A US rap star who bombarded Qantas with tweets claiming the company had lost his bags appears to have targeted the wrong airline.
Florida rapper Denzel Curry, who co-headlined the Sydney festival Field Day on New Year’s Day, sent multiple tweets this week urging Qantas to find his lost bags.
But a Qantas spokesperson said Curry had actually flown with Jetstar.
Jetstar, a budget subsidiary of Qantas, confirmed it lost the star’s bags, and even tweeted in reply to an all-caps post from Curry urging “EVERYONE TWEET AT @QANTAS AND TELL THEM TO FIND MY BAG ASAP”.
“Hi Denzel, as this involved one of our flights last night, we wanted to let you know we’re urgently looking into this,” a Jetstar staffer who identified herself as Katie wrote in reply from the airline’s official account.
“Once your bag is located it will be delivered to you. We’re really sorry for what’s happened, please DM us if you need further help.”
Before the confusion had been cleared, Curry had written several other tweets aimed at Qantas, including one saying “Find My Bags @Qantas Find My Bags!”
The tweets even led Guardian Australia to publish the headline “Qantas loses Denzel Curry’s luggage on rapper’s Australian tour”, above a story that made clear it was actually Jetstar that had misplaced the bags.
Jetstar told Crikey late on Tuesday it had located Curry’s bag and that it would be delivered to Thailand as soon as possible.
Jetstar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas. That makes it Qantas in my books.
Yeah-but-no-but….
However artificial a construct, it does have separate management, aircraft and staff (with a few entities in the conglomeration). Someone using their fame to leverage a spray against poor service delivery has some higher obligation to be on target (ditto media). I can imaging Qantas staff have enough to cop from the flaws in their own workplace to feel justifiably miffed if they are also getting it from an allied operator.
Baggage handlers formerly employed by either would be justifiably bitter.
Absolutely
Same owners, therefore same airline.
Just put a luggage tracker in the bag.. almost a requirement in 2023.
Qantas has made itself into a case study of how to divide and weaken your staff by creating lots of small entities that are then essentially contractors to Qantas. It is used to downgrade workers rights and therefore costs. It is also pushing it towards its first fatal accident in decades. No sympathy from me.