A traveller’s account of six days of baggage tribulations has prompted another to speak of similar issues with the airline.

“When you see how frustrated other people are, you want to voice your support,” said Merle Doars, after a difficult experience with US Airways.

The company merged with American Airlines in 2013, and US Airways will cease as a brand later this year.

Ms Doars contacted The Royal Gazette after reading an account from local traveller Roma Burcher, who described days of repeatedly lost luggage.

For Ms Doars, who flew to Washington, DC on July 30, the situation was compounded by the fact that she was accompanying a 14-year-old back to her home in St Catharines, Canada.

“They told us our flights were cancelled — there were so many people that by the time I got to the desk, they were out of vouchers for hotels. They couldn’t fly me anywhere. Basically, I was told there was nothing they could do.

“Originally I had been going to let the young lady fly by herself, but I wasn’t comfortable doing so. I’m so glad that I didn’t.”

Beleaguered staff at the airline desk were clearly frustrated and unable to help, Ms Doars said, so she decided to “go on faith” and find a different way to reach Canada.

No stranger to cancelled flights, Ms Doars found a different story when it came to her luggage: sent to a different part of the airport to collect it, she was told it had been sent on to her final destination.

With the next possible flight days away, the two went to Union Station. Unable to catch a train, they resorted to taking the bus, setting out at 4am on Friday, July 31.

Two days later, in Canada, her luggage had not arrived. Ms Doars said she was told that it had been sent to LaGuardia in New York. “Another said it was still in DC,” she recalled. She had to buy new clothes as she was travelling back home on the Sunday.

“Her young charge’s baggage had made it to Toronto.

Instead of the luggage being sent on to Bermuda, Ms Doars said that she got home to a message saying her bags were in Toronto. She was reunited with her baggage on August 5.

The American Airlines office in Bermuda, which was contacted by The Royal Gazette, is unable to field complaints.

Ms Doars said she had written twice to the airline’s customer service office in Phoenix, Arizona. Both letters have been returned.

“I’ve got all my tickets — I’m going to see if my family can write from the US and have better luck,” she said.

“I had to pay $400 for tickets. I would just like for somebody to acknowledge the fact that it was not our fault; it was theirs.”