lost luggage with TAAG Airlines

WORST EXPERINCE WITH TAAG AIRLINES

I recently traveled to Brasil with my girlfriend on TAAG airline. My bag was lost, and I was forced to make purchase of clothing and essential items whilst on holiday.

Our flight departed OR Tambo Int, Johannesburg on Friday the 18th Jan, headed to Sao Paulo, Brasil via Luanda, Angola.

Upon arrival at Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo, I was unable to locate my luggage on the carousel. I approached a TAAG employee and was directed to the lost luggage desk next to the carousel.

I was told to submit a property irregularity report, and was told that my luggage was in Johannesburg, and would be sent to Sao Paulo on a flight that would arrive at 11:30 PM on 18/01/2019. From there it would be sent to the hotel I was staying at, I left an address and gave the contact number of the owner of the apartment I was staying in. I also explained that I would be leaving Sao Paulo for Rio, on the 20th of January.

By the late afternoon of the 19th of Jan, my bag had not been delivered to the hotel. I contacted TAAG and was told that my luggage was not on board the flight landing in Sao Paulo at11:30 pm on the 18th, and that they had no knowledge as to the whereabouts of my luggage, they could not confirm it was still in Johannesburg either.

On the 20th of January, we left Sao Paulo for Rio. On the same day I contacted the Airports Company of South Africa, at OR Tambo in Johannesburg. I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Sivan, and I explained what had happened with my luggage. ACSA was able to confirm that my bag left South Africa, on LATAM flight LA8059, and arrived in Sao Paulo (Guarulhos) on the 18th of January.

By this time it was too late for the bag to be sent to my hotel, as I had departed Sao Paulo for Rio. I went to the LATAM airlines lost luggage counter to explain what had happened, LATAM Lost Luggage was able to see the irregularity report on their system, but was unable to change the forwarding address as the report was owned by TAAG, not LATAM. LATAM Lost Luggage sent an email to TAAG, explaining the situation, and requesting the luggage be forwarded to Rio, from Sao Paulo.

On the 22nd of January, I contacted the TAAG Contact Center via Skype. I was able to confirm that my luggage had arrived in Sao Paulo, after a lengthy discussion about the logistics of having the luggage forwarded to Rio, it was suggested that I leave the luggage at Sao Paulo airport, and collect it myself before flying back to South Africa. I agreed to this, and thought the matter was resolved.

On the 26th of January, I received a message from the owner of the apartment I stayed at in Sao Paulo. He explained that my bag had been delivered to his address, and that I would need to come and collect it. I had given no such authorisation to do so, and was in Brasilia at this time. I was due to fly back to Sao Paulo the following day (27th), and then on to South Africa. There was not enough time between arriving from Brasilia, and Departing to South Africa for me to go and collect my bag. TAAG refused to collect the bag and return it to GRU airport.

I did not have any personal effects with me for the entire duration of the trip, forcing me to spend money I'd saved to enjoy my time in Brazil, on clothing and essential items I already had, but were misplaced, by TAAG. I spent hours on numerous occasions trying to have my issue resolved, I made 20 calls to TAAG Contact Centre on the 26th of Jan alone. At no stage did I feel that TAAG had the situation in hand. For the most part, they couldn't even verify if my luggage had been lost. Once it had been found, a TAAG employee suggested that I shouldn't have it forwarded to Rio, and rather collect it myself from Sao Paulo, to avoid the same thing happening again. After agreeing to this, the bag was sent to my accommodation in Sao Paulo anyway, without my knowledge or consent. After the numerous mistakes made by TAAG, I would like compensation for the money I spent unnecessarily, to replace the items in my luggage as well as compensation for all the internal flights where I had paid for luggage but did not have any luggage.