Progress on this front. Have been on the phone to QF baggage services, and they have tracked it down. Now, if there is some issue with the way the Q-tag is being read, where is the worst place they could have sent the bag in error? :shock:
Of course, instead of a simple SYD-BNE, the bag took a trip to PER! They are now going to request it to be sent back (hopefully on a direct flight (update: Thank goodness, trace indicates it is being sent on QF598, direct PER-BNE), not via SYD, as who knows where it will go next, assuming it gets out of PER
).
I will defer to the experts on the likelihood or not of a goVia toll tag (I am assuming issuer won't make one jot of difference, since they are all interoperable, they must work on the same frequencies), is likely to have been at all contributing, but I remain suspicious, as it is the only real differentiator (other than whatever happens down the track behind the luggage doors), between the two bags we sent down the same injector.
- Both bags roughly the same dimensions
- Both bags in the same approximate weight range
- Q-Tag attached in the same location (top handle of a roller bag) on both bags
- Both Q-Tags having their first ever use, after BNE not willing to give them a go, so no previous destination information to confuse things
- Sent down about 30 seconds apart
Differences (obviously) being different tags, and attached to different pax records, although on the same booking.
As far as testing goes, one of the factors that may come to play as far as any issues not showing up in the trial, is choice of location. PER has no toll roads, so the number of tags likely to go through there is very small. Nobody who has one from the east coast is going to bother taking it, as there is no need. The very few people who live in PER and have one for use exclusively on the east coast when they travel are unlikely to put it in checked luggage, as they will need it on arrival (otherwise why take it), and will keep it in hand luggage (like I did on the way to SYD). So trials in PER are highly unlikely to actually have experienced the scenario if it was not thought about and specifically tested.
Normally I wouldn't be putting such things in checked luggage, but returning home, with a sudden storm having come over SYD, and as a consequence with not a lot of time to make the baggage drop deadline, lugging extra bags due to the Xmas run, the little pocket with the zip on the outside was just right for a lumpy toll tag that I wasn't going to need for a few days.
