Family still without luggage six days after Qantas flight to London
A Mount Isa family is still without their luggage, six days after their Qantas flight to London left without any bags, forcing them to purchase essential items with no word on when they'll receive their belongings.
Lauren Wright was travelling from Australia to the UK with her husband to introduce their one-year-old son to their families.
When their flight QF9 – Qanta's longest flight at 17 hours and 55 minutes – landed at Heathrow Airport on May 1, she was appalled to find Qantas hadn't loaded the luggage for economy passengers due to weight restrictions.
"Heathrow staff say this is occurring every day," Ms Wright said.
"They have left all passengers with no baggage, telling us on arrival at Heathrow."
Approaching a week since they landed, Ms Paddlemore Wright said they still don't know when their bags will be delivered.
"We have had to buy a little stroller, a car seat and numerous items of warm clothing," she told Yahoo News Australia.
"We live in Mount Isa and have just left a 40-degree summer and arrived in Wales in 6 degrees," she explained, adding they spent a "fortune" buying things they already owned.
"We were left stranded at Heathrow with no car seat. When I asked for one the Qantas rep just said no."
'No contact' from Qantas
Ms Wright said she still hasn't heard from the airline or been offered any compensation and is now concerned they won't receive their luggage before they leave.
"We have spend the first couple of days of our holiday just having to buy essentials, not enjoying time with family as much as we should be doing," she said.
"We are in the UK for a month. Two weeks in Wales, two weeks where we used to live in Nottingham and two weeks in Norfolk with my family," she explained.
"Not sure how they will know where we are if we move before the bags arrive."
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Ms Wright said the flight from Darwin was also severely delayed with many families left at the airport with no offer of a hotel.
"We definitely need extra luggage for the return leg now," she added. "Qantas need to offer this to all the people on the flight."
Qantas said an issue with the runway pavement at Darwin Airport resulted in temporary additional weight restrictions on their flights to London last week.
"Unfortunately that meant we weren’t able to carry some passengers’ bags on their flight," a spokeperson told Yahoo News Australia.
“All bags have now been reaccommodated on later flights and will be couriered directly to customers as soon as we’re able to confirm the correct address.
"We apologise the inconvenience this has caused our passengers and thank them for their understanding.”
“The pavement issue causing the weight restriction has now been fixed.”
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