Happy ending to an unexpectedly traumatic event
Last week I arrived home from my latest round the world trip. My suitcase didn't. The final day wasn't ideal - I couldn't get the exact flights I wanted, so I had a very long layover in Los Angeles. The flight from Washington DC to Los Angeles was quite civilised, leaving at midday. Following a leisurely breakfast at the hotel I took the hotel's shuttle out to Dulles Airport, checked in, waited for my suitcase to be checked by the TSA (they x-ray it and ask you to open it if it is locked - as it happened they wanted to check mine), waltzed through the priority security line and made my way to the Admirals Club to await departure. Being Sunday morning the club was almost empty, and I had a long chat with one of the club staff who was previously a Qantas representative at Dulles (Qantas no longer have their own reps there).
Due to the time difference it was around 2:30 pm when I arrived in LA, so still over 10 hours before my night flight to Sydney. At least with a long connection there would be plenty of time for the luggage to make the transfer, right?
The first problem arose when weather in New York meant that the aircraft which was to take me to Sydney was delayed (the route it flies is NY - LA - Sydney). Delayed, as it turns out, by almost three hours. This meant I would miss my connection to Canberra, but with frequent Sydney-Canberra flights it wasn't really a problem. I was able to change my seat on the LA-Sydney leg to 16A, which is an upper-deck exit row window and generally regarded as the best Business Class seat. The flight, QF 108 is so often delayed that frequent flyers refer to it as QF 10Late).
Eventually we left and it was a pleasant, uneventful flight, with great views over Sydney Harbour and the CBD on arrival. A whiteboard was placed at the entrance to the terminal showing new flights for those who had missed connections. It was around 9:30 am and I had been rebooked on the 11:25 am flight to Canberra. Nice, easy connection with time to pick up some duty free.
Made my way through immigration to the baggage carousel. Surprisingly some bags from the flight were already there. Not mine. Slowly over the next hour or so more bags appeared, but eventually I had to accept that mine would not be joining me in Sydney. It was now approaching the time where I would not make my connection unless I left pretty much immediately, so the Qantas rep suggested leaving and reporting the missing bag on arrival in Canberra. Lined up (a long line) for customs and quarantine inspections and x-rays. Had to explain that no, I wasn't travelling light, and while I had ticked the "I have food" bit on the form, most of it was in my suitcase.
Raced over to the domestic connections bit of the terminal. Check-in agent said that while I would make it to the flight, I had missed the bag cut-off. I explained why that wasn't a problem and off I went. Fortunately a bus was just about to leave for the domestic terminal, so I arrived there with five minutes to spare before scheduled boarding time. Quickly entered the Qantas Club for a few glasses of water (thirst from too much racing around!), then down to the gate and on to the Canberra flight. Another uneventful flight and I dutifully reported my lost bag to Qantas.
With lost luggage there are two important deadlines. A vast majority of missing bags are returned within 24 hours. This takes care of bags which have missed tight connections and bags which have had to be off-loaded due to weight restrictions (this can happen on full LA-Sydney flights because the 747-400s don't have the range to make the westbound flight fully laden). The second deadline is three days, which gives time for bags which have been accidentally sent to the wrong destination to be rerouted to the right one, no matter where in the world they ended up. If you haven't got the bag back in three days you need to start coming to terms with the possibility that it is permanently lost.
Well, I sweated out the first day, the second day and the third. No bag. It's a frequent flyer commandment that valuable items will not be placed in checked luggage. It's also common sense, so there was nothing in my bag which would attract thieves (unless they were desperate for chocolate). What I had never paused to consider though is how incredibly important to me the non-valuable contents of my bag were. As time went on I remembered more and more things that were in the suitcase which would be incredibly distressing to lose. Clothes, presents, momentos (especially momentos of my First Class upgrade on BA). I was really becoming severely stressed at the thought of their loss. Believe me, I would happily have traded my upgrade to First Class for my bag while it was lost.
Saturday (day four) came and went and on Sunday morning (day five) we were shopping in Civic, having dropped the girls off at a birthday party. My mobile rang, "number withheld". Probably telemarketers. No, Qantas baggage services, "We have a bag here for you". "You're kidding?" I said, happy that my brain's profanity filter was working so well. They offered to send it out to me, but as we weren't planning on being home except for brief periods that day, I said I would pick it up when I had the chance. Eventually during the afternoon I went out to the airport and retrieved the bag. The lock was still on it, and there was no more damage than I expected from such a journey. Later inspection and unpacking revealed that everything seems to have survived intact. As I brought more and more things out, I realised even more how unfortunate it would have been to lose these "non-valuable" things.
In the end it was a great result, but one which should never have occurred in the first place. As a "loyal AA customer" I am chasing compensation, and I will report back if anything positive results.
