Despite heavy social media backlash and calls and emails complaining, hundreds of people who recently traveled to Africa by way of EgyptAir remained without their luggage after the airline apparently misplaced it days ago. NewsOne previously reported that the airline with a troubled past was carrying passengers to Ghana ahead of the annual Afrochella music festival and its accompanying activities in the capital city Accra this past weekend.
MORE: EgyptAir Put On Blast For Losing Luggage As Afrochella Caps Ghana’s ‘Year Of The Return’
The increasingly popular attraction took place on Sunday and was the final event of the West African country’s “Year of Return,” which commemorated the 400th year since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. But what was supposed to be the event of a lifetime for attendees turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons, according to EgyptAir passengers contacted by NewsOne on social media. Many were forced to scramble to replace items that never arrived and were forced to make the best of an awful situation.
One passenger even accused the airline of intentionally losing the luggage as part of a master plan to get travelers to spend more money. Saying that EgyptAir wants its travelers “to buy excess luggage,” Naomi Robinson told NewsOne on Sunday that “the planes they use to fly to Ghana are small planes all the luggage can’t fit, so they’re flying people to their destination intentionally without their luggage as it can’t fit.”
Robinson also claimed that EgyptAir has a “backlog of cases left in Cairo so the flight you’re on will have the luggage of the previous flight.”
The luggage is said to be lost in Cairo, where travelers had connecting flights to Ghana.
Robinson said that her holiday was ruined. However, she did reveal how the situation could be rectified.
“I want my case on the next flight to Accra tomorrow and to be compensated for everything I’ve had to buy and the money I have lost out on,” she said. “I have nothing. No underwear, toiletries, footwear or clothes.”
Three other travelers e-mailed NewsOne a written complaint they sent to EgyptAir outlining their grievances.
Not only did they say that their luggage lost, but Julie Daoheuang, Orphee Atundu and Laetitia Francisco also explained that members of the EgyptAir staff were impolite and apathetic. They said they traveled from Paris to Ghana by way of Cairo and that their flight was more than two hours late over a delay that was never explained.
“We should have landed at 6:30 in the morning but the airplane landed at 09:00 am. After a 18 hour flight, we all arrived in Kotoka Airport, my friends and I didn’t get any of our luggage,” the email said in part.
“We were left with no reasons without any clothes, any underwear and first necessity products,” the email continued. “All we had were our 18 hour flight clothes. We are staying in Ghana for 7 days. We came especially for a festival and are left without NOTHING but fake promises. We arrived the 26th. We are wasting our time going at the airport every single day since we have landed.”
The e-mail also claimed that the three passengers were forced to use money allocated for their stay to purchase new clothes and toiletries.
And although one traveler said she received her bag on the third day of her trip, she also said that her other two friends had not received their luggage. The e-mail challenged the airline and asking what it plans to do if her friends do not receive their luggage before their return flight.
There was, however, one thing that could make it right, the email concluded.
“All we want is compensation and to be refunded for all these problems,” the travelers wrote. “This is unacceptable and disrespectful to leave people like this. We have paid a lot for this trip and it wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Calls by NewsOne to EgyptAir have gone unreturned for days, leaving no answers for what happened and increasing questions about how the error can or will be corrected.
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