News / Airline fiasco leaves cancer patient without luggage before London surgery
Family say bags frequently lost on Sumburgh-Edinburgh-London route
A MOTHER travelling to London for breast cancer surgery with her toddler was left without essential luggage for the trip after a catalogue of errors from two airlines.
Loganair and British Airways (BA) have blamed each other for the fiasco, which left Ondine Macdonald, partner Craig Johnson and one-year old Lumi Johnson without their belongings.
Despite telling BA she urgently needed the bag in London, the airline attempted to send it to Munich.
And incredibly the airline blamed Ondine herself for her bag going missing – telling her she should have told staff at Edinburgh Airport her bag was in transit.
It was eventually just shipped back to Sumburgh after “umpteen” calls from Ondine and her family.
Lumi was left without toys and clothes, while Ondine did not have bras she had specifically bought to wear post-surgery.
She says she cannot put into words “how much unnecessary stress this caused me” before and after her breast cancer treatment late last month.
But despite repeated requests from Shetland News, neither Loganair nor BA would take responsibility for the lost bag – with both airlines blaming the other.
Shetland News also provided the couple’s booking reference, and their bag tag – which clearly shows the bag was destined for London via Edinburgh.
Neither airline has offered an apology to the family.
Both Craig and Ondine say this is not the first time that they, or other passengers they have met, have lost luggage on the Sumburgh-Edinburgh-London route.
They want more people to come forward and tell their stories about the service to get both Loganair and British Airways – who operate the route through a codeshare agreement – to urgently improve it.
‘You’re actually kidding me’
Ondine and Lumi flew on the route late last month for her surgery in London, packing for both them and Craig as he travelled back from work offshore.
A month before, the trio had travelled to the capital and saw their luggage lost on the way – so Ondine decided this time to stow Lumi’s buggy in the overhead locker.
She said she was “so glad” she did because when they arrived at Heathrow she realised her bag had failed to turn up.
“When the suitcase didn’t appear on the conveyer belt, I said out loud, ‘you’re actually kidding me’,” she told Shetland News.
Ondine, who said she was stressed and upset about potentially losing their belongings again, went to speak to a British Airways staff member.
“It was bad just from the get-go,” she said.
“She didn’t even make eye contact with me. I told her what had happened, and she said it was my fault.
“Apparently, I was supposed to have gone to the BA desk in Edinburgh and let them know that the bag was in transit.
“I’m nearly 40, I’ve been on thousands of flights, and I’ve never had to do that before. I wasn’t told in Sumburgh that I had to do that.”
She was left “really upset” by the incident, but said after a good experience when they lost their bag a month earlier, she was hopeful of the luggage being returned quickly.
That faith turned out to be misplaced, however.
Her next update from BA was to tell her the bag was being sent “from Edinburgh, to Edinburgh,” she said.
“I phoned them and said, ‘that doesn’t make any sense, I told you I’m in London’.
“They told me, ‘rest assured, we will update the system now’.
“My anxiety was getting worse and worse, because I didn’t have my things for surgery, we didn’t have Lumi’s toys.”
Despite BA’s reassurances, the next update Ondine received was to tell her the bag was being flown to Munich, in Germany.
Ondine said she was left dumbfounded, and immediately called the airline – who she says told her she needed to “stop calling them”.
“I told them they had given me several updates that were just absolute gibberish, and that they had to stop the bag going to Munich.”
The airline advised Ondine – who was in hospital awaiting surgery – that she could go out and buy more clothes for her and Craig, and toys for Lumi.
She said the way they suggested this to her seemed to insinuate this would be a fun thing to do.
But Craig and Ondine were also puzzled as to whether they would be paid back if they did go and buy anything.
“If you read the website, it says if your bag is lost you can only go out and buy a toothbrush and underwear,” Craig said.
“We were being told to go out and buy clothes. We were basically in no man’s land with what we could actually pay for and expect to get back from them.”
‘I feel like you guys are drunk’
Ondine said she “never gave up hope” that the bag would be delivered, until the night before her surgery.
“I was already in the most horrific, stressful situation, and when I realised the bag wasn’t coming that was when I cried,” she said.
One call handler urged her to prioritise her health and suggested that she should pass control of chasing the missing bag to her dad back in Shetland.
After “umpteen phone calls” to the airline, the bag was finally delivered back to Sumburgh.
“Loganair said they could get it south again but only as far as Edinburgh, then it was in BA’s hands again,” she said.
“We told them to forget it.”
Incredibly, on the same route, the bag that Craig had brought with him from offshore then went missing on the return trip to Shetland a week later.
“It always seems to be the Loganair flights to London and back,” Ondine said.
“I don’t know how many times this has happened to us over the last two or three years.
“I don’t know if we’re just really unlucky, but this was the worst yet because of the circumstances.”
Ondine has strongly criticised BA’s communication, which she said made a “distressing” trip even worse for her.
“I phoned up one person and they said they could see the delivery address was London, then told me ‘yes, I can see it’s on its way to Munich’.
“I said, ‘did you hear what you just said?’
“I told them at one point, ‘I’m sorry, but I actually feel like you guys are drunk’.”
She said the couple received “absolutely nothing” in the way of an apology.
No apologies
Shetland News reached out to both Loganair and British Airways about the incident.
British Airways suggested initially that it could have been a Loganair “agent error”, and said that the bag did not show up as continuing to Heathrow.
It was provided with the bag tag, which shows that the bag is destined for London Heathrow via Edinburgh with flight details, a day later.
British Airways then responded to say that we would be best speaking to Loganair.
Loganair was also provided with the booking reference and bag tag.
It said that British Airways was the final carrier on the passenger’s journey, so it was responsible for any luggage issues.
Craig said they had met several people on recent trips who had also lost their luggage on the same route.
“We spoke to two guys from Belgium, who said it was the second time in a row they had lost their bags,” he said.
“It will be really interesting to see how everybody else is getting on with these flights.
“I would bet a lot of money that there will be a hell of a lot of folk saying ‘yes, I had problems too’.
“With these tags it’s all barcoded, it should be fail safe.”
He said that this was not a new route for either airline, and that the whole experience seemed to be a “jumbled mess”.
Craig said the luggage issues came at a time when it was “becoming more and difficult to get off the island”, and with both ferry and air fares on the rise.
For Ondine, she is now continuing her recovery from her breast cancer operation at home.
“I’m feeling okay,” she said.
“But I potentially have another trip to London, which is horrendous.”
If you have also had luggage go missing on the Sumburgh-Edinburgh-London codeshare route, please get in touch with us at news@shetnews.co.uk
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