I took my wife to Ireland. Bought the ticket from KLM/Air France. On the return, she took three carriers. Aer Lingus to Paris, Air France to Johannesburg, and Airlink South Africa to Lusaka.

The bag was short-tagged in Ireland. It was caught by Air France in Paris and forwarded to Johannesburg on a later AF flight. Air France failed to turn the bag over to Airlink. We know the bag is in Johannesburg. Repeat calls to Air France have failed to motivate them to walk over to their unclaimed bags and look for her luggage, which is marked for easy recognition.

KLM, Aer Lingus, Airlink South Africa, Airlink Zambia, and Air France all refuse to file a lost bag claim. We got airport employees in Lusaka to file a courtesy tracing report, but Worldtracer shut off access to the file without notice and said to contact the carrier. Contacting the carrier is not a realistic option.

Air France in the US claims they can do nothing, which is pretty obviously not true. Air France in South Africa does not answer the phone. They pick up and then hang up immediately without speaking.

Why didn't we file a report at the airport to begin with? Because Air France emailed us and told us to do it online. The email contained a link to a site that rejected the report and told us to do it by phone. When we tried by phone, they said we were supposed to do it in person, in Johannesburg. They said that after being told she lived in another country.

One of the airline baggage employees I talked to said airlines have a policy of rejecting bag claims because they don't want to pay for the lost items. He said the other airlines were lying to us to avoid paying. We are not after money. My wife doesn't have much, and I filled her luggage with clothes and things, and she can't replace them where she lives. I can't send replacements either. Sending a letter to her costs over $150. People may find that hard to believe, but anyone who checks DHL can verify it.

My wife has been to the airport in Lusaka many times. We have called every airline many times. We know Air France has the bag because they admitted it to the airline employees in Lusaka and because Airlink never received the bag. The Air France people told them they tried to call her once and that she spoke no English. She is an attorney and speaks fine English, so either they called the wrong number or didn't call at all. They were provided with the correct number, and before they stopped answering the phone, we made sure they had an additional number and an email address.

Is there anything left we can do, short of suing in order to get their attention? I have low expectations, but I thought I would post a thread just in case.