A Swiss International Air Lines plane arrived at its destination without a single checked bag onboard.
The plane arrived in Bilbao, Spain, on Saturday without any of the passengers’ checked bags. The bags were left behind in Zurich, Switzerland, Kavin Ampalam, a spokesperson for Swiss, told the news agency AFP.
Passengers waited in vain for more than two hours at a conveyor belt for their suitcases, according to the Swiss-German newspaper The Blick.
“There was a shortage of ground staff,” Ampalam told AFP. Ampalam said the flight departed without its 111 passengers’ suitcases “for operational reasons,” as the plane had to fly another set of passengers from Bilbao to Zurich Airport before it closed. Swiss was operating the flight on behalf of Edelweiss Air, Ampalam said.
Ampalam said the flight crew waited for “one hour and 16 minutes” for the ground staff to load the bags onto the plane before deciding to fly to Bilbao without them.
“We understand the situation is not favourable for the people involved, and of course we regret the inconvenience,” Ampalam told AFP.
Several passengers said the pilot in charge of the flight was apologetic over the delayed departure, but never mentioned leaving their bags in Zurich, according to Blick’s report.
This is what bugs me more than anything. They “know” my bag didn’t make the flight but instead of sending me a message (to the email / phone number I already gave them) they make me wait two hours on the ground after a one hour flight.
Forget the contact details, captian could have informed it at any point during the flight but nope, can’t cause any problems that may affect their schedule.
The actual right response should have been not to depart. Or cancel the flight. What are 111 passengers going to do without their luggage at the destination?!
That’s not entirely fair. I would rather arrive at my location without luggage than not at all. I can always get some cheap shirts and shorts or whatever at my destination. I can’t get my hotel, and other prepaid scheduled expenses fees back.
Which just reiterates the initial point, communication solves this.
‘hey guys, so, basically we can’t get your bags on the plane lolol wanna still go? Stay on the plane. Umad? Get off and get a refund’
Wow. Hard stuff.
The issue with that, is that would cause more delays so them not telling people before departure makes sense. Not telling them on arrival is stupid.
Sure. But that’s you. And probably me. But we don’t represent all possible, legitimate scenarios.
Go shopping at the airlines’ expense!
Read the article if they had not taken off at that time they wouldn’t have made the return flight in time (Zurich airport has no landings past midnight). So not flying means that 111 people would not make it to Bilbao (without their bags) and a similar amount of people wouldn’t make it to Zurich (with their bags).
Personally, I would rather take the flight and get my bag a day or two later. Annoying af yes but at least you get some compensation to get some clothes.
If half the people are flying home it’s not even that big of a problem.
I agree, but I think it would be better to inform the passengers and give them a chance to alight.
The problem there is that those passengers would demand a replacement flight or a refund, and we can’t have that, can we?
Of course, informing them before take off would have been ever better. But then the plane still needs to fly, even if empty.
And the passengers can still get compensation, maybe even more than the refund of the flight so I’m sure that for many of the passengers this was the better deal.
The crew fucking knew… like I kind of understand not saying it on the plane as some people might react badly or whatever but at least when they are on destination at least inform them…
Exactly. If they’d have just said outright “look, we fucked up, your bags aren’t here, go to your hotels, and we’ll have them sent on tomorrow”, people would have been annoyed but could at least have enjoyed their holidays.
The complete lack of communication from transport companies is beyond maddening. And it’s the same everywhere. When my train is “delayed”, I’ve no idea if that’s 5 minutes away or if it’s an inferno lying on its side on an embankment. The automated announcements will be the same either way.
The one time I had a bag left behind I was flying into Narita airport in Japan. At the luggage carousel there was a person holding a sign with my name on it.
Checking bags is bullshit.
Let some high school dropout from the TSA search your bags while you get foot fungus.
The TSA is in the USA only. The TSA is an American government department. They do not exist in Switzerland or Spain, two countries which are not the USA.
Ahhh, finally some truly important world news.
I clearly missed the memo where the world news need to be important and not just news from around the world like idk it says on the about part of the subreddit.
Maybe you should create /c/importantworldnews or something instead of complaining.
Seriously, WTF is this doing here?
“Of course we regret the inconvenience” is so disingenuous. Just shows how procedural this response was. To me, it reads as “We regret the inconvenience because we have to, not because we actually give a shit.”
