David Lennam says, “I just kind of let it go.
A man from Vancouver Island got his things back after they were lost during a flight to Ireland nearly a year ago.
David Lennam, who used to work for CBC Victoria, started his trip to Dublin in May. He had big plans for a three-week bike trip.
His original flight was canceled, so he had to take a different one. He was told that his luggage would still get to Ireland.
But it didn’t.
“If I were younger, I would… would have become angry, “he saidAll Points WestHosted by Jason D’Souza. “Instead, I just thought, “Yeah, I guess that happens to everyone.” I don’t care. It’s just my things. I just kind of forgot about it.”
Lennam wasn’t the only one — Last year around the same time, thousands of people lost their luggage because airlines had to deal with a lack of staff, flight changes, and a sudden rise in travel after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
In November, officials from the Canadian Transport Agency told a parliamentary committee that the number of complaints about delayed, canceled, or lost flights or bags had grown to more than 30,000, up from 18,000 the summer before.
Lennam called the airline he had flown with, WestJet. They told him to go to Aer Lingus, which was the last company to handle the bag. Lennam said he got money for his lost bag and didn’t think much more about it after that.
When luggage is lost or delayed on an international flight, travelers can get up to about $2,350 back.
Last week, Lennam got an unexpected phone call from a service delivery manager in the Dublin airport baggage tracing department.
“She left me a voicemail saying, ‘I found your luggage,’ and that was it.”
It arrived at his house on Wednesday.
In a statement to CBC, a WestJet representative said they were glad to hear that Lennam got his things back.
The statement says, “We know it’s our job to improve our baggage systems, and we’re still committed to doing so by working with our third-party service partners.”
Lennam is most excited to see? A set of travel dominoes that light up in the dark.
“Do you know how hard it is to find travel dominoes that aren’t too heavy? Almost nothing can stop it, “he said.
“So this, this is the prize.”