‘This is ridiculous’: Exasperated travellers tell tales of luggage chaos at Toronto’s Pearson airport

Despite airline assurances that staff are working around the clock, anxious travellers have been left waiting hours, if not days, for everything from winter boots to Christmas presents. Yet plenty of baggage is waiting, too: on Tuesday, much of the floor space around Pearson’s luggage carousels was still occupied by ski bags and strollers and hard-shelled suitcases covered in travel stickers.

“It’s been a heartbreaking time,” says one passenger who, thanks to cancellations, never made it to a long-planned family reunion. Two of her bags made it far enough along on the journey to be damaged, however, before being returned.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority referred the Star questions to the airlines. Air Canada pointed out that despite the issues, it had managed to operate about 17,000 successful flights since mid-December. Sunwing noted the broken baggage belts in Terminal 3, but said the airline was making every effort to reunite people with their belongings. WestJet apologized and thanked travellers for their patience.

The Star spoke with five people who travelled through Pearson in recent days.

Sara Clark, 35, who travelled from Melbourne, Australia to Kingston, Ont.

Clark is in her third week without luggage after flying from Melbourne on Dec. 18 to visit her 30-year-old sister, who is dying of brain cancer.

Upon arrival at Pearson, she waited three hours for a bag that never showed up, then spent another two and a half hours in the customer service line, without results.

“I came home to be with my sister for her last Christmas,” said Clark. “This issue with my baggage has made this trip that much more emotional.”

Clark, who works as a primary-school teacher in Melbourne, says she hasn’t had an update from Air Canada, despite having reached out through several different mediums.

Clark says she paid $6,000 for her flight — nearly triple the cost of previous trips — and more than $1,500 out of pocket to replace her essentials, such as a winter coat and boots. “I know things happen, but this is ridiculous. Where’s the accountability of the airline?”

Adam Hayden, 33, who travelled to Toronto from Edmonton

After realizing their bags were not to be found on the Pearson carousel, Hayden, his wife and two children ages one and four joined the queue to speak to an Air Canada baggage representative, who told them that no luggage-claim incident number would be provided because their “bags were (still) being unloaded.”

“After seven hours we left and got a hotel,” he said. “I went back the next morning and the bags still weren’t there.”

The delayed luggage included two car seats for the children.

Later, on Dec. 31, Hayden was on hold for four hours but couldn’t get an Air Canada representative. He called again the next day and asked the airline to send his family’s luggage back to his Edmonton home, given that they had bought new items to replace what was checked.

Delia Samples, 30, travelling from St. Louis, Mo., to Renfrew, Ont.

Samples, a U.S.-based attorney who is five months pregnant, travelled with her husband on Dec. 22 to visit her grandmother in Renfrew. They flew from St. Louis to Toronto and then on to Ottawa with no issues, but the return trip was more eventful.

Their Dec. 26 flight to St. Louis from Pearson was delayed and then eventually cancelled. They spent the night in a hotel and returned to the airport the next morning, where they tried to retrieve their bags. Some of their luggage was damaged, Samples says, and a carry-on that was checked as baggage, is now lost.

After frustrating hours spent trying to book alternative transportation, they eventually travelled by train to Windsor and rented a car, driving from Detroit to St. Louis, and racking up several thousand dollars in expenses in the process.

“Being pregnant and going through all of that … I feel like miscarriages have been caused by less,” said Samples. “That’s not even getting into the fact we didn’t have access to food that entire time.”

Valerie Nagy-Banfalvi, 45, travelling from Toronto to Auckland, New Zealand

Nagy-Banfalvi was in her seat and ready for takeoff on Dec. 24 when it was announced her flight was cancelled. She deplaned, went to pick up her luggage and saw it wasn’t there.

This Christmas Eve flight was already rebooked from a flight that was cancelled four days prior. Her trip was planned over a year in advance, but in the end she didn’t make it to her family reunion. “It’s been a heartbreaking time,” Nagy-Banfalvi said, “as we are now out-of-pocket not only for the tickets … but since we never made it to our destination, we are (also) out-of-pocket for accommodations.”

Nagy-Banfalvi finally got through to an Air Canada representative about her missing luggage but wasn’t told when she’d get it. On Jan. 1 it was left outside her door; two of the four bags were damaged but she says she’s relieved none of it was stolen, as no one was home at the time.

Ron Pascua, 43, who travelled from Toronto to Los Angeles

Pascua and his family had planned to fly to California from Pearson on Dec. 24 to spend time with his ailing parents. The travellers had already checked their luggage, gone through security and were in an airport restaurant when they found out their flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.

“We thought that since we were a cancelled flight, our three luggages should be around,” said Pascua. But when they went to the baggage claim at about 10 p.m., it was full of people and a “sea of baggage.” Carousels were not moving and a huge queue of travellers was waiting to speak to representatives in the Air Canada baggage booth, he said.

The family finally went home exhausted at 2 a.m., returning to Pearson the next day … and several days following.

“We tried the 25th, 27th, 29th, and still our luggage was not found, with a minimum (of waiting) four hours each try,” said Pascua, who works in IT.

By Dec. 30, Pascua and his family still did not have their luggage. They were finally able to secure a flight to Los Angeles the following day.

With a file from Janiece Campbell

Jamin Mike is a Toronto-based staff reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: jmike@thestar.ca