Dear Bill....the story of my RED ROLLER BAG
Dear Bill....the story of my
RED ROLLER BAG
it got here around 8 pm. 8 hrs after I did.
I have had bags shipped to other airports yet it made it eventually to where I was going.
Going to South Africa in 2011 I chose to use up a lot of USAir FF points to save the cost of the flight that year.
Unfortunately when you use FF tickets you take whatever they give you as your itinerary.
Atlanta to Charlotte to NYC (change airports) to Johannesburg.
Prior to boarding the gate person announced they were looking for people willing to bump and receive a free ticket.
As long as I got to NYC in time for my flight to Joberg it didn't matter to me where I was. I knew I would lose the cost of my reserved cheap hotel room in NYC ($200) but figured I would make that up with the FREE airplane ticket.
Then while she was typing I asked:
"Could you possibly get me on the Delta flight going directly to Joberb that is leaving in about an hour?"
I played a long shot.
after much typing...."YES, I Can."
What about my checked bag?
"We'll transfer it?"
I have learned never to trust a gate agent or airplane steward/stewardess when they say that. They have no control over what the baggage handlers do once they are checked in at the check-in counter back at the main terminal.
I arrived in Joberg 12 hours ahead. Met with my fellow traveler who I was about to travel with our mutual South African traveling friend to go to Swaziland and Mozembique.
Alas no bag.
The SAA bag search person located it in NYC sitting at the baggage (what the hell to do with these bags) office.
The SAA bag search person promised that the bag would arrive the next day and would be delivered to wherever I wanted it sent.
I did not want them to try to find me in Swaziland or Mozambique during the next 5 days so I gave them the physical address of the B&B I would be staying in once I arrived in Pretoria, 5 days later.
The bag was waiting for me.
I have many other similar stories of when the transfer of bag timing was too tight.
All the employees of the USAIR office in Athens and most of the taxi drivers use to know where my house was located in order to deliver my bag(s) the next morning when they arrived. Connection timing returning home was also too tight, mostly my choice to save time coming home.
This time it was a clerical error that was missed not bad or short timing.
Still have not LOST A BAG or had a BAG NOT SHOW UP.
Only two boxes that I shipped early in September in 2011 from Copenhagen that I put my mailing address in both TO & FROM locations on the boxes.
Then 9/11 happened.
One of the boxes eventually arrived EMPTY.
There has never been any evidence of the 2nd bag.
Mementoes, books, dirty clothes, pamphlets, stuff I didn't want to carry during the last week of my 1st trip completely around the world were all lost, discarded, chucked by a frantic temporary agent perhaps in NYC after the horrors of 9/11.
Now I N E V E R pack anything in a CHECKED IN bag that I really can not easily do without. What really matters goes on the plane with me.
Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com
RED ROLLER BAG
it got here around 8 pm. 8 hrs after I did.
I have had bags shipped to other airports yet it made it eventually to where I was going.
Going to South Africa in 2011 I chose to use up a lot of USAir FF points to save the cost of the flight that year.
Unfortunately when you use FF tickets you take whatever they give you as your itinerary.
Atlanta to Charlotte to NYC (change airports) to Johannesburg.
Prior to boarding the gate person announced they were looking for people willing to bump and receive a free ticket.
As long as I got to NYC in time for my flight to Joberg it didn't matter to me where I was. I knew I would lose the cost of my reserved cheap hotel room in NYC ($200) but figured I would make that up with the FREE airplane ticket.
Then while she was typing I asked:
"Could you possibly get me on the Delta flight going directly to Joberb that is leaving in about an hour?"
I played a long shot.
after much typing...."YES, I Can."
What about my checked bag?
"We'll transfer it?"
I have learned never to trust a gate agent or airplane steward/stewardess when they say that. They have no control over what the baggage handlers do once they are checked in at the check-in counter back at the main terminal.
I arrived in Joberg 12 hours ahead. Met with my fellow traveler who I was about to travel with our mutual South African traveling friend to go to Swaziland and Mozembique.
Alas no bag.
The SAA bag search person located it in NYC sitting at the baggage (what the hell to do with these bags) office.
The SAA bag search person promised that the bag would arrive the next day and would be delivered to wherever I wanted it sent.
I did not want them to try to find me in Swaziland or Mozambique during the next 5 days so I gave them the physical address of the B&B I would be staying in once I arrived in Pretoria, 5 days later.
The bag was waiting for me.
I have many other similar stories of when the transfer of bag timing was too tight.
All the employees of the USAIR office in Athens and most of the taxi drivers use to know where my house was located in order to deliver my bag(s) the next morning when they arrived. Connection timing returning home was also too tight, mostly my choice to save time coming home.
This time it was a clerical error that was missed not bad or short timing.
Still have not LOST A BAG or had a BAG NOT SHOW UP.
Only two boxes that I shipped early in September in 2011 from Copenhagen that I put my mailing address in both TO & FROM locations on the boxes.
Then 9/11 happened.
One of the boxes eventually arrived EMPTY.
There has never been any evidence of the 2nd bag.
Mementoes, books, dirty clothes, pamphlets, stuff I didn't want to carry during the last week of my 1st trip completely around the world were all lost, discarded, chucked by a frantic temporary agent perhaps in NYC after the horrors of 9/11.
Now I N E V E R pack anything in a CHECKED IN bag that I really can not easily do without. What really matters goes on the plane with me.
Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com
Comments
Post a Comment