21/07/2022
My most recent task has been to locate lost luggage. I found the missing bag and the delighted client sent through this review.
For three-and-a-half weeks I ‘engaged’ with KLM and their baggage handling partner Sky Handling Partners in an increasingly desperate bid to locate my bag. It had been put on the KLM flight I was taking from Cape Town to Dublin via Amsterdam but had not arrived in Dublin.
When I arrived in Dublin in late June I provided my Dublin contact details to Sky Handling Partners and went on my way. A few days passed and no sign of my bag or of KLM/Sky Handling Partner. Eventually I became very concerned by the complete lack of communication and tried to make contact - to almost no avail. Increasingly desperate pleas for assistance were met by automated responses directing me to call various phone numbers. Nobody responded to these calls, I was invited to leave messages, to which nobody has yet responded - weeks later.
I was trapped in a vacuum of indifference.
Three weeks after arriving in Dublin I was informed my bag was on its way to Dublin. 12 hours later I received a call from Cape Town to inform me the bag was in Cape Town International Airport. In a panic, and given that I had to spend another 5 weeks in Dublin and attend a wedding as well as a 60th birthday party, I asked that the bag be sent to Dublin. Within hours I regretted that instruction realising I was sending my bag back into unknown territory.
For three days I tried, again unsuccessfully, to locate my bag. I was getting really desperate. There was absolutely nobody in KLM who was willing or able to assist me - and the tens of thousands of other passengers similarly stranded.
Then I remembered Fiona. A performer of miracles, based in Cape Town.
I contacted Fiona on Wednesday morning; explained my situation; she was receptive, she responded immediately, we chatted; what a huge relief to chat to someone. She told me what she’d need regarding granting my approval for her to take my bag if she found it. She quickly established the bag was still somewhere in Cape Town International Airport. She headed out there. Within 24 hours of contacting her, my bag was safe in her hands.
Fiona was able to do what the entire KLM system failed to even attempt.
What an enormous relief. What an excellent service she provides. Calm, confident and effective. Now at last I can relax and start to enjoy my holiday - although I will have to find someone who will lend me some clothes for the wedding!!
Ann Crotty
