A first vacation in Quebec has turned into a nightmare for a French couple without luggage or medication since arriving in Montreal last week.
• Read also: Chaos in airports: the Canadian Transportation Agency recalls passenger rights
• Read also: Chaos in airports: Air Canada will no longer transport animals in the hold
• Read also: Chaos in airports: here are the 5 main reasons for this predictable mess
“Last I heard, they would have sent our luggage back to France before letting us pick it up in Montreal! [...] You imagine ? We're starting our vacation, it's horrible, ”says Augustin Le Van, 40, from Toulouse, after taking the time to wipe away the tears of his wife, who has degenerative heart disease.
"I'm supposed to take my medication daily, continues Céline Laurion, visibly weakened. But [...], I cannot take them since they were in our suitcases. Result: I don't feel well. I am very, very, tired. I no longer know what to do. »
Generalized problem
The latter are among the hundreds – perhaps thousands – of travelers who day after day for several weeks have arrived in Montreal without being able to find their luggage.
Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), manager of Montréal-Trudeau airport, maintains that it does not know the number of bags lost in recent weeks.
"ADM does not keep this type of data since the delivery of baggage is the responsibility of the air carriers", replies its spokesperson, without however denying the problems.
Each story is unique, although the scenarios are similar. After hours of waiting in front of the arrivals carousels at Montréal-Trudeau, these travelers realize that their suitcases have not followed.
Where are they ? In which country or which plane? When will they arrive? Who knows !
They don't care about us
In the midst of the chaos, these unlucky ones are eventually directed out of the secure area, where, in the middle of a busy hallway, a row of three telephones fixed to the wall, without chairs or counters, awaits them a few meters from the rest area. reception of international arrivals. Therefore, for only help, hung above the handsets, a list of numbers that customers are invited to dial to reach their airline.
Among the horde of travelers, gathered at all times around these phones, a young fellow returned from Dublin, with Air Canada, on June 23.
Ten days later, he returned to the airport again, having exhausted all the other options available to him (calls, emails, paper forms) in the hope of finding his... bike!
"There are three phones, but only one Air Canada employee on the line to answer everyone's problems. It's laughable how much they don't care about us, ”says the 30-something while waiting for a handset to become available.
UPS as backup
To come back to our couple from Toulouse, they made three visits to the airport during the first four days of their stay in Quebec. Each time, they hoped to find their luggage and their precious medicines.
Leaving France on the wings of Lufthansa last Friday, they made a stopover in Munich, before disembarking in Montreal for the first time.
"I was stupid not to keep them with me. I feel guilty. But what to do now, if only to hope? »
Yesterday, on the eighth day of their two-week trip, the couple had still not got their hands on their suitcases. Will he find them? No one knows.
In the meantime, the woman appealed to UPS to try to get her medication urgently. If all goes well, she will receive them today, and will finally be able to realize a dream: to see Niagara Falls.