A woman spent three unsuccessful hours wading through mountains of luggage at Heathrow to find her lost suitcase - after she was left with no clothes for her trip. Lori Harito, 35, flew from Toronto to Heathrow with a layover in Montreal last month.
But, when she arrived in the UK on June 20, she was told by Air Canada staff that her bag had been lost. Lori said: “When I got into Heathrow, I looked for my bag on the conveyor belt corresponding to my flight, but it wasn’t there.
"The majority of passengers on that flight didn’t get their baggage - it was a shambles."
After being directed to the lost baggage desk at arrivals, she was at first informed that her bag was 'somewhere in the airport' but no one knew where. As it turns out, her luggage was put on the wrong flight to Heathrow when she changed at Montreal.
Lori was forced to travel to London with just the clothes on her back and wait for a call from the baggage service with an update. A week passed and she'd heard nothing, prompting her to return to Heathrow and look for the bag herself.
Lori, a fitness and wellness writer, said: “I had to make a claim with lost baggage who told me that my bag was somewhere in the airport, but they didn’t know where. I was told my bag was lost when I arrived, so after a week I went back to the airport to try and find it myself.
"There were more people with lost luggage than there were people with luggage, which just shows the magnitude of the chaos."
Lori spent three hours looking for her bag at the lost luggage department inside Heathrow Airport - wading through enormous piles of abandoned suitcases to no avail. Air Canada sent her a $60 eCoupon for her lost luggage, but she says it cost her $75 to check her bag in in the first place.
Since her arrival in the UK she has had to spend a fortune on clothes and has been told it may take months before her bag is located. Lori said: “The customer service people at the luggage terminal told me they have thousands of bags to process and deliver.
“I still don’t have my bag, and you can’t even get through to Air Canada’s customer service line anymore.
"When I arrived to look for my bag, I was then told the layover caused the issue, and my luggage was actually put on the wrong flight. The majority of flights from Montreal were either cancelled or delayed - mine included.
"So when we made it to Montreal from Toronto, the gate for my flight to London changed, but my luggage still went on the flight that was at my original gate. It could take months before I am reunited with my bag and there seems to be nothing I can do about it."
Air Canada have been approached for a comment.
