Why you may not be fully compensated if an airline loses your luggage

A Toronto woman is likely out thousands of dollars in compensation after WestJet mistakenly sent her luggage thousands of miles in the opposite direction.

Lorraine Pederson says after landing in Winnipeg without her luggage for a two-week work trip she was shocked to learn just where it actually turned up.

“The bag tag clearly shows that it’s going from Toronto to Winnipeg on a West Jet flight,” Pederson tells CityNews. “Thank goodness I put this magic little air tag in it. This air tag within an hour pinged that it was in Kingston, Jamaica.”

When she contacted the airline about the location of her luggage, she was told that wasn’t possible as there were no WestJet flights that had left Toronto for Jamaica that day.

“They kept saying it wasn’t their fault, they didn’t get it there because they didn’t fly in,” said Pederson. “I had to call Kingston airport and discover that it went in on a Swoop flight.”

Despite knowing exactly where her lost luggage was, Pederson says it sat in Jamaica for two weeks as WestJet refused to bring it home. That is until she reached out to CityNews for help.

“Within 24 hours, my bag had miraculously moved from Kingston to Toronto.”

Pederson says the bag arrived home damaged and some items inside were missing. She calculates the value of what was stolen, plus what she had to buy to get her through her 15-day work trip at around $4,000.

According to the Canadian Transportation Agency, travellers can only claim just over $2,300 for lost and damaged baggage.

“Unfortunately, the bag was loaded in error and situations like this are extremely rare,” WestJet said in a statement to CityNews, adding Pederson “has been offered the maximum liability.”

Pederson is still hoping to get back the full amount she had to spend on new items while her luggage was missing, however, WestJet has told her to file a home insurance claim to try and get back any funds exceeding the maximum liability.