Woman’s luggage gets damaged ‘beyond repair’ on Jetstar flight

SINGAPORE: A woman took to social media to highlight a problem she had on a recent flight when her luggage emerged from the plane in such a tattered state that they needed another one for their belongings.

In a Jan 4 post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page, Elizabeth Seah wrote that she had taken a Jetstar Asia flight to Osaka. However, when one of her suitcases came out, it had cracks so bad on both sides that the inside lining could be clearly seen.

She posted photos and a video showing the suitcase and added that when it came out of the conveyor belt, everyone stared at it. Ms Seah also wrote that in spite of the condition of the luggage, the ground staff at the Osaka airport did not offer them any sort of bag where they could place their belongings. 

Since they looked for the cheapest luggage possible within Kyoto to replace the damaged one, Ms Seah tried to ask for compensation, but the airline has not yet agreed to their claim. She explained that the damaged luggage had been bought some time ago and they no longer had the receipt nor the payment record for it. As an alternative, she tried to show Jetstar Asia how much the suitcase costs on a popular online shopping platform, but this was rejected by the company as well.

The airline even allegedly asked for a quote from a shop for the repair of the luggage, which shocked the post author, who believes it can no longer be repaired.

Ms Seah also wrote that her next step is to obtain an affidavit “which must be legally made under oath, witnessed and signed by a state,” all of which will cost them additional fees.

She appears to be disappointed that Jetstar Asia has not even told her how much they will be compensating her for the damaged luggage, which makes her unsure if all the hoops she needs to go through in order to obtain compensation are worth it.

She also wrote that she is unwilling to fly with Jetstar again. “All they did was beat around the bush instead of taking real actions for the badly damaged luggage that was in their care. It WAS so badly damaged that it cannot be used, we had to dispose it on the spot. How to use such a dangerous broken luggage?”

AsiaOne quoted Jetstar Asia as saying how sorry it was for the damage to Ms Seah’s language and the inconvenience it caused her. The incident that caused the damage is under review, and the company has reached out to her “to see how we can support her further”.

The Independent Singapore has reached out to Ms Seah for further comments or updates. /TISG

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