OR Tambo Baggage Theft

[Zula]

After a great Sani2c Im left with a bitter taste after those f@#$%$# at OR Tambo went through my bag for the second time this year.They helped themselves to a Salomon jacket I got at the event for my wife as well as broke my lock and zipp on my bag. This happened on the way to 70.3 in January also leaving from OR Tambo.

 

My question is, I think BidAir are responsible for the baggage at the airport? Im sick of these monkeys and Im gonna try my best to escalate this as high as possible. Between 2 flights these @ssholes have cost me 2 suitcases, an ipod and a jacket!

 

Anyone out there had similar experiences or have advice for me? I really wanna give them a good go this time. I let it slide in January but now Im Gatvol.

[TNT1]

Dunno, I fly a lot, and have never had a problem.

[Capricorn]

Zula: did you shrink wrap it?

[dirtrider]

I fly at least twice a month and agrre with you . Wrapping your stuff is also not enough anymore , that bunch of pig-after-birth will steal it . And ACSA are also a useless bunch of runts .

[gummibear]

I have flown to Germany 3 times with SAA and every time i have had a bag broken open or taken.

I have never had it happen with BA so only fly BA now.

 

They were shrunk with clingwrap but was just cut on the side with the zip,that was locked.

 

I have so far only lost clothes and 2 pairs of Merrells but is a hassle to try and get any joy from SAA.One claim for R4800 was paid out R1200

[Capricorn]

inkbombs (items in case in separate bag) and alarms that go off with unauthorised opening.... hmmm.. i wish.

[Zula]

I dont ever shrink wrap my stuff. The way I look at it, if they want in they will make a plan regardless.

 

I'm definitely going to try escalate this as far as possible and cause as much of a stink as I can. I will keep this thread updated and use it as 'blackmail' against ACSA and BidAir because this is ridiculous.

 

Another thought, their security system is useless. In israel for example they scan your bag BEFORE you check in and if there is any dodgy ****, they check it there and then with you there so when its a bomb they arrest your ass. Whereas in this backward end of the world they scan it down in the dungeon, then when they find something 'suspicious' they cut open your bag and do some shopping while proving that the suspicious item was in fact a tyre lever or something like that.

 

Im not letting this one slip.

Edited May 21, 2011 by Zula

[Johan Bornman]

After a great Sani2c Im left with a bitter taste after those f@#$%$# at OR Tambo went through my bag for the second time this year.They helped themselves to a Salomon jacket I got at the event for my wife as well as broke my lock and zipp on my bag. This happened on the way to 70.3 in January also leaving from OR Tambo.

 

My question is, I think BidAir are responsible for the baggage at the airport? Im sick of these monkeys and Im gonna try my best to escalate this as high as possible. Between 2 flights these @ssholes have cost me 2 suitcases, an ipod and a jacket!

 

Anyone out there had similar experiences or have advice for me? I really wanna give them a good go this time. I let it slide in January but now Im Gatvol.

 

Sorry for your loss. I know how you feel.

 

A while ago a friend sent me this link.

 

 

Since watching it I dumped both mine and my wife's zippered luggage trollies and bought hardshell cases.

 

Until then, our stuff has been rifled through so often, I can't even think how many times. One day we even found someone else's family recipe book on top of my wife's clothes in the trolley. They obviously rifled at leasure and decided to mix stuff up.

 

I'll never travel with a check-in zippered bag again.

Edited May 21, 2011 by Johan Bornman

[Johan Bornman]

Oh, one more thing. The airline has nothing to do with it. They never actually handle your luggage. It is all handled by one organisation - ACSA and its band of merry thieves.

 

No matter what airline you fly, the risk is the same.

 

I'm scared someone puts a kg of heroin in my bag and I get caught. No zippered bags for me.

[Disylizzy]

Everytime I've flown through OR Tambo I've had something taken from me - flying internationally I'm not allowed to shrink wrap or lock my suitcases. They even went so far as to take things out of boxes and leave the empty boxes in my luggage. Now even if it costs a couple extra dollars I fly directly to Cape Town!

[MarkWildcat]

I had stuff stolen when returning from Maputo. I wrote to them and they phones me, from ACSA saying they had video footage of my bags in transit and not being interfered with on their side.

I believed them and went back to LAM, who have just ignored me from the initial customer service words of comfort.

They are used to it, know it happens and no-one is doing anything to stop it.

It is disgusting that we pay for the service, entrust our luggage to them and they are thieving bastards!

As far as I am concerned, unless cycling SA gets to the CEO, the only other option is to take them to the press or to court. Good luck Johann. If you need backup I will also try to get hold of the top dog.

[MarkWildcat]

Airports Company SA

 

Group Executive:

Airport Operations

Bongani Maseko

 

Physical address:

24 Johnson Road

The Maples

Office Park - Bedfordview

Johannesburg Postal address:

PO Box 75480

Gardenview

2047

 

Tel: +27 (0)11 723 1400

Fax: +27 (0)11 453 9353

[SwissVan]

Good Luck Zula

 

Heard so many stories like yours and eventualy people just give up, talking to the clowns who handle the luggage is very frustrating, everyone says they will try help but nobody does anything.

 

# 1 on my list of horrors are Johannesburg International for theft and Heathrow for delays (loosing) luggage.

[Capcha]

Sorry to hear about that. Being the owner of Exclusive Transfers in Gauteng and Cape Town, I can tell you through hearing from my manager and my clients when it comes to SAA, there is huge theft problems. Even though your luggage is handled by Bidair the staff are still from the old SAA baggage crew. There are hardly any theft on the other carriers, it always seems to be SAA. Don’t know why they don’t adopt the technology in Europe with the cameras in baggage handling section where the clients can see the staff handling their luggage on flat screens throughout the departure terminals. Hard cases with the number pad seems to be the best though the baggage handlers tend to put these at the bottom of the stack and they can and do sometimes crack. We even had a female clients bag come through on the baggage conveyer open like a book with her clothes tossed out and her female products lying on the conveyer and she had been on a SAA flight...unacceptable

[Big H*]

We also fly a lot and so far so good, no losses. The best "hardcase" bag is one of those hard plastic crates with the lid that intelocks. We lock it with padlocks and nothing gets taken from them. NO VALUABLES LIKE IPOD's etc in your luggage. We carry that in backpacks.

[Danger Dassie]

Sorry to hear about that. Being the owner of Exclusive Transfers in Gauteng and Cape Town, I can tell you through hearing from my manager and my clients when it comes to SAA, there is huge theft problems. Even though your luggage is handled by Bidair the staff are still from the old SAA baggage crew. There are hardly any theft on the other carriers, it always seems to be SAA. Don’t know why they don’t adopt the technology in Europe with the cameras in baggage handling section where the clients can see the staff handling their luggage on flat screens throughout the departure terminals. Hard cases with the number pad seems to be the best though the baggage handlers tend to put these at the bottom of the stack and they can and do sometimes crack. We even had a female clients bag come through on the baggage conveyer open like a book with her clothes tossed out and her female products lying on the conveyer and she had been on a SAA flight...unacceptable

 

One error though, the handling staff would be from Swissport, not SAA. SAA is an airline, not baggage handling. Wether or not the baggage rifling is purely an SAA problem is debatable, I and colleagues had stuff pilfered or baggage tampered with by other airlines.

As for Europe, well that system you mention is only active at some airports, like the larger ones on Germany etc... have had issues with tampered luggage including Peli Cases in France, Italy and UK.

ACSA and Bidair though need to pull finger with their baggage handling staff!