A FAMILY has had their holiday ruined after easyJet allegedly lost all five of their bags which contained presents and even their grandad’s cancer medication.
Ben Poole flew from Manchester to Paris last month for four days in the French capital with girlfriend Lou and her family, but says they encountered immediate headaches upon landing at the Paris Charles De Gaulle [CDG] airport.
The 19-year-old claims that the airline lost five bags’ worth of luggage which contained essentials such as medication for cancer and vertigo, as well as other skin condition treatments.
After allegedly being refunded just £225, the Derbyshire family feel that they are owed compensation after family members were allegedly left floored without their medication, as well as for the treatment they received from “rude” airport staff.
Ben took to social media last month to air his grievances, writing: “I am not one to usually post, however this situation is appalling.
“Me and my girlfriend’s family flew from Manchester Airport to Paris CDG on 22 December. All five hold bags were lost, which held all of our clothes, Christmas presents and most importantly, medication.
“We suffered through four days of stress filled with trying to buy clean clothes and procure prescription medications over the counter in a country in which we don’t speak the language.
“We trucked through it – speaking on live chats and phone calls for a collective 20 hours, now trying to find our bags, which – due to absolutely no communication whatsoever on the part of the airports and easyJet – have been flown over to Paris and then left there without us knowing.
“So, we are now back in the UK, still without our cases. The response from easyJet and the airports has been shocking. EasyJet refuse to take and responsibility at all.
“They will not give us any phone numbers unless they can be found online, and every one that we have been sent has ended with a live chat which leads to more phone numbers etc.
“This loop has no end and we tried to talk to the baggage handlers in Manchester, and they said there’s nothing they can do as they are now in Paris.
“The airport employees in [Charles De Gaulle airport] refused to talk to us as they are run by Air France, not easyJet.
“This whole ordeal has been criminal. There were cancer medications in those bags, and easyJet refused to take any emergency procedures to have the cases shipped urgently.
“They also failed to update their systems to tell us the cases had been delivered to the airport.
“CDG’s responses were equally as poor as all of their staff became extremely defensive and rude as soon as our issue was mentioned.”
Speaking to Ben today he claimed: “We were going over to Paris to see my girlfriend, Lou, for Christmas, as she works in Disneyland.
“We got to Manchester Airport at about 3pm on December 22, had some miscommunication with the man at the check in desk as he was new to his job, but apart from that, it was fairly painless.
“However, once we arrived at Paris Charles De Gaulle [CDG] at about 9pm, we got to our designated luggage carousel, and only about 10 cases arrived from our plane.
“This was a huge issue as our bags weren’t there and in those cases were several medications needed to be taken daily.
“For example, Lou’s mum Claire has severe vertigo amongst other things, Lou’s brothers, Dean and Matthew, have skin conditions and anxiety, and Lou’s grandad Geoff, has cancer, due to which he has several medications to repress his symptoms.
“I went over to the baggage claim desk, where I was passed around for about an hour until eventually, I was told to speak to one gent who just walked away.
“I followed him asking for assistance, but he just kept walking until he seemed to get into a sudden fluster, grabbed his phone and had a very suspicious conversation with someone about how a child had died on another flight and he had to go immediately.
“He gathered a crowd of people waiting and explained to us a complicated story about how we were on flight 2117 – there was another flight number, the bags got mixed.
“Our bags must have been on flight 2111, but apparently that plane didn’t fly as a child had mysteriously died on that flight (again, due to that man’s behaviour, I don’t believe that).
“Many of us were asking how on earth we are meant to get [the luggage] and he said that this will lead to us getting our bags delivered to our hotels within 24 hours.
“Due to my suspicions, I asked the bloke if there was an easyJet representative at CDG who I could talk to and he burst out into a fluster, talking about how much he hated easyJet.
“[He] began spitting on the floor every time he mentioned the company, and he stated that CDG has no easyJet rep and there is no way to contact the company from the airport.
“We went through the online claim as soon as we arrived at the hotel at about 12am – by the next day, nothing had arrived.
“On the online tracker, it was said the bags still hadn’t been located, let alone shipped.
“By day two, people’s health began to deteriorate due to lack of medication.
“Claire was struggling to stand due to her vertigo, so she stayed in her room while she attempted to find contacts for easyJet or Manchester airport.”
Ben explained that whilst the family were able to buy clothes in a Paris shopping centre, they encountered obstacles when attempting to buy medications over the counter.
He claimed: “After two days of not having meds, Claire dragged herself out of her room and stumbled to the pharmacy through a busy shopping centre and showed her prescription to get a few of her meds that she needed.
“By this point, she was so stressed and in so much pain that she broke down in the pharmacy, as the toll that the lack of meds was taking was too much for her, as she has been used to the medication for years now.
“We managed to get one of Claire’s meds, and one of Lou’s grandad’s meds. All of the remaining ones for both were rejected, as were Dean’s and Matthew’s.
“We didn’t get those medications for the rest of the trip. Christmas the next day was ruined due to all of our presents being in the case.
“We attempted to make the most of it and Boxing Day, until we came home early doors on the 27th. Lou had made the surprise decision to come home with us too.
“We arrived in Manchester at 10am on the 27th, we headed straight for baggage claim, where after a long time of explaining things, they eventually told us that the easyJet tracker hadn’t been updated correctly.
“The bags had been sent to CDG the next day, as arranged, and no one at easyJet, Manchester or CDG told us that they were there.
“They never shipped them to us or even attempted to. We were furious.
“We went home and me and my dad then went through a long process of attempting to track the bags.
“They were loaded onto a plane two separate times at CDG – both of which were cancelled for whatever reason – until eventually on the 30th, they were sent to Manchester.
“It was such a mess. That was 8 or 9 days after they were lost, as opposed to the 24 hours it was meant to take for them to be back in our possession.”
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We are very sorry for the delay in responding to Mr Poole and reuniting the group with their bags and for the inconvenience this will have caused them.
“We are looking into this with our Baggage Services partner and our ground handling partner at Manchester airport as this isn’t the level of service we expect for our customers.
“We understand how important it is for passengers have their essential medicines with them which is why we advise passengers ahead of travel to carry medicine in their cabin bag.
“We are sorry if the family was not clear on this and for the frustration this caused and we have reached out to Mr Poole to apologise, ensure they are reimbursed for their expenses and process the compensation they are due.
“easyJet operates up to 2000 flights carrying up around quarter of a million customers and their luggage across Europe every day and incidents of lost and delayed luggage are extremely low, with reports by World Tracer, the independent system used by the industry for luggage tracking, showing that easyJet has one of the best performances in the industry.”
A loveholidays spokesperson said: “We are really sorry to hear of Ms Coultham’s experience.
“While it is the airline’s responsibility to locate lost baggage and keep customers updated throughout this process, we recognise the support we offered Ms Coultham fell short of our usual high standards.
“We are retraining our agents on this and have been back in touch with Ms Coultham to apologise.”
