Hi, I'm looking for a little advice. With NZ, I just completed the following itinerary in Y (I'm a *G):

(14 NOV) LHR-LAX-AKL-CHC
(30 NOV) CHC-AKL-SYD
(04 DEC) SYD-AKL-LAX-LHR

I arrived home in London on the morning of Friday 5 December. Everything about the trip was fantastic except for the baggage services. For instance, the NZ lounges in AKL and SYD were by far the nicest airport lounges I had ever seen. The food was simply amazing and the ambience was wonderful.

On the flight from CHC-AKL-SYD, both of my checked pieces (two medium-sized North Face rucksacks) did not arrive in Sydney (this was a Sunday afternoon). The gentleman at baggage services told me in a hush-hush tone that "all the people working in baggage in Auckland are idiots." I got the impression that he was working for Qantas, though I can't say for certain. The bags did arrive however the next day, and NZ was nice enough to deliver them to me.

Five days later, I flew SYD-AKL-LAX-LHR, returning home. The check-in agent checked me through from SYD all the way to LHR. Upon arriving in LHR 30 hours later, I was paged at the baggage claim and told to go to the baggage services desk which was staffed by United reps. The United folks told me that my bags had never made it out of Auckland! The lady took one look at my baggage slips and said that for some reason, the bags were only checked through to Auckland. She said that it was my fault that I never double-checked that they had been checked the whole way through (at which point I told her in no uncertain terms that it is not my responsibility to make sure that NZ personnel are correctly doing their jobs). I wrote down her name.

Is it just me, or is expecting me to double-check that my bags have been checked all the way through just a little bit unreasonable? I was told by the check-in agent that they had been checked through and I left it at that.

Anyway, my bags finally arrived two days late and again NZ was nice enough to deliver them to my house this afternoon.

Given that my bags were misplaced twice in one week - both times being in Auckland - would you suggest that this warrants a letter to Air New Zealand's customer care division? I don't want any kind of financial compensation, but I think it might be worthwhile to let them know about what had happened.

Thank you very much for your time.

Regards,

John