Phil the Flyer

10SEP17 3 OW Emerald pax (self, wife, son) flew QR400 F DOH AMM, connecting to RJ507 J AMM CAI, with a scheduled 4+ hours AMM layover; in reality it was 5+ hours (i.e. plenty of time to transfer bags from one flight to another at such a relatively small airport).

Checked 7 bags in at DOH QR F check-in (what an absolutely delightful experience that is) DOH AMM CAI. Upon arrival in CAI, despite being the only three fare-paying J passengers on the RJ flight, no bags! Missing bags report filed at CAI.

What have RJ done to assist in the retrieval of the missing bags? A big fat zero! Nothing! Nada! Have RJ responded to my e-mail of complaint? Not a murmur! (I don't blame QR as they did their bit, successfully flying the bags DOH AMM).

What have I done to retrieve the bags? Spent a total of 9 hours (on two separate visits to CAI) to locate the 7 bags (6 bags one day, 1 bag two days later) in the bowels of some dingy, dusty, stuffy, lost baggage facility run by MS - which, being airside, you even have to pay to access!

RJ - if this is how you treat OW status, J passengers then god help non-status Y passengers! You are an absoute disgrace of an airline - and if I NEVER fly with you again it will be too soon.

It is incredible that OW airlines (QR and RJ) can have such differing standards of customer service.

Rami Tamimi

Sorry about your inconvenience. Not that it matters at the end of course, but are you sure it's RJ who lost the bags, not QR?

Which address are you using to communicate with RJ? The best way is to contact their local office in CAI.

Email:[email protected]
Tel:22663561 - 22663564

Hopefully, this will be resolved soon!

edy4eva

Sounds like RJ to me. Few years back IAD-LHR-AMS-AMM-BEY in F/J. The bags vanished when RJ took hold of them from BA in AMS despite their chief agent in AMS assuring me they were on the manifest prior to boarding.

In BEY wasted 3 hours on the phone over 2 days plus about 3 hours to go and back from BEY - even calling their agent personally in AMS, before getting a call on day 3 that the bags will be arriving the next morning. No compensation whatsoever. The bags seem to have been left behind in AMS for 2 days before getting forwarded to AMM/BEY.

The IAD BA agent who incidentally was Jordanian-American, had warned me at check in that chances are the bags will be lost along the way. He even offered to short check to AMS to minimise that risk.

dvs7310

Unfortunately another issue is that Egypt is totally screwed when it comes to delayed baggage.

I was told before that Egyptian Customs will not allow airlines to clear delayed passenger bags and deliver to the hotel like everywhere else in the world, forcing the passengers to return to the airport to retrieve them and clear customs themselves. This is so far the ONLY country in the world where I have heard of such a backwards policy. All you can do flying into Egypt is cross your fingers and hope your bags actually make it on your scheduled flight.

B747-437B

The need to return to the airport for customs clearance is relatively common. I've had this experience in India, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Malawi.

And I've also had my bags delivered to hotel in Cairo. In fact, of the various carriers who have delayed my bags over the years I found Egyptair to be among the most responsive and helpful (regular phone/SMS updates on the status and delivery).

dvs7310

Interesting to know. I've been extremely lucky with my bags over the years and haven't experienced a major delay for quite some time. My situation with Egyptair, luckily they had the bags on the next flight which was only an hour later so I stayed inside the baggage claim area until the plane arrived, but they were adamant that they would not be able to deliver the bags to the hotel because of Egyptian customs clearance, nor would they reimburse taxi fare to return to the airport if they didn't come on that flight. This was at SSH.

The one and only other time I've had any delayed baggage outside of the US was at DAR with ET. It was my companions bag rather than my own and ET had someone deliver it to the hotel the next morning. Fortunately we were actually staying a night in DAR before heading out for safari, so didn't cause any issues.

Rami Tamimi

Same here, out of hundreds of flights (including RJ ones), I only ever had one issue with the baggage. I was flying LHR>AMM>HKG on RJ and the bag did not turn up in HKG. It later turned out that the bag was left behind in LHR and was forwarded by CX the next day and delivered to my adress in HK.

HKG folks handled it really well (I praise JASL-the handling agent, not RJ here), they kept updating me by email very frequently and replied to my emails within minutes. They also offered 70USD (maybe useful info for the OP) without asking for any receipts etc.

Shareholder

Maybe the boycott of Qatar had something to do with screwing up your checked luggage even though RJ/Jordan is playing neutral in the matter?

mtdd

Phil, have you thought of asking the ground staff to check whether your bags have been loaded, before you board the aircraft? It is a very simple procedure for them and only takes a couple of minutes. My heart goes out to you on the missing bags - this has happened to me in Cairo once, and it was a miserable experience. Although, and I know that this will only add to your grief, it was QR that was responsible on that occasion...

As I read your post I had just started on a CAI-AMM-CDG and back trip, and it scared the hell out of me - because we were planning to return with two suitcases of French food delicacies for Christmas, and if the bags got lost/delayed at the least a €100+ capon among other things was going to arrive green and rotted!

As it happens all went well, and we boarded each flight with the assurance that the bags had boarded before us. I had got J tickets for $846, (AF was over $1250) and the only downside was that we flew in an A319 with recliners rather than lie-flats. But actually they were very comfortable for a daylight flight. The service was impeccable, and the catering quite up to scratch - and most importantly for Mrs mtdd, the champagne never ran out!