Some of you may be extremely inconvenienced, but that is a sacrifice we are willing to make.
Exactly.
Once they minimize it as “the inconvenience”, I’m already hopping mad. They don’t know how badly I wanted the thing we agreed to before money changed hands. They act like the consumer surplus of the trade is zero; that all you’ve lost is some pittance and not the opportunity to solve your problem in a better way.
They won’t say “our mistake” or “our choice” because that would be actually owning their own fuckup.
End all airline subsidies.
Should they give a shit.
Personally I think they should give a shit about failing to provide one of their most basic services. But I’m under no illusions that they ever will…
There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There is only a wage shortage caused by the airline. Stop pushing costs down to the point you can’t operate, you twats.
I can’t recall the last time I traveled with checked luggage. It has its disadvantages, for sure, but flying is a terrible enough experience without having to stand in line waiting to check luggage, and then standing around waiting for it to (maybe) appear on a conveyor belt.
No kids?
I usually get my kids their own tickets to sit with me.
Why bother? You can just rent them at arrivals
They have those little kiosks now don’t they? Headphones, movies, gaming system, kids…
Ah the good ol Lemmy switcheroo!
AFIK they don’t let you check them in, for obvious reasons
He, I suppose that’s obvious :)
I almost never checked bags prior to having a child but there’s been plenty of times where the airline checked my bags at the gate because the overheads were full so I quickly learned it’s something you can’t count on.
Unfortunately that’s gotten me to pay for priority boarding group now
My wife and I just flew with 2 kids and no checked bags. Yes, it was a pain to manage 4 carry-ons and 4 personal bags, but it was manageable, and it beat the hell out of paying another $200 to have those 4 bags checked.
Edit: They’re 6 and 8 years old. It’s impossible for me to say whether it would have been possible when they were younger, as my 8-year-old is only recently past her medical issues that necessitated considerable additional luggage – so we just didn’t fly.
I went to Disney for a week with my 1 year old and wife. We used 2 carry one and a personal bag.
I refuse to take checked bags because I travel off and on for work and I’ve been burned too many times with checked bags.
It’s pretty easy to pull off if you just do things like sleep in the clothes you plan on wearing the next day or only bringing enough diapers and wipes for the plane and buying a weeks supply at your destination.
Your didn’t have a car seat with you? I can see getting away without a stroller if you use a carrier but no car seat isn’t an option.
Can’t you rent those along with the car?
I don’t know, I’ve never looked into it. Unless you can rent them at the airport though I don’t see it being helpful.
Sometimes you can book a car service in advance that will provide one.
Regardless it’s going to be extra cost and something extra to worry about when you arrive which isn’t worth it to me personally.
Car seats and strollers are gate checked (different imo) at most airlines
The chance of a gate checked item getting lost or forgotten is near zero in my experience
Car seats are not gate checked. Strollers can be since parents use them up until boarding but car seats are checked with the rest of your luggage.
Edit: I forgot to account for car seats that are part of a stroller… I imagine those would have to be gate checked as well. That’s a special case though.
Those get checked at the gate as you board the plane and are the first thing off the plane and waiting for you in the tunnel as you deboard.
You retrieve them from baggage claim just like everyone else, at least that’s been my experience across multiple airlines.
Interesting, because that has not been my experience with multiple airlines. I have always checked it at the gate, and dropped it off at the end of the tunnel just before boarding the plane. Then, during deboard, it’s waiting for me at the same spot, in the tunnel just outside of the plane. This has been the case with Southwest, Hawaiian, Alaskan, and Delta (I think? That flight was 5 years ago so I might be wrong on the airliner, I forget).
Too risky depending on your destination. What if there is a plane delay, what if there is no food for your baby, what if they don’t sell the food your baby is used to etc etc. usually just the baby stuff takes a while checkin luggage, not to mention the stroller.
1 year olds can eat a very wide range of foods as long as they’re served right so it wasn’t an issue.
My wife and I have done several trips with our two kids (born 2018 and 2020) and have never checked in anything. It’s absolutely doable if you pack wisely.
Great when you can manage it, they often take my carry on luggage from me and insist on checking it. Had musical instruments forcibly checked like that against written policy and paid-for permissions several times now.
