Posted by Helen on: 08.07.2007 /
One of our four suitcases didn’t arrive in Chicago with us on Saturday - my daughter’s. At first she felt very persecuted (for some reason hers was put on the wrong baggage claim carousel last time we returned from Europe and so it took a while to find) but after her inital frustration she bore up pretty well.
The airline still had no idea where it was Sunday evening. That was worrying because I’d assumed they’d find it somewhere, put it on a Sunday flight at the latest and we’d have it by then.
So this made me realize
- I’m very impatient (ok, so I knew that already). Part of me - actually I think it was my husband mostly - said “it’s probably just a matter of time”. And part of me agreed with him but I was still very worried about it.
- I hate feeling helpless. Ten years ago I’m sure I would have prayed about it. I think I would have felt less helpless because I could appeal to God for help, even though I understood God didn’t answer all prayers or guarantee happy endings (’in this life’). Talking to the airline was less than reassuring. They obviously had less power and knowledge than God. They simply didn’t know where it was and it didn’t feel like they were moving heaven and earth to find it although I respect that they were following their usual luggage-finding procedures, sending notification out about it. I wanted someone to care about it as much as me.
- Having a website where you can check the status of your baggage using an assigned code saves time over voice-activated phone systems, yet it’s not much help if all it responds with is “no information yet - check back later”. Did I mention I hate feeling helpless? Calling that page ‘delayed’ baggage seemed annoying euphemistic given they had no idea where it was. ‘Lost’ would have been more accurate. I would even settle for ‘temporarily lost’.
- These things interestingly force me to reframe what I want. I took it for granted that our luggage would arrive with us. When one case was lost, then all I wanted was for them to find it, somewhere, anywhere, so it wasn’t lost forever. It wasn’t the delay so much as the uncertainty whether it would ever show up. What if someone else took it by mistake and never bothered to bring it back? What if the airlines barcode label came off and so it went to some anonymous suitcase graveyard? It did have our address behind a panel though. (Yes, I know I’m a worrier)
- I know it’s not that big a deal in the overall scheme of things - if they never found it we could replace almost everything in there - compared to so many people we are so well off; yet that didn’t help me feel better about this.
So my husband was right (I hate when that happens! :-)) They found it Monday morning in Rome - I was so relieved! - and put it on Monday’s flight to Chicago. It arrived and was delivered to us late last night. I do appreciate how airlines deliver lost luggage to the door. And I was glad they didn’t wake me up for a signature, but put it on the back porch like I asked in a note I stuck on the door.
Since this worked out, will I be less worried next time? Probably not. Or maybe yes if I get more sleep after we get back. (But how can you sleep well when some of your luggage is lost and bedtime in Chicago is pretty much when you were getting up in Italy?) Or maybe someday I will learn to worry less.
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4 Responses to "Observations about lost luggage"
Comment by: Eliza
1 08/7/07 4:51 PM | Comment Link |I’m glad to hear it ended well, with the bag safely delivered to your back door! (I didn’t know that airlines still delivered bags to your home - in my limited experience they expect you to come back to the airport later to pick up your bag, but maybe that’s just because I’m taking the cheapest domestic flights!)
Lol!
Someday we’ll have transponders in our luggage (& probably implanted in ourselves) & then we’ll be able to go on the internet and watch the little green dot that is our lost luggage make its way across the Atlantic towards JFK, which will be cool…or, watch it sit in the Rome airport, not moving, which will be frustrating! ;-)
‘Temporarily relocated in space-time’?
I guess one moral is, try not to put anything in your checked luggage that you can’t live without. And make sure that the liquids & gels that you can’t live without are in containers of 3 oz or smaller!
Comment by: Helen
2 08/7/07 6:17 PM | Comment Link |Yes, this definitely made me think I shouldn’t put things in my luggage which I can’t live without. I was rather cavalier about putting my laptop charger in it this time…ahem…
Or did you mean, really can’t live without, like medication?
I would like the transponder thing; I felt much happier once they’d found it somewhere. Because once your luggage is lost you can’t help wondering if someone took it by mistake. Especially if what’s missing is a small black case which looks a lot like several other small black cases on the same baggage claim carousel. Washington D.C. is the only airport I ever remember actually checking that you’re leaving with your own luggage.
Comment by: Eliza
3 08/8/07 12:55 PM | Comment Link |Things which would be difficult or really annoying to have to replace. Like a laptop charger, for sure!
The problem is, noone wants to lose anything out of their luggage, so some people try to bring it all on board (you’ve seen them, the people who stretch “one carry on and one personal item” to mean “an entire set of luggage” (none of which they want to put under the seat in front of them) ;-)
They used to check at more airports, I think, but it’s really not the airport’s problem if someone walks off with the wrong bag. They’ve got bigger things to worry about, especially now.
This weekend, early one morning at baggage claim at SeaTac, I saw a woman surrounded by ~6 suitcases of different colors, looking at a baggage carousel on which bags were just starting to appear & no crowd had yet formed. I did wonder whether she was taking random suitcases off of baggage carousels, to rifle through them for valuables. (Either that, or it was all legit & her 5 travel companions had simply gone off to the bathroom & left her to watch their things…which is certainly very possible)
Comment by: Helen
4 08/10/07 5:13 AM | Comment Link |Eliza, maybe that woman was looking for no 7 which hadn’t come off with the rest!
I know what you mean about airports having bigger things to worry about - although I do think the airline should consider themselves responsible for taking reasonable measures to get the baggage to the right person. It IS their fault, I think, if it’s too easy to walk off with the wrong bag. I mean, what if the post office said “here’s all the mail for your village, in a big box - come get your own!” And then “Hey, don’t blame us if someone else walks off with yours” Or what if they delivered the mail to the wrong house (which does happen sometimes where I live and it always makes me hope other people put the same effort I do into getting wrongly delivered non-junk mail to the right house - if it’s down the street - or back to the mail carrier for redistribution if not)
My husband pointed out, who would WANT to risk taking someone else’s suitcase through customs? Which is a good point but it doesn’t stop people taking someone else’s case by accident. Still, having the wrong case is as bad as having your own lost - because either way you wouldn’t have your own possessions - so I expect most people are fairly careful to check they have the right one.