SN flight to TLS left without baggage !

[sn26567]

http://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/faitsdi ... cun-bagage
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail. ... 110601_190
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/2907/Magaz ... hter.dhtml

Today's SN flight to Toulouse left BRU with all its passengers, but without their luggage. Due to a strike of fuelling services in Toulouse, the company decided to take more fuel in Brussels, but this did not leave enough weight allowance for the baggage, which was left in Brussels and will be sent later to Barcelona for a road transfer to Toulouse. Passengers were not informed of the situation and quite unhappy that their baggage did not appear in Toulouse.

[Desert Rat]

http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique ... 843467.php

[Stij]

I wouldn't be happy, but I would understand...

Cheers,

Stij

[cnc]

happens also when the a/c is in overload and the airline doesn't want to leave high payload cargo behind

[airazurxtror]

Some selfish passengers don't understand that the interest of the airline have precedence over their own comfort.

http://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/faitsdi ... cun-bagage

Je suis scandalisé ! Nous sommes partis pour un week-end de quatre jours dans les Pyrénées et tout est foutu. Le pire, c'est qu'ils ne nous ont rien dit au départ. Et à l'arrivée, les hôtesses nous souhaitent un agréable séjour avec un grand sourire alors qu'ils savent que nous passerons notre temps à courir derrière nos bagages. Ils nous prennent vraiment pour des imbéciles!", nous a confié par téléphone Laurent Henaux, un passager, depuis Toulouse.
Une fois arrivés sur le sol français, les passagers sont donc allés au tapis à bagages. Ne voyant rien venir, ils se sont rendus aux guichets de réclamation, où certains ont patienté plus de deux heures pour avoir des informations. Finalement, il leur a été communiqué que leurs bagages transiteront par Barcelone, avant d'être acheminés par la route jusqu'à Toulouse. Au mieux, ils récupèreront leurs bagages jeudi matin. Mais des retards ne sont pas impossibles.
"Le personnel de l'aéroport de Toulouse nous a dit qu'il n'avait jamais vu une situation pareille, de la part d'aucune compagnie. Nous devions aller dans les Pyrénées. Sans aucun doute, notre week-end est gâché", a ajouté Laurent Henaux.

[Passenger]

Some selfish passengers don't understand that the interest of the airline have precedence over their own comfort.

Allow me to disagree. Going on a 4-day breakaway with luggage is not "comfort": it's basic.

Also, if the interest of an airline differs from the interest of the passengers, the airline has a problem. Because it means that the passengers better look for another airline next time.

It rarely happens that Brussels Airlines disregards the passengers, but they have done so here. The least they could have done, was to tell passengers at the check-in that it was "uncertain" that all luggage would get on the plane. This would have allowed the passengers to put basic stuff into their hand luggage. And finally: upon arrival, why have they sent the pax to the luggage belts to collect their luggage? Ground staff knew the luggage wasn't there!

[JAF737]

Amazing, indeed...

I wonder why they didn't uplift sufficient fuel to fly to Spain and refuel there iso of in Toulouse (or anywhere close to Toulouse?).

[cnc]

its not like a full RJ has a couple tons to spare for extra fuel on max takeoff weight and max landing weight.

[LJ]

Some selfish passengers don't understand that the interest of the airline have precedence over their own comfort.

It's behavior like this by the airlines which can ultimately result in very negative EU legislation.. It happened before, it can happen again.

The least they could have done, was to tell passengers at the check-in that it was "uncertain" that all luggage would get on the plane.

100% agree. Why not inform your passengers that their luggage won't be there if you know it's not on board? I've been in a similar situation (they "forgot" to load all bags) and the worst thing is that you've to wait at the luggage belt for half an hour (or more) only to discover that nothing comes and then wait another hour to fill in the forms. I can tell you that that is very frustrating.

[RoMax]

I understand SN, they could have get stuck in TLS (including all the pax that needed to go back to BRU). But they should have informed their pax. Ok, maybe the reaction of the pax wasn't good either, but at least they were 'prepared' for what would happen.

But at least now I know again why I always take some essential things in my hand luggage for the case my luggage wouldn't arrive together with me.

[regi]

And there was no possibility to take all the luggage, and take off from Toulouse to a nearby airport for refuellling? ( "Oh no, that costs too much money !" )
The return passengers could have been ennoyed a bit that their journey would take +- 1 hour longer.

It is again a clash between what is allowed / "normal" procedure for the airlines, and what is unacceptable for the passengers.

[Ducatibiker]

Some selfish passengers don't understand that the interest of the airline have precedence over their own comfort.

Own comfort ???? time to redefine what a customer can/cannot expect. I don't see anything selfish in expecting your bags (for which you are paying in your ticket) to appear within reasonable time at destination. Because of weight in the cabin and other restrictions, some passengers are now forced to have to wait for their carry on...
The least SN could have done was
a-inform the passengers
b-compensate/credit their miles & more account with miles for the trouble
c-make sure that someone would handle the claims at TLS immediately, upon disembarking.
No one seemed to care and that is selfishness !

[fcw]

A couple of months ago a similar problem occured on an easy or was it ryan flight.
Member tolip explained us that this was typical for LCC and it would never happen with a HFA (high fare airines) as you pay to get a better service...
It looks like BruAir didn't want to pay for a fuel stop, which is not what you expect from a so called "full service airline"

[tolipanebas]

Since you are not fully correctly recalling my comments, here's the link to the case you refer to: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=44728
As you can see, in essence it's about FR's refusal to assist pax with reduced mobility upon one of their handlers going on stike and at a certain point indeed, I drew the comparison to the handling of luggage, which is and remains the final responsability of the operating carrier too, regardess the use of a handler for this task under normal ops. That comment of mine can indeed be used here and I'd say SN did what could be expected of a full service airline in this case (once again).

