Anger at Jetstar baggage bungling

A plane-load of Jetstar passengers were left in Wellington with only the clothes they wore after a plane flew back to Christchurch with their bags still on board.

That meant there was no room on Wednesday’s returning flight for the Christchurch-bound passengers’ bags, which were left behind in Wellington.

Passengers on the Christchurch-to-Wellington flight waited for an hour at the carousel, only to learn that the plane had flown back to Christchurch, taking their luggage with it.

The bags were finally flown to Wellington on Thursday, but passengers criticised Jetstar’s communication, saying no-one seemed to know where the bags were or why they weren’t offloaded in Wellington.

Christchurch father Rod Wilton said his daughter Hannah was on the returning flight. Passengers were told as they were boarding that their bags would be left behind in Wellington.

Jessica Emerson was on the Wellington flight with her two small children for a week-long holiday in the Wairarapa. The delay meant she missed her bus and connecting train, and had to walk around Wellington for the afternoon with her children, aged 1 and 4.

‘‘The three of us have no clothes, no toiletries and my 4-year-old’s asthma medication is also in our suitcase. Our bag did not materialise, neither did we receive any communication from Jetstar.’’

She said she rang Jetstar twice on Thursday and both times the customer service operator knew nothing about her bag. At 4pm an operator said it was still in Christchurch. It then turned up on her doorstep an hour later.

William Te Ratana and his son flew to Wellington to visit relatives during the school holidays and were left without spare clothes or a car seat. However, he was quick to point out that others were in a worse position.

‘‘There was a mother there with three kids under 5. They had no clothes, no stroller and no car seats. I was lucky that my son was over 5 and the size of a 10-year-old, so he can sit in the back seat. Otherwise we would have been stuck.’’

Passengers were told the bags would be on a later flight, so Te Ratana rang Jetstar’s 0800 number at 5pm.

‘‘The lady I spoke to said there wasn’t anything filed about our flight, and no record that any bags had gone back to Christchurch.’’

He eventually went back to Wellington Airport on Thursday and was told his bag was with couriers.

‘‘I asked if they were going to tell me that, and if I could have a tracking number. They were very unhelpful. I eventually found out who the courier was, and went and picked my bags up from them.’’

A Jetstar spokesman apologised for any inconvenience caused and said there was a technical fault with the baggage loader in Wellington, which meant some flights were delayed and bags on some flights could not be unloaded.

However, most had been delivered by last night.