Woman opens her lost luggage to a putrid smell
Merry Cannon was excited to be joining her husband on a business trip to Germany and France, blissfully unaware of the surprise that would be awaiting her on her return home.
The 36-year-old from Arkansas said the trip was a big deal as their two young children, ages 1 and 5, were accompanying them.
Unfortunately, their holiday had gotten off to a bumpy start. The family was scheduled to fly from Fayetteville, Arkansas, on American Airlines early on March 5, but the flight was eventually canceled due to a broken windshield. As a result, they missed their connecting flight in Chicago.
Hours later, they were finally rebooked on a different flight to Chicago, but the plane then sat on the runway for an hour before departing. Cannon says the family was bumped to business and first class “for all the trouble.”
Upon their arrival at Chicago, they were called to report to the American Airlines customer service desk where they were told their seats “had been given up.” It took hours to get rebooked, and they didn’t fly out until 10 p.m. the next day. As a result, they had to skip the whole leg of the trip to Germany and fly into Brussels, then rent a car and drive two hours to Lille, France.
But all of these inconveniences paled into insignificance when it came to getting hold of their luggage.
“They lost our luggage for five days,” Cannon told news.com.au. “The night before we were leaving for London to return home, it was delivered at 10:30 p.m. Honestly, by then it was comical and my husband joked that at least when we get home we won’t have all that laundry to do.”
Little did they know what extra surprise would be waiting for them inside the bag.
“When we returned home in Arkansas I immediately went to the American Airlines customer assistance desk to report how awful my bag smelt. I actually told them that it smelt like something had died. I, of course, didn’t think that was actually the case.”
She claims the staff member told her the smell may be from it getting wet while it sat for days on the runway.
“He thought it was mold, but even said it smelled far worse than that.”
They pondered whether waste from the lavatory could have spilled on it. Either way, she alleges she was told to go and wash the bag and its contents to see if it would come clean. Then she was to file a claim through the airline’s baggage claim department, ensuring nothing was thrown away as it would need to be sent to the airline.
So off they went to begin a cleaning attempt that proved futile — and horrifying.
“When we returned home, we took the bag to our back porch because the smell was so horrendous. I began to wash the clothes. I washed one load three times in bleach, vinegar, OxiClean and Tide.
“I finally decided whatever was on them would not come clean. I placed all those clothes in (garbage) bags. I grabbed more clothes in hopes that maybe the bottom of the bag didn’t get wet, so they would come clean.
“When I grabbed the clothes is when I saw the rat. I have never screamed and cried so much in my life. I ran inside and began scrubbing my hands and arms. I had touched the things in this bag because American Airlines told me to just wash everything.”
Cannon called the airline and claims she was simply told to write everything down and her claim would be expedited in two to three days. She refused to touch the items anymore and the staff member agreed and said they would handle it.
Later that day, she contacted the Department of Health for advice seeing as the items were brought inside her house.
“Literally for three minutes the health inspector just repeated, ‘OMG. This is horrible. I don’t even know what to say, I’m so sorry. I’m thinking.’
“Finally when I asked if the rat needed to be tested he said that because we don’t even know what country the rat is from that they wouldn’t even know where to start. I then asked if I should be concerned and he said, ‘The biggest concern would be the plague.’ That never even entered my mind.”
The other main concern was fleas; she was told that rats always carry fleas, which carry disease.
“The one positive thing he did tell me was, ‘a dead rat is better than a live rat.’ You can probably imagine how comforting that was to me. He told me that where we live burning garbage is illegal, but the bag and all the belongings needed to be burned immediately.”
After that conversation, she contacted the airline again to confirm her bag would be dropped off and that she would be compensated for it all. They agreed.
“The man reassured me that they would and to dispose of it all.”
It took four hours to fill out the paperwork the airline required to deal with her case. A week later, she called them again and left message after message.
“Finally they told me that they would give me $1,600, which is the maximum international payout. My bag and its belongings totaled $3,217. To me that’s crazy that international has a payout that is about half as much as domestic,” she said.
“The whole trip with American Airlines was a bit of a nightmare and the rat in the bag was, for lack of better words, the cherry on top!
“I along with my husband travel fairly often and I can honestly say this is the worst thing we have experienced. To me it’s not so much the money, it’s the lack of respect they have. That customers are disposable and they are big enough that they just don’t care. They don’t have to make things right.”
News.com.au has contacted American Airlines for comment.