Qantas has left passengers fuming as it prioritsed the baggage of the English cricket team over the luggage of others.
More 150 passengers on the flight, which was bound for New Zealand from Sydney, touched down in Wellington only to realise their bags had been left in Australia.
The baggage had stayed in Sydney as the airline chose to instead carry the heavy bags belonging to the cricket team, who weren’t even on the flight.
According to passenger Philip Nitschke, the airline was disinterested in the average commuter.
“I must say this is a new low for Qantas. I’ve never seen anything like this,’ Nitschke said.
“[The luggage] has been left behind because Qantas had to give priority to the English cricket team.”
“So now there’s chaos here at Wellington as we have 150 people having to fill out lost luggage forms because Qantas couldn’t be bothered treating their average commuter with anything like a semblance of decency.”
“Thank you Qantas, never again.”
Speaking to New Zealand news site Stuff, a Qantas spokeswoman said the issue was due to the captain’s decision to more fuel into the plane, as opposed to the airline choosing to load the cricketers’ bags over other passengers.
“We understand this is frustrating, but our main priority was getting everyone to Wellington safely and on time,’ the spokeswoman said.
“The leftover bags were loaded onto the next flight on Sunday evening and the remaining bags will arrive in Wellington on our first flight on Monday morning.”
