Baggage
I flew out to Niagara Falls on Thursday night. The cab dropped me off at Logan and I checked my suitcase curbside. I walked up to an US Airways express checkin kiosk, swiped my credit card for identification, touched the screen a few times, and it printed me a boarding pass. I showed my ID and boarding pass to security and I was at the gate. Because the airport was empty and I didn’t have to wait in any lines, it took me about 15 minutes to get from the cab to the gate. There was plenty of time for me to have a beer and a bowl of chowder at the Legal Seafood near the gate while I waited for my plane to begin boarding.
Once we were in the air, I thought to myself “this is how air travel should be”. Curbside checkin and electronic ticket kiosks have made eliminated much of the hassles of airline travel (e.g. waiting in long lines, redundancy, etc.). I relaxed on the flight and thought about how they are finally making progress.
Then they lost my luggage.
I got off the plane, went to the baggage claim, and watched the conveyor belt go round-and-round until it was empty. They had no idea where my suitcase was. Apparently, they don’t actually ever scan the barcodes they put on every bag. The following day, they managed to locate it and deliver it to my hotel. With all the improvements they’ve made, how can they still screw up something so fundamental? I gave you my suitcase. Just put it on the plane. This has also happened to several of my friends. Poor Sean spent part of his first three days in Paris shopping for underwear and the like. Perhaps the increased checked-baggage security measures the government is forcing the industry to implement will have the side effect of making them lose luggage less. Let’s hope.
brynna posted on 2002-09-25 (source):
ah matt the woes of travelling. had pretty good luck with baggage etc. on the romania trip, i was certain that something was going to get lost due to my preconceived notions about the conditions of eastern european airports. in fact, the entire baggage situation was quite efficient. in bucharest before you got to the check in all your things went through the xray rather than going through the ticket line and getting sent back to go 100 yards to the nearest xray machine where you get hassled by the xray guys because your bag has a strange shape inside it (and who think its funny to threaten to not give you back your tickets... ho ho hee hee!!)and then sent back to the ticket counter so that the bag can be put on the belt to go through. this was the scene at reagan national several months ago. perhaps its changed but knowing american bureaucracy it probably hasnt. the europeans seem to have an understanding of security and how to go about enforcing it with minimal inconvenience. i do not mind the concern for providing security measures however it does nothing to make me feel safer when i see two teenage "security guards" more intent on feeling each other up than catching prospective terrorists during a preboarding search. if the faa is going to bother with this nonsense they might as well take it seriously.sean posted on 2002-10-11 (source):
yeah. ! ... and it ain't no fun looking for underwear in downtown Paris!KARLA posted on 2005-03-18 (source):
lucky for you they delivered it the next day. US Airways lost my bag and its 5:35pm on the second day of it being misplaced and they havent a clue of where it is. If its not found on the 4th day I am sucking them up for all they are worth! THIS IS HELL!