I don't know what I can learn from this experience. There is only so much you can carry on to an aircraft, so I guess I will just have to keep trusting the airlines to get my bag to my destination, even if it takes them some time. I would love to know what happened to the bag in those five days, but I never will. In the mean time American Airlines have my e-mail, and I will wait to see what compensation they offer. I suspect it will be a bunch of frequent flyer miles, which would be nice, but we shall see.
Due to the time difference it was around 2:30 pm when I arrived in LA, so still over 10 hours before my night flight to Sydney. At least with a long connection there would be plenty of time for the luggage to make the transfer, right?
The first problem arose when weather in New York meant that the aircraft which was to take me to Sydney was delayed (the route it flies is NY - LA - Sydney). Delayed, as it turns out, by almost three hours. This meant I would miss my connection to Canberra, but with frequent Sydney-Canberra flights it wasn't really a problem. I was able to change my seat on the LA-Sydney leg to 16A, which is an upper-deck exit row window and generally regarded as the best Business Class seat. The flight, QF 108 is so often delayed that frequent flyers refer to it as QF 10Late).
Eventually we left and it was a pleasant, uneventful flight, with great views over Sydney Harbour and the CBD on arrival. A whiteboard was placed at the entrance to the terminal showing new flights for those who had missed connections. It was around 9:30 am and I had been rebooked on the 11:25 am flight to Canberra. Nice, easy connection with time to pick up some duty free.
Made my way through immigration to the baggage carousel. Surprisingly some bags from the flight were already there. Not mine. Slowly over the next hour or so more bags appeared, but eventually I had to accept that mine would not be joining me in Sydney. It was now approaching the time where I would not make my connection unless I left pretty much immediately, so the Qantas rep suggested leaving and reporting the missing bag on arrival in Canberra. Lined up (a long line) for customs and quarantine inspections and x-rays. Had to explain that no, I wasn't travelling light, and while I had ticked the "I have food" bit on the form, most of it was in my suitcase.
Raced over to the domestic connections bit of the terminal. Check-in agent said that while I would make it to the flight, I had missed the bag cut-off. I explained why that wasn't a problem and off I went. Fortunately a bus was just about to leave for the domestic terminal, so I arrived there with five minutes to spare before scheduled boarding time. Quickly entered the Qantas Club for a few glasses of water (thirst from too much racing around!), then down to the gate and on to the Canberra flight. Another uneventful flight and I dutifully reported my lost bag to Qantas.
With lost luggage there are two important deadlines. A vast majority of missing bags are returned within 24 hours. This takes care of bags which have missed tight connections and bags which have had to be off-loaded due to weight restrictions (this can happen on full LA-Sydney flights because the 747-400s don't have the range to make the westbound flight fully laden). The second deadline is three days, which gives time for bags which have been accidentally sent to the wrong destination to be rerouted to the right one, no matter where in the world they ended up. If you haven't got the bag back in three days you need to start coming to terms with the possibility that it is permanently lost.
Well, I sweated out the first day, the second day and the third. No bag. It's a frequent flyer commandment that valuable items will not be placed in checked luggage. It's also common sense, so there was nothing in my bag which would attract thieves (unless they were desperate for chocolate). What I had never paused to consider though is how incredibly important to me the non-valuable contents of my bag were. As time went on I remembered more and more things that were in the suitcase which would be incredibly distressing to lose. Clothes, presents, momentos (especially momentos of my First Class upgrade on BA). I was really becoming severely stressed at the thought of their loss. Believe me, I would happily have traded my upgrade to First Class for my bag while it was lost.
Saturday (day four) came and went and on Sunday morning (day five) we were shopping in Civic, having dropped the girls off at a birthday party. My mobile rang, "number withheld". Probably telemarketers. No, Qantas baggage services, "We have a bag here for you". "You're kidding?" I said, happy that my brain's profanity filter was working so well. They offered to send it out to me, but as we weren't planning on being home except for brief periods that day, I said I would pick it up when I had the chance. Eventually during the afternoon I went out to the airport and retrieved the bag. The lock was still on it, and there was no more damage than I expected from such a journey. Later inspection and unpacking revealed that everything seems to have survived intact. As I brought more and more things out, I realised even more how unfortunate it would have been to lose these "non-valuable" things.
In the end it was a great result, but one which should never have occurred in the first place. As a "loyal AA customer" I am chasing compensation, and I will report back if anything positive results.
I don't know what I can learn from this experience. There is only so much you can carry on to an aircraft, so I guess I will just have to keep trusting the airlines to get my bag to my destination, even if it takes them some time. I would love to know what happened to the bag in those five days, but I never will. In the mean time American Airlines have my e-mail, and I will wait to see what compensation they offer. I suspect it will be a bunch of frequent flyer miles, which would be nice, but we shall see.
posted by Alan at 10:50 PM
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