Let's be fair: SN have got everybody to their destination (be it TLS or BRU) on schedule, despite a strike of ground support services at the airport of Toulouse AND they took up the hastle as well as all charges to transport the pax luggages over land in the briefest possible delay. It may be far from ideal, but the solution is indeed proof of the STAR alliance airline going out of its way to deal with a problem which they didn't create in the first place, contrary to just dropping the hot potato and pretending it simply isn't of their concern really.

The alternative some here seem to prefer is to fuel stop somewhere to/from TLS and then we'd be having a heathed discussion about how all those poor pax of the return flight where taken hostage by the airline and possibly even missed their connection at BRU due to some operational problem which technically shouldn't even be of their concern...
Ironically and as so often around here, reality beats imagination it seems, as we did have such kind of discussion not so long ago! Here you can read it in full, in case you want to read what (the same?) people think of that alternative: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=44906&p=249169#p249094

So in short: whatever SN decide to do, they are always damned, right?

Maybe FR's well known alternative to simply cancel the flight in case of (risk of) strike and loudly cry foul over it while at the same time they leave everybody stranded is indeed the best way out after all then? So rather than try to come up with some sort of a way out of the mess others have created, just do nothing at all and simply join the club of the enraged spokesmen seems to be getting the most points from the jury???

[SN_fan]

If SN would have done the extra fuel stop somewhere, wouldn't this disrupt the whole schedule ? Meaning, delays for the rest of the day and miss-connetions for transfer pax?
I do however agree that they could arrange better information and service on arrival. If they knew it before everyone checked-in they could have informed the passengers so they could take things out of their bags for the first day, give the delivery address for the bags or offer to rebook on other day.(I would however make an exception for b.business and HON circle passengers and maybe Senators if they were not numerous to take there bags with them) Of course, there will be some pax that will make a fuzz about it, threatening etc. but those are people that can never be pleased no matter what.

[tolipanebas]

If SN would have done the extra fuel stop somewhere, wouldn't this disrupt the whole schedule ? Meaning, delays for the rest of the day and miss-connetions for transfer pax?

Exactly, and we can all read in much details how people feel about that in the second link of the post I made above.

If they knew it before everyone checked-in they could have informed the passengers so they could take things out of their bags for the first day...

That's all very nice in theory, yet how do you bring that into practice?
Let me just give you one problem: half of the pax are connecting pax and thus handed in their bags at the point of first check-in (USA, AFI, other EU destinations) so they can not be reconciled with their luggage at BRU, whereas the other half are checking in in BRU, some through the self check-in and baggage drop-off points (so again, no way to inform them), whereas the rest used the general check in desks of SN (serving all destinations). Even for that last group it's operationally impossible to do as you propose, since the airport does not have facilities for such repacking on the spot really, let alone after having checked in already!

Of course, there will be some pax that will make a fuzz about it, threatening etc. but those are people that can never be pleased no matter what.

which is the bottom line to remember indeed...

When things go wrong, you can't please all, yet I think most frequent flyers prefer to be on time for their connecting flight and/or their all important business meeting later that same day, even if it means some weekend trippers have to cope with not getting all of their luggage upon arrival... but rather had to cope with the offer of getting it delivered to their individual door steps the very next day.

[airazurxtror]

Brussels Airlines is always right; businessmen are "all important" and blast the weekend trippers !
(I think this is a fair conclusion to end this discussion).

[tolipanebas]

Well, at least money still talks then at SN... at some airlines they couldn't care less about you, no matter how much you've forked out, including all the extra's. :p

[euroflyer]

Let's be fair: SN have got everybody to their destination (be it TLS or BRU) on schedule, despite a strike of ground support services at the airport of Toulouse AND they took up the hastle as well as all charges to transport the pax luggages over land in the briefest possible delay. It may be far from ideal, but the solution is indeed proof of the STAR alliance airline going out of its way to deal with a problem which they didn't create in the first place, contrary to just dropping the hot potato and pretending it simply isn't of their concern really.

The alternative some here seem to prefer is to fuel stop somewhere to/from TLS and then we'd be having a heathed discussion about how all those poor pax of the return flight where taken hostage by the airline and possibly even missed their connection at BRU due to some operational problem which technically shouldn't even be of their concern...
Ironically and as so often around here, reality beats imagination it seems, as we did have such kind of discussion not so long ago! Here you can read it in full, in case you want to read what (the same?) people think of that alternative: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=44906&p=249169#p249094

So in short: whatever SN decide to do, they are always damned, right?

Maybe FR's well known alternative to simply cancel the flight in case of (risk of) strike and loudly cry foul over it while at the same time they leave everybody stranded is indeed the best way out after all then? So rather than try to come up with some sort of a way out of the mess others have created, just do nothing at all and simply join the club of the enraged spokesmen seems to be getting the most points from the jury???

I can agree with most what you have said; only: as this is perfectly logical - why did SN not just informed pax about this situation?? I guess most people would have been ok with this and might even have been happy to be flown to TLS at all by SN despite the strike. Sometimes it is so easy: just communicate ...

[airazurxtror]

http://www.brusselsairlines.com/com/my- ... 84#piTitle

Lost or delayed baggage:
You should report your baggage to be missing before leaving the airport. An eventual claim for direct costs related to this baggage delay can be introduced in writing within 21 days from the date the baggage was received. Reasonable costs will only be accepted for passengers arriving without baggage in a country other than the one in which they reside. Intervention only granted after 24 hours and against original cash receipts.

All is not lost for these unfortunate pax ...