The couple had to cut short their holiday in Gozo and lost the prepaid Lm111 covering hotel expenses. Following several complaints and exchanges of emails, the man was finally offered Lm25 compensation or a return flight to Gozo.

The Malta Independent has received a number of emails regarding this story.

In the first email sent to the customer care department, the man explained that on 22 June he and his wife checked in at 9.10am to board the helicopter to Gozo at 9.30am. On arrival after a 10-minute flight he was informed that his bag had not been loaded.

He asked if the bag was still in Malta but he was not given a reply because the man behind the counter in Gozo did not know. He was told that if it was still in Malta it would be forwarded on the next flight at 11am and then sent to the hotel.

It was already past midday and, since no calls had been received, the man started calling the lost luggage section to lodge his complaint. “After three hours trying, I managed to talk to someone at the missing luggage desk who could not help us anyway,” the man said. The couple decided to go back to Malta as they had no clean clothes or toiletries. Six hours after arriving home following the ordeal, a certain Mr Cauchi phoned to inform the couple that the luggage was located in Tripoli and would be back in Malta at 8.15pm. In his email, the man added: “What I want to know is what Air Malta is willing to do about the gross incompetence in handling one bag that was in their custody for 10 minutes. Why were we allowed to travel to Gozo when they knew the bag was missing before our departure. What is Air Malta willing to do for the spoilt silver wedding anniversary and the wasted Lm111 spent on the hotel?”

One of the customer care representatives forwarded the customer’s complaint to Charles Saliba, the manager of Malta Air Charter, a subsidiary company of Air Malta. He replied to the email saying: “We have nothing to do with this case. I suggest to pass this complaint to Air Malta Baggage Services/Ground Handling Dept.” Probably unintentionally, this email was copied to the customer and this added fuel to the fire.

This “mistake” prompted the man to write back to the customer care department, demanding an explanation why no one wants to take responsibility for the mistake.

“Can you please let me know why the email from Mr Saliba was forwarded to me? I am not interested which department is to take responsibility for this. If Mr Saliba has nothing to do with it, why was he phoning and telling us he can give us Lm25 or a return flight to Gozo to put this matter to rest. Can he give us the 22nd June back so we can start celebrating our silver wedding anniversary the way we planned? No, as the silver wedding only comes once. And it was all spoilt by incompetent staff who work for Air Malta. It seems nobody wants to take responsibility.”

In reply to this email, Alan Castillo, the manager of customer care and PR sent an email apologising for the “internal misunderstanding”.

“At the outset, I would like to apologise should any correspondence have been forwarded erroneously to your good-self. Unfortunately, there seems to have been an initial internal misunderstanding as to how your claim was to be handled. I would like to assure you that this matter has been clarified thereafter. In this respect, it is pertinent that we owe you an explanation with regards to the above. Although Malta Air Charter is an Air Malta subsidiary, it is run under separate commercial grounds from Air Malta. Having clarified the above, I would like to once again apologise for any inconvenience that this internal misunderstanding may have caused you. I have since liaised with Mr Saliba, who will be in touch with your good-self in order to address your understandable concerns with regards to your claim, and I am certain that the matter can be concluded to your satisfaction.”

Eventually the customer received a call from Mr Saliba offering him Lm25 compensation or return tickets to Gozo. However, the customer’s silver wedding anniversary was ruined and he can never get it back.