Well it’s been a fantastic ride, but it had to end sometime.

The nice baggage man at Bali emailed our owners (a.k.a mummy and daddy) to check they had finally received us norty little cases, tee hee cos no they ain’t.

But here we are sat back in Changi Airport Singapore just waiting to be claimed, so all mummy and daddy have to do now is buy a £1300 plane ticket each to come to Singapore and collect us, failing that it’s the great British Royal Snail Mail via moped, dinghy and choo choo all the way home (see you in 2027 then).

It is true, after Emirare “not losing” our luggage in Dubai, not cancelling the connecting flight to Singapore and not “not” marking the bags as lost for 4 days originally, 19 days later they are actually in the connecting location of Singapore. Great to see the well oiled Emirates machine with no idea where they are (yup the app still claims that they are “busy” looking for our luggage).

It’s 19 days since we last saw our cases. Just saying…..

In other words: it’s either been

• 1,641,600 seconds 
• 27,360 minutes 
• 456 hours
• 2 weeks and 5 days
• 5.19% of 2024

We hope they are having a nice holiday

And let the fun begin on trying to recoup out of pocket expensive on our trip following the Emirates mess.

First step was calling our tour operator Kuoni. In fairness their on call duty lady (lovely Amy who I could have hugged when I first spoke to her in the 7 hour queue in Dubai) sorted our hotel in Dubai calmly and was really helpful. However the call when we returned – while also caring and kind pretty much went along the lines of:

Me: hi yes we have had a very expensive holiday ruined as a result of flights cancelled and being stranded in Dubai for 4 nights

Kuoni: ah yes that’s truly awful, and lost luggage, oh you poor things

Me: so we need to start recouping lost bookings for cancelled hotel rooms (you know that very expensive 5 star one in Singapore) and cancelled flights. Can you help

Kuoni: oh not really. Force Majeure.

Me: Erm, we get that if the flood happened while we were en route. BUT it happened before we even left Manchester. We even checked online – all flights were showing on time, Dubai was publically saying open for business. Surely Kuoni and Emirates knew we were about to walk into chaos.

Kuoni: well it is a once in 75 year event. Force Majeure. We can’t really help so call Emirates and that’s why you have travel insurance

Me: oh thank you so much for that. (smiles sweetly while grinding teeth)

In fairness they are refunding some bits like taxis, did sort a hotel when Emirates could not be bothered and they have offered to help chase Emirates on our luggage. But seriously….

Good job I’m married to an expert letter writer and complainer. Oh Mr Fogg………. ….

It started great this morning – perfect breakfast at the hotel, lovely gym workout followed by a dip in the pool and then a wonderful lunch with the friendly Viceroy staff getting us all checked out and ready to depart.

A decent car drive back – it’s a long way with lots of traffic but we made it.

And then there’s the Emirates check in desk……

We handed over passports and our luggage vouchers with the lost luggage report as these need to be transferred to get another flight. Then the fun began:

Ah Mr Fogg, your luggage is here in the arrivals hall!

Eh? We’ve been waiting to be told it’s here for a week!

Did you not get our Emirates emails sir?

Er NO!

Ah well, we just need to take you downstairs to arrivals to collect the cases, confirm they are yours and then take them through customs so you can come back here to check them in

Needless to say we were quite excited! Albeit a little annoyed that we’ve been waiting for them all holiday.

So off we trek, following Mrs Emirates junior through the back doors of the airport down to arrivals and to the lost luggage desk where we started when we arrived. After queuing for a time (plenty of people still also reporting lost luggage then), the arrivals lost luggage lady at the counter said – oh it’s not here, it’s still in Dubai we think. But I guess you can walk to the top of arrivals and check our room full of bags.

Another trek only to confirm no cases. Cue long winded explanation from lost luggage lady saying they don’t know where the cases are. no one can explain why they sent us down to arrivals though.

So that’s another 40 mins wasted.

Only to then be told Mrs Emirates junior cannot take us back through and up to departures – no, we’ve got to take ourselves through arrivals customs declaration (but we’ve been here for a week), bag security checks for arriving passengers (deep breaths…) and then into the arrivals hall to be bombarded by taxi drivers offering us a lift to start our lovely holiday in Bali. But we’ve NOT JUST ARRIVED!!!!!

It’s at this point that divorce becomes entirely possible as tempers fray a bit.

So, back through arrivals, up to departures to see the Emirates check in desk to go through the whole rigmarole again.

No they could not explain why they thought the cases were here, no they don’t know where they are. Then the corker…..

Go see lost luggage when you arrive at Manchester as they need to file a report.

Aaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhh

And breathe……..

We like good food and the Viceroy has a Michelin restaurant called Aperitif, where there apparently is a dress code of posh and no trainers/ flip flops (good job all our good clobber is in another country then).

Wearing the best of what we had available off we popped to the poshest of posh on Bali. The restaurant is 1920s themed inside with an open kitchen so you can see it all happening.

The service is second to none (especially when dignatories rack up here in their Ferrari or Porsche). Waiters to seat you, waiters to place napkins on your lap, a cart that comes round to make a cocktail in front of you. This is quite something.

We got a freebie to try a 7 course tasting menu, the only thing you pay for is the wine, so “wine not” push out the boat and have a 7 course wine flight to accompany the food (it’s only 1,000,000 Rp each).

The food and service were spectacular and as ever Mrs Fogg looked a million (Rp) in her thrift shop dress.