About 1,500 checked bags remain unclaimed at Vancouver International Airport after winter storms wrecked havoc on holiday travel last month, causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled in and out of the airport as heavy snow, then freezing rain, covered Metro Vancouver, leaving many people to sleep on the airport floor for days.
The number of unclaimed bags is fluctuating as luggage arrives, is picked up or is sent for delivery to the owners, says the airport, which added, “While we anticipate it will take us and our airline partners more time to complete this reunification process, steady progress is being made.”
Robyn Fant says her family recovered their final lost bag this week, just in time for their flight home to North Carolina after an annual ski trip to Whistler, BC.
Walking through the airport, Fant says she, her husband and three sons had checked eight bags for their Air Canada flight and arrived in Vancouver on Christmas Day, but the bags with all of their ski gear went missing for the next four days.
She says it cost the family “thousands of dollars” because they had to rent their ski gear and buy clothing, including winter boots, gloves, a ski jacket, and pants.
The family found the last bag in a partitioned-off area full of unclaimed luggage belonging to people who were flying with Air Canada.
Homeira Shojaei and her husband managed to find two of their three missing bags in that same area on Tuesday, three days after moving to Vancouver from Iran.
Shojaei said she had contacted Air Canada about the lost luggage and received a confirmation email from the airline, but no further communication, so the couple went to the airport to begin their own investigation.
She said they presented their baggage tags to an attendant, who told them their luggage was not there. Shojaei said they insisted on searching and found the two bags.
They plan to come back to search for their final bag later this week, as Shojaei said she thinks it’s still in Toronto, where they caught a connecting flight to Vancouver.