Also, some people like owning scissors. Or just have kids and need the extra luggage space.
Don’t forget wheelchairs.
You are forced to check what is essentially your legs that in almost all cases is personalised for your specific needs (so you can’t just sub in a generic chair) and often costs thousands if not tens of thousands, yet airlines lose or damage hundreds of wheelchairs and scooters every month in the US alone.Or just have kids and need the extra luggage space.
I wouldn’t check my kids tbh. They’re just going to cause a mess during loading.
I only check bags, for the exact same reason. I realized that some of my biggest stressors in traveling were getting everything to fit on a carryon-plus-backpack, and worrying about getting room in the overhead compartment. I’d rather stand around a carousel for fifteen minutes before walking to grab an uber than have to deal with that. I did the opposite for many years while business traveling on multiple flights weekly, and I just got tired of it. Different people have different tolerances for different things.
I do have to say that, after hundreds of flights, I had my bags lost exactly once. Fortunately it was on a flight home, so other than having to wait at the airport until midnight when they finally acknowledged they lost my suitcase, and having to receive my suitcase two days later at 10 pm from a sketchy guy in an unmarked white van that the airline sent out, it was okay. In that time, I’ve had two or three colleagues have their bags go missing on the way to a meeting /conference, and that’s with the combinatorial aspect to the problem. It’s a pain, but you wind up with a story and a new outfit, and most people you’re meeting with will understand the issue.
Unfortunately I can’t carry my bicycle on
I actually have a bike they can fit, but its a crapshoot going through security.
Yep, I have instruments they can fit, they confirm they can fit, then nick them from me and insist on checking them anyway after I organised to carry on.
All it would take is a little COMMUNICATION and it wouldn’t be an unacceptable situation, but here we are.
Someone has actually closed that baggage door knowing that there was not a single suitcase in there.
Circumstances like this are why I fly with only 1 small carry-on. I’m too paranoid to ever check a bag and haven’t in over a decade.
This is why we need more high speed trains. Can’t forget your luggage when you have it with you at all times
And they are being built and encouraged in Europe. I’d recommend anyone travelling within Europe first check for train routes before booking a flight.
That said, while they are improving the situation, building new rail lines, tunnels, bridges, etc., and changing the regulatory environment to allow more competition, these are slow improvements to make.
I checked and Zurich-Bilbao has few high-speed sections. They’re building new high speed lines near Bilbao, but infrastructure takes time…
Last week, I flew with Swiss Air and it was the same story. They wanted me to check my carry-on bag, but I wasn’t having it—no telling what issues that could’ve caused. The flight was delayed for over an hour due to a lack of baggage handlers. Then, to add insult to injury, Zurich Airport apparently can’t handle wind coming from certain directions, leading to even more delays. I sprinted through customs to catch my connecting Swiss Air flight, only to find out it was also delayed. So much for Swiss punctuality.
Fun fact Swissair was the high quality Swiss airline for decades. Then they went bancrupt and Swiss was created. It is way worse. Air trafic wise Switzerland doesn’t have a lot to offer.
Several passengers said the pilot in charge of the flight was apologetic over the delayed departure, but never mentioned leaving their bags in Zurich, according to Blick’s report.
Yeah… that really sucks probably a good call on the pilots part to be honest.
honest?
Happened to a friend from europe to south America. He had less than a day for find equipments for the next gig of his crew.
why the fuck is this newsworthy
it isn’t, but ill admit it’s a nice change of pace from the regular depressing news.
It’s novel. One bag left behind isn’t news (looking at you Lufthansa you bastards); all the bags left is new, therefore news.
if you’re definition of news is “this could be featured on the local news to fill in for an otherwise slow newsday” then yes techinically it could be news. If your definition of news is “substantially noteworthy information” than this is most certainly not news
[…] and if you people look at your right you can see the one guy who decides what it’s “substantially noteworthy information” and what not.
- Is he the only one?
- Yes, it was discovered by scientists when checking a Lemmy post.
Slow news day I guess
World [email protected]
How the fuck does this end up in world news. You people suck just as much as Reddit. We move billions of people a year. Shits gonna happen.
Work for Swiss air?
Found the pilot of that flight
If you don’t like the article, downvote and move on. There’s nothing here worth getting upset about.
We move billions of people a year.
You do?
