Airline Ruins Pandemic Hero’s Bali Holiday By Losing Valuable Luggage

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An Australian traveler who had been waiting for his dream scuba diving trip to Bali for over two years has had his vacation ruined by an airline. Jetstar has lost frontline worker Malcolm’s luggage that contained scuba diving gear valued at $3000. 

Speaking to Australia’s 9News, Malcolm and his wife Toni explained to presenters that the trip to Bali was a surprise for his 60th birthday. Malcolm had been a frontline worker throughout the pandemic and was looking forward to the trip of a lifetime to scuba dive in Bali. 

Malcolm and Toni told repairs that the ordeal had been ‘awful’ and that Jetstar could still not tell him where his bag was. The couple flew to Denpasar from Melbourne via Darwin. To make matters worse, they were caught in the drama of Jetstar’s multiple delays and flight cancellations. 

Speaking on the Today show on Thursday, 6th October, Malcolm explained, ‘In the check-in we had three bags checked, and only two arrived from Darwin…Sadly, it was a celebratory holiday to go scuba diving in Indonesia, which is a fantastic place to dive, but they’ve [Jetstar] lost my dive gear’.

A calm Malcolm continued to share his experience. ‘The sad thing about it is that Jetstar cannot give us any idea as to where the bag is, they scanned it in, and the problem with that is they just can’t even tell us where it is now’. 

Toni explained that Jetstar has said they have ‘no record’ of the lost bag being scanned at check-in. She shared her sadness on behalf of her husband. “I’m really disappointed for Mal…I think he was a fish in a previous life as he needs to be on or under the water, and this was a holiday that he really needed…He was frontline services during Covid in the past two years. This is a holiday I have been planning for a long time…It included a lot of surprises for him. This wasn’t one that I planned’. 

Despite reaching out to the airline, Malcolm and Toni have described their treatment as ‘disgraceful’. They explained that they had spent hours trying to get a hold of anyone from Jetstar who might be able to help. Toni said, ‘Nothing. No emails, no phone calls, no texts, no nothing…No acknowledgment whatsoever at all, and we’ve spent hours trying to get through to them’. 

Jetstar has responded to the comments. In a statement, the airline writes, ‘this is obviously not the experience we want for our customers, and we sincerely apologize to Malcolm and Toni for the disruptions to their journey…Our customer team is working hard to locate the missing bag and will reach out to Malcolm and Toni to discuss what further support we can provide. Jetstar told reporters that they ‘sincerely apologize’ for the impact the lost outage has had on the couple’s trip.

Jetstar has been the center of controversy in recent weeks as thousands of travelers were stuck in Bali after serious delays and dozens of canceled flights. The issues have cost some travelers thousands of dollars, and many have vowed never to travel with the airline again. In a statement issued in September, Jetstar explained some of the reasons for the travel disruptions. 

‘Unfortunately, our Boeing 787 fleet has been impacted by a number of issues, including a lightning strike, a bird strike, damage from an item on the runway, and delays sourcing a specific spare part for one of our aircraft due to global supply chain challenges. The part has to be road freighted across the US…The majority of impacted passengers have now been re-accommodated on an alternative flight, and our teams are working hard to find the remaining impacted passengers an alternative flight…A flight credit or refund will also be made available to passengers who no longer wish to travel’.

Disruptions may have decreased but are still ongoing. On Wednesday last week, Jetstar passengers heading back to Melbourne from Honolulu had their flight canceled less than 24 hours before take off.