Dear Editor,
My son and fiancé were flying from Lisbon to Nice July 22, 2022. They started from Faro in the morning, then to Lisbon and connected to Nice. TAP all the way.
So, one bag two days late, the other one still missing.
Ok. I, as mother, tell them that I will help them to track this other bag.
This is when I really get in touch with the big problem of getting an answer of what is going on with the bag.
Numbers of calls, writing complaints on the internet.
Today, again I spent a long time waiting on call on the phone, getting through, explaining my problem and then the guy disconnected me…
My question is, what is happening in the world of flying? What happened to the art of giving services to people?
And, of course, this sounds naïve. The same problem is all over the world.
But in general, the question of service could be solved. It is not difficult.
The owner of a missing bag only wants to know what has happened to the bag.
Is it sent to a foreign country and the answer is that ‘nobody knows when to expect it at your home’? – tell me that.
Is the bag on top of a pile of other bags and ‘we can’t handle it right now’? – tell me that.
Has someone stolen it? – tell me that.
If the truth is that you should only fly carry-on cabin luggage – tell me that. (although we are all paying extra for more than cabin luggage, why?)
The point is, if the truth of the airport’s problems don’t reach customers, the costumers cannot be a part of solving the problem. I am sure most of us would pay some more for making it work.
Instead, we are all drowning in a hole of no answers in the deep sea of the internet or hanging in an annoying melody in the phone.
Of course, there are bigger problems in the world. A lost bag one can survive!
But the feeling that the whole flight industry is putting their head in the sand and leaving us in the black hole of cyber, there we are screaming out our questions concerning cancelled flights, lost luggage or flight delay compensation.
If this was a little bit conspiratorial, I would think this is a punishment for not understanding that we should not fly because of climate change.
But, I am more leaning into the fact that the flight industry and we the customers have put our head in the sand together. Not wanting to pay for what we ask for.
Maria Edholm Chami
