While Greg and Denise McHales' lawsuit against Air Canada may have been settled out of court, many passengers remain disgruntled with the carrier's handling of their luggage.

As the Star reported last Friday, the Whitehorse couple settled with Air Canada after lost luggage ruined their plans to compete in a 2007 international sporting competition in Spain.

Nancy Tanner, owner of the Beez Kneez Bakpakers hostel in Whitehorse, said earlier this week she routinely hosts guests whose luggage arrives days late, sometimes preventing the visitors from enjoying their travels as planned.

"They don't have a clue," she said about Air Canada. "(They) just have no sense of customer service whatsoever."

Tanner said a couple staying at her hostel just last week arrived in Whitehorse at midnight Saturday, only to discover their bags were still in Vancouver.

They made repeated trips to the Whitehorse airport to see if their luggage had arrived, said Tanner. The couple had planned to go on an eight-day canoe trip from Quiet Lake to Carmacks, and were looking into renting tents and sleeping bags to replace the items in their missing belongings.

But at the last minute, the couple made a final trip to the airport and found their luggage at 8 a.m. Monday. They left for their canoe trip half an hour later, said Tanner.

She had telephoned Air Canada twice and was told both times that the bags were still in Vancouver but would be in Whitehorse "on the next plane."

The second time she called, however, was after her guests had already recovered their luggage.

When she was told the bags were still in Vancouver, Tanner said, "Actually, they're in Whitehorse."

The attendant said, "Oh, that's good," without acknowledging that his information was incorrect, said Tanner.

"It's just really frustrating," she said.

The couple borrowed Tanner's car so they could drive back and forth between the hostel and the airport, yet Air Canada did not provide any assistance to them for the late luggage.

"I charge $25 a night, but Air Canada charges $1,200 and has no customer service," she said.

Tanner said a last-minute return flight from Whitehorse to Vancouver costs $1,600.

"For that kind of money, you should be able to get your luggage on the same flight."

Tanner said the same problem arose earlier this summer when 14 of the 16 paddling teams for the Yukon River Quest stayed at her hostel, and all of the teams' paddles were left in Vancouver.

Some of the racers had made rental arrangements with the Kanoe People, when the paddles were eventually delivered in time for the race.

Tanner said she keeps personal supplies such as soap and razors on hand at the Beez Kneez for guests whose baggage arrival is delayed.

"If you can't get the luggage and the person on the same flight, and the tracking number says it's in Vancouver, you can't get much more of a failure than that."

Tanner added that she filed a complaint on Air Canada's website in reponse to the luggage mixups and received an automated response informing her that baggage-related issues have an eight-week processing time.

Another Whitehorse resident complains that relatives who visit her family from abroad routinely have their luggage go missing.

"We have this happen all the time," Susie Rogan said in an interview Tuesday.

Earlier this summer, Rogan had four guests visiting from Europe for three weeks. They spent the first week of their visit waiting for their luggage to arrive before embarking on a road trip around the territory.

The four guests drove back and forth to the airport twice a day to see if their luggage was there.

"They were disappointed repeatedly,"said Rogan.

Rogan said attendants she spoke with at Air Canada were "extremely robotic and rude," and kept saying the bags were in Vancouver.

But Rogan said one employee explained that she had to follow a script to deal with customer complaints and was not allowed to deviate from it.

"She actually did feel very bad," said Rogan.

Another employee said they wished something could be done, and that the employees don't like having to deal with stray luggage all the time.

"It's a huge issue. Air Canada is not fulfilling their contractual obligations," said Rogan. "Every single person who has come to visit us this year has had this problem."

Rogan said a friend who visited her from Ontario earlier this summer had her single piece of luggage "ripped apart."

Air Canada makes it very difficult for passengers to get compensated for damaged luggage, said Rogan, since they are required to send it back to the company for an assessment.

"They're getting away with it like crazy. When people at the airport aren't allowed to talk to you about it, and when people at the call centre say quietly that they don't like it either, there's a problem."

Air Canada Jazz spokeswoman Debra Williams wrote this e-mail in response to the Star's query about the numerous problems:

"At this time of year, we are experiencing very heavy passenger loads due in part to hunters heading to the Whitehorse area.

"Flights are fully booked and of course customers who are travelling north to hunt often travel with significantly more than the normal amount of baggage - or larger pieces of luggage.

"We do make every effort to accommodate luggage and our goal is of course to have the baggage arrive on the same flight as the customer.

"When we have an excess amount of luggage, we make every effort to expedite the delayed baggage to our passengers via the next available flight - or even via courier or alternate airlines when possible," Williams continued.

"It is never acceptable to inconvenience our passengers and we do apologize to any customers who have been impacted by a delay in receiving their luggage.

"... In the case of passengers travelling north to hunt, we quite often have additional challenges of interlining (transferring bags from one carrier to another) and customs transfers (passengers are required to check in with their luggage again in Vancouver so as to clear the bags through customs and this does not always occur as it should).  

"Tight connections due to delayed flights, etc., can contribute to delay in our receiving bags when interlined.  

"The majority of delayed bags do arrive within 24 hours and we deliver them as quickly as possible to our customers.

"Again, we do offer our apologies to those passengers that have experienced delayed baggage and please be assured that we are doing all possible to ensure that the bags arrive in Whitehorse as soon as possible."