By EDMUND M. SILVESTRE

When Julius Ordoñez of Parañaque City, Philippines arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from Detroit on Jan. 6, one of his luggage didn’t make it.

He reported it to the Luggage Service Center of Northwest Airlines, whose staff issued him a file reference number and two phone numbers to call for follow-ups.

That night, Ordoñez began making what would be a week of stressing phone calls from his aunt’s Jersey City home. He said he was worried not much about his expensive clothes in the luggage but about the seminar materials for a coaching and mentoring program he and his business partner will conduct for ABS-CBN International in San Francisco on Jan. 11.

“I would either get a recorded voice saying the status (of the missing luggage) is still pending, or someone would ask me to hold for 30 minutes only to say to just wait for their call,” recalled Ordoñez, managing director of Benchmark Consulting Co., a Makati City-based international training, consulting and coaching firm dealing with personal and organization transformation, which counts giant corporations like San Miguel and Nestle as clients.

A day before he left for San Francisco, Ordoñez headed to a mall and shelled out some $400 worth of clothes and personal effects.

“It was the most stressful preparation I have ever made in my life because I had to buy everything from shoes to ties,” he told the Filipino Reporter. “Worse, we had to reproduce seminar materials. I got sick because of so much stress and I conducted the seminar literally with trembling knees. I can’t help but feel so angry with Northwest for making my life miserable.”

While in San Francisco, Ordoñez’s sister in New Jersey, Maribel, followed up the missing luggage. She too, he claimed, got “rude treatment from ill-mannered airline staff” on the phone.

But with persistence, Ordoñez said his sister chanced upon a “kindhearted staff” who said the missing luggage might still be in Detroit.

Last Jan. 15, on his way back to Newark Airport with a stopover in Detroit, Ordoñez decided to try his luck.

With 30 minutes remaining before boarding time at Detroit Airport, Ordoñez went to the Luggage Service Center.

“I was at Gate A5 and the Luggage Service Center was located past Gate A38,” he related. “I was literally running just to get there on time.”

“After giving my reference number at the luggage service counter, I was told right away that my bag was not there,” he said. “So I pleaded that I be given the chance to look inside the unclaimed luggage room.”

“Upon entering the door, I immediately saw my bag! My bag was there right in front of me with other unclaimed luggage,” he said with relief. “The baggage claim tag was missing but a small tag bearing my name and address in Jersey City was still there.”

After proving that the luggage was his, Ordoñez rushed back to his boarding gate.
Just when he thought his ordeal was over, he said he was asked by a Northwest attendant to pay $25 for the excess baggage. Ordoñez said he explained why he had an extra luggage. But when the airline staff insisted that he pay, Ordoñez said he flared up.

“She was so inconsiderate that I almost yelled at her face just to make her understand that what happened was Northwest’s responsibility,” he said. “Instead of apologizing for the inconvenience they caused me, the attendant said, ‘OK, we’ll give in to you now but next time, you really have to pay.’”

“Julius felt betrayed because he’s been loyal to Northwest since 1999 and they made him feel that they don’t care at all,” said Ordoñez’s managing partner Samuel Mendoza. “It’s like they don’t know what to do when confronted with complaints.”

When he arrived at Newark Airport that night, Ordoñez said he went to the Luggage Service Center to get a refund for the expenses he had incurred while his personal belongings were missing. He said the attendant expressed surprise that he found the missing luggage in Detroit. 

“The lady who assisted me said that as a policy, the refund was supposed to be $50 on the first day and $25 per day on the succeeding days,” Ordoñez said. “The bag was missing for nine days so Northwest owed me $250. It was not enough to compensate for the stress I have gone through, but I told myself, at least, Northwest was taking responsibility. But to my dismay, the staff said they can only refund a maximum of $150.”

Ordoñez said the luggage staff directed him to the supervisor at the Northwest check-in counter to claim his refund. “When I got to the counter, the lights were out and there was no one there. The guard said the supervisor could not be found so I had to wait for another 30 minutes.”

“I almost gave up with exasperation when the supervisor finally arrived,” Ordoñez said. “I thought he was going to apologize, but instead he said sarcastically that I should be thankful that he didn’t ask me to come back the following day to get the check.”

“I can’t believe a supervisor could be so rude to an already irked customer,” Ordoñez said, “so what followed was a heated exchange. When I asked for his full name, he said he is not allowed to give his full name.”

Ordoñez said he was fuming when he stepped out of the airport and vowed to write a formal complaint to the top echelon of Northwest Airlines, as well as other agencies.

A spokesperson for Northwest said the company cannot comment on Ordoñez’s complaint until they get all the facts surrounding the incident, or get hold of the letter of Ordoñez.