I have had 3 recent experiences ( well, 1 not so recent) of cancelled
flights.

1) AC 001 last year at Xmas time, during the great blizzard. We were going
to Khon Kaen, Thailand, via NRT and BKK. After late loading, then sitting
on the tarmac for several hours, the flight was cancelled. When the on
board announcement was made, we were told to reclaim our luggage on
the carousel. After de-planing, we were informed that AC wanted us to
take the same re-scheduled flight 24 hours later. Since we were going to
attend a wedding in Khon Kaen the following day, that was not an option.
I ended up re-routing us the other way: AC to LHR in the evening, then a
TG connection that got us into Thailand in time for the wedding. However,
as it transpired, AC would NOT let us get our luggage. They never off-loaded it, and refused to do so. Among the reasons that I was told were
a) some of the luggage was connecting from South American pax that had
never cleared canadian customs
b) the luggage containers were taken to another sealed, locked building
and no access was permitted.
c) It would take too much manpower to unload it, or search for ours.
End of story - TG delivered the bags to us 2 days after we arrived in
Khon Kaen at our hotel.

2) This past saturday, AC 037 to Shanghai was cancelled for mechanical
reasons. We were diverted to AC's flight to Tokyo with a JAL connection
to PVG ( and downgraded from J to Y, but that is another story). Since I
had things that I needed for business, and was not staying in Shanghai, but
was travelling to a different city every night for the next 5 nights; I would
not go without my luggage. I even explored other possibilities, such as
CX or KE flights departing around midnight ( but they would get me into
PVG too late). But AC claimed
a) All the baggage was being sent to Vancouver and could not be touched.
b) Even if I did not travel, they would not give us back our bags.
c) They were going to send it to PVG a day later.
This was not acceptable - I had quite a few words with a few of the YYZ
concierges; and finally, thanks in great part to Concierge Judy and to a
fellow FT'er who works for AC ( I did not know about that until later), they
went and physically located our bags, re-tagged them to NRT/PVG, and
saw that they were put on the NRT flight. Of over half a dozen pax who
were re-routed on the same flights, we were the only ones to arrive with
luggage.

3) This past Thursday, I was in HGH ( Hangzhou, China) flying with KA to
HKG and connecting to TG flight to TPE. We checked in, cleared Chinese
immigration, and waited in the lounge. There was extreme fog, many
flight delays and cancellations, and finally the airport was closed and our
flight cancelled. The Dragonair staff informed all of us C-class pax in the
lounge about the situation personally. We exited through immigration where
our exit stamps were cancelled, proceeded to their ticket desk where our
flight coupons were returned, and then they brought our checked bags to
us ( on luggage carts!). The whole process took less than 25 minutes!

Now why can't AC handle luggage on a cancelled flight in a similar manner?
If they cancel a flight, why can't they return the bags to allow us to bring
them with us if we can find alternate routings? I understand the Canada
Customs aspect of transit baggage, but I am sure that it is very easy to
see ( by looking at the luggage tags) which was transit luggage from out
of the country and which was domestic connection or local-originating.

When a pax is missing from boarding, they are always able to off-load his/her
checked baggage from the hold - why can't they do it when they cancel
a flight?

Feedback and your own horror stories welcomed