Luggage? What luggage?
If you are one of thousands that wanted to be liberated from the lockdown and decided to fly away… Don’t check your bag. Seriously — there’s a high chance you will lose it. Airlines and airports around the world are losing record numbers of bags. In some places, one out of every 10 bags goes missing. It’s bad enough to be stuck in a foreign country without your bag. But sometimes you had something valuable or precious in your bag that’s now potentially gone forever. Deborah Sergeant was traveling from Mexico City to Lima, Peru, in February. But when she arrived, she learned that Copa Airlines had lost her bag. “I waited three hours at the baggage carousel until the early hours of the morning for a member of airline staff to finally arrive and tell me that there was not even a record of my bag on the system,” said Sergeant. Sergeant said she was traveling practically with her “whole life.” Thanks to the lost clothes and other items, she’s now down $1,500 that the airline refuses to compensate her for. YouTuber Connor Colquhoun took an even bigger financial hit. On a flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles in June, he lost two suitcases containing $50,000 worth of filming gear. “Once we landed, they wouldn’t tell us anything. We have tried to contact the airline multiple times nearly every single day and we haven’t heard anything. It’s impossible to talk to a real human being,” he said.
Why are they losing all these bags? The airlines are, of course, pointing their fingers at the airports. Naturally, the airports are firing back at the airlines.. In reality, airlines and airports probably share the blame. Both cut tens of thousands of people early on during the pandemic as people became unable to travel. Now that people are starting to travel again, neither airlines nor airports have been willing to hire the same number of workers. After all, you have to pay them and that would cut into the profits that are finally coming in again. It’s no wonder the bags are getting lost, though. At Heathrow, with way too few people to handle bags, the airport has started simply dumping arrived bags in the corridors and claim areas. Good luck finding your own suitcase in a room filled with possibly hundreds of others. Some airlines have gotten creative in reuniting travelers with their bags. American Delta Airlines recently flew a plane loaded with nothing but 1,000 lost bags from the UK to Detroit. So, what do travel experts suggest in this situation? “I sincerely advise all travelers to avoid checking baggage if possible.” Not all hope is lost though. People are turning towards one innovative tech solution — trackers. Adding a tracker to your bag might just make the difference in knowing whether your luggage is at your destination and can help you retrieve your bag that much faster.
Where, Oh where can my suitcase be?
Soon after my son finished pilot training for the airline he flew home to celebrate. When he got there, we all hugged and congratulated him and I said let’s got all go out to dinner tonight. He declined the invitation saying he would fell conspicuous in his airline captain uniform. We suggested that he just change clothes. He said, “I can’t, the airline lost my luggage.”
“Why is the mistletoe hanging over the baggage portion of the airline ticket counter?” asked the airline passenger as she checked in amid the holiday rush. The clerk replied, “So you can kiss your luggage goodbye.”
In a recent survey, 87% of respondents said that United Airlines now treats the luggage better than their passengers.
I was at the airport today and saw a man collapse on the luggage carousel.
He slowly came around.
July 26th Birthdays
1964 – Sandra Bullock, 1956 – Dorothy Hamill, 1906 – Gracie Allen, 1946 – Helen Mirren
1959 – Kevin Spacey, 1962 – Chris Harrison, 1968 – Jason Stratham, 1894 – Aldous Huxley