JNB shortly after 1 pm on Monday. At about 3 pm the luggage carousel was empty and we didn't have our luggage.

So we reported our two bags missing at the nearest baggage claims counter: Menzies. Menzies Aviation, based near London Gatwick airport, offers baggage services including tracing of lost baggage etc. for various airlines. At the JNB counter of Menzies we filled in a form with Reg.no: JNBDT. On the form it is stated: "Our staff will contact you on a daily basis to provide you with an update." and also: "If the baggage has not been traced after 7 days our staff will refer your missing baggage file to your airline for a claims process to be initiated." We went home and waited for their call. On Tuesday evening we tried to call the phone numbers on that Menzies form but the phones were not answered until a friend also tried and eventually got through on Wednesday morning and was told it would be best to pay a personal visit at their JNB office. During our 15 min. visit there on Wednesday morning we obtained the missing baggage file number: JNBDT 14670. We were told that they couldn't answer every phone call because they were too busy. During these 15 min. their phone rang once and wasn't answered. After that visit I had email correspondence with Menzies in which I sent them information like baggage tag numbers etc. On Thursday 5 July 17:41 I was informed by email that a grey bag had arrived. Shortly after that on Thursday I had a phone call from a number in Namibia saying that they had a red fabric bag in Windhoek and asked for a tracing service number, so I gave them the Menzies registration number. On Friday morning 6 July I collected my grey bag at Menzies in JNB. I was told that the grey bag was found in Luanda. It had a zip lock and I noticed that it had been tampered with in an unsuccessful effort to open the bag. Then, on that Friday, I emailed the new information about the red bag to Menzies. I never ever received a phone call from them. On Sunday morning, 6 days after the missing bag report, my wife and a friend went to Menzies in JNB where they were told the red fabric bag had not yet arrived. However, my wife spotted her bag in their store room and was then able to claim it.

When my grey bag was checked in for the TAAG flight to JNB at the Luanda airport, it never got onto the aircraft. Together with my grey bag my wife's red bag was also checked in for the TAAG flight to JNB at the Luanda airport, it was however flown to Windhoek. Perhaps because at the same time when I checked in our bags, there were two ladies in transit on their way to Windhoek also checking in their bags.

Had we not gone to all this trouble with Menzies troubling their staff as well, we would probably have ended up claiming insurance money for the value of the lost luggage. I wonder how much luggage gets lost in this way.