'It has to be somewhere': Dream holiday turned nightmare over lost luggage

A Queensland couple is still waiting for one of their bags to be returned to them by Virgin Airlines 22 days after embarking on a holiday of a lifetime to New Zealand.

Mark Coles and Simone Bailey travelled to Queenstown from Cairns via Brisbane last year on December 21 for a well-overdue trip for the pair.

"We'd actually been planning it for two-and-a-half years because we had booked prior to Covid," Coles said.

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While the platinum and gold level frequent flyers arrived safely, days before Christmas, it was another matter for their luggage.

"We arrived in Queenstown and none of our luggage arrived," Bailey said.

Coles and Bailey had checked in two large suitcases and two smaller ones for their nine-day trip, but there was no sign of any of them at the carousel that day.

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"Everything's barcoded, tagged, scanned and they've just lost it," Coles said.

Coles thought he could hold out for his bag to arrive and endeavoured to enjoy the trip as planned.

"We went out the first night and sat in this lovely restaurant. I was in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts," Coles said.

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"I think people looked at me as if I'm some sort of idiot, the way I was dressed."

The Cairns local, who is used to temperatures upward of 30C at this time of year, had soon given in to the cool Queenstown evening.

"We ended up on the first night of the holiday in K-Mart shopping because I needed a hoodie," Coles said.

Virgin told Coles and Bailey to check in every day to see if their luggage had arrived.

"Two of our bags did arrive two days later and then my suitcase arrived three days later, but unfortunately Coles' didn't turn up at all," Bailey said.

Without any of the clothes in his suitcase, Coles was forced to wear the same outfit every day as the couple toured around the South Island of New Zealand.

"It was a great holiday and we got great snaps. We've probably got 1500 photos of me wearing the same hoodie, the same two shirts and the same pair of shorts," Coles said.

Coles and Bailey boarded their flight back to Brisbane nine days later but Virgin were still unable to find Coles' bag.

"We checked in the Brisbane airport on the 29th which is when we went to their luggage service desk and the lady there told us that all the bags were rushed to Queenstown and arrived on the 22nd," Coles said.

With the whereabouts of his belongings a mystery, Virgin wants Coles to file a claim for compensation, something Coles isn't willing to do just yet.

"All I really want is my bag back. It's not about the money," Coles said.

"We'll be reimbursed for what we've spent, but ultimately I want the bag back, it contains Simone's Christmas present."

Coles said Virgin's communication throughout had been below par.

"We made 27 phone calls to Virgin, they made one phone call to update us," Coles said.

Consumer expert, Professor Gary Mortimer said that mistakes happen, but it's how businesses deal with them that's the real test.

"I think in these types of situations where the situation has gone on for a long period of time, they should have direct access to a senior person within the team that they can talk to on a regular basis," Mortimer said.

With Coles' luggage cleared from being in Cairns, Brisbane or Queenstown airport, the message from Bailey is simple.

"Find his bag. It has to be somewhere, it can't have just disappeared," Bailey said.

Statement by a Virgin Australia spokesperson:

Any delayed or lost luggage is unacceptable and we sincerely apologise to our guests for their experience. We are working to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.