Picking your fly rods up from the oversize luggage counter is always a bit of a heart in the mouth operation: mainly because you worry your rods have been left behind or sent to Los Angeles or Heathrow, never to be seen again.
But they were there alright, in the oversize luggage section at Brisbane International Airport after my last trip to New Zealand, where I’d been filing election comments in between chasing Lake Taupo rainbows up the Tongariro, on their annual spawning run.
After what had happened to the rod case however, the rods could have almost made it into the undersized luggage section.
The rod case – which had survived LAX, Heathrow, Changi – even Sydney – was split and flattened out in a number of sections. My heart sank.
Perhaps the rods were still ok, I thought, as I gingerly pulled them out from the case and then their cloth bags. But no, they’d been run over by something so heavy that every section of both rods had been broken or split, even the thickest parts of the rods close to the cork handles had been flattened.
And these were tough rods. They were my custom made 12 foot six inch Harrison two handed eight weight and my favourite two piece Loomis eight weight. The Harrison was a new experimental rod for the Tongariro steelhead (a great success by the way) but the Loomis had landed double digit dolphin fish off Stradbroke Island, steelhead in Scotland, sockeye salmon in British Columbia and cranky eight pound browns from the South Island of New Zealand. It had history and many great memories. Now they were all gone. Bugger.
I did what all tough Aussie blokes do in this situation – I had a little cry.
Fortunately my Pommie missus was made of sterner stuff. Off we went to the Air New Zealand luggage inquiry counter with the smashed case; as soon as we’d cleared customs (custom checks were pretty quick as the customs blokes couldn’t stand the sight of a grown man blubbing).
The Air New Zealand staffer referred us over to Qantas baggage inquiries as the two airlines have a reciprocal agreement, apparently, to share the paperwork in their respective countries for this sort of thing. We were tired, but decided to push on and get it done.
There we took out the rods and case, which were again sighted by the Qantas staffer who gave me a report file number and told me to get in touch by email with the Centralised Baggage Department for Air New Zealand and I did this the next day.
The day after, Air New Zealand were back on to me, seeking proof of damage, in the form of a photograph, purchase receipts (which were not possible for the older rod) and copies of repair quotes, ID and ticket. I did all this by email as best I could within about five days, by checking the price of the Harrison Rod with Scottie at Creel Tackle and looking on the web for the current advertised price for an equivalent Loomis.
To cut a long story short here, the response from Air New Zealand was excellent. They were back to me within five days. They assessed the damage at AUD$2,355 and offered their maximum allowed compensation of AUD$1916. The balance was recoverable under our private travel insurance, but by this time, I was so traumatised at the idea of dealing with it all over again, I let it slide.
No one can replace the memories which were rekindled every time I pulled my Loomis (I long ago named the Loomis “Boomer”) out of its case; and the Harrison steelhead special (nicknamed “Lofty”) was a stunner on the Tongariro. But I’m taking it one day at a time, as they say, and chasing up replacements on the web, as best I can, given the pretty ordinary set up with fly rod dealers in Brisbane if you’re chasing anything other than a mainstream rod.
My tips for the traumatised traveler?
- Complain straight away.
- Get a report number and the name of the person receiving the complaint. Write it down.
- Get them to personally sight the damage.
- Be polite. What happened is not the fault of the person behind the counter after you’ve arrived. But sobbing a little can help both of you to speed things up.
- Keep all your travel documents, including ticket and itinerary details.
- Act promptly with your claim. You won’t feel like it, but it’s best to get it done.
- When you do buy a new rod, post up the receipt on the office wall, next to the trophy pictures and mementos. Unless your spouse gets funny with the cost of your hobbies, in which case you hide it in your special place in the cellar, with the good bottles of red and the Cohiba esplendidos.
And when you do buy a replacement rod, try to buy one with enough sections to fit inside your main travel bag. Buy a longer bag from a camping store if you have to. That way you can avoid any unnecessary trips to the oversized baggage counter. If you can’t, pack a hanky, just in case.
PICTURE: The picture above shows the damaged rods, rod case and baggage ticket. Picture by Jeanine McMullan.