Where’s my luggage American Airlines? April 10, 2010
Posted by Lena Shuster in Uncategorized.trackback
What a terrible flight from NY to SF!
Besides the cramped airplane full of rude (and loud European***) passengers and sitting next to a woman who kept yawning with her mouth open and foul breath… American Airlines lost my luggage…
Maybe packing a blender was not my best idea, considering its base can sort of look and feel like a bomb to oversensitized security experts.
On Friday, I arrived at JFK at 1:45pm, early enough for my 2:55pm flight for which I had already checked in online. All that needed to be done was check my bag and proceed through security. Easy enough, although I felt annoyed about paying that $25 charge for checked luggage.
6 hours later in the baggage claim at SFO I waited with the 100 other passengers, trying to keep myself awake and positive after the unnerving trip. Because of some electric problem the bags took over half an hour to come out. I waited and waited until at some moment the realization that I was no longer surrounded by people and moving luggage took hold. “Are all the luggages out?” I tensely asked two workers were removing two unclaimed bags from the conveyer belt.
I dashed to the AA office. “Where’s my luggage” I demanded in an unfriendly pathetic drawl. The woman, seemingly unaffected by my rudeness, explained: “It was selected by homeland security for a random check and will be forwarded to SFO on the next flight, due to arrive at 9:40…”
“So I should wait at the airport!?” I chirped (or barked), the ensuing tightening of my throat restricting my speech.
“You didn’t let me finish…. it will be delivered to you… write down your hotel or local address here…”
She said it would be delivered by 1am. When it wasn’t delivered at 1:30am I called the baggage claim department. They knew nothing. At 7am I called again only to be told that my bag was not on the previous flight possibly because “of a lack of space” and that it would be forwarded on the next JFK-SFO bound flight.
So what am I suppose to do without clean underwear or my toothbrush? What about those books I packed, half of which belong to the library? And what if my luggage is really lost? What will I wear to the Kiva training that’s being held all next week? And if all these things can be replaced with a shopping expedition (oh how I hate shopping!) my face oils can’t! I have terribly dry skin on my face and normal creams cause pimples, so what am I suppose to do?
AA can’t tell me anything about my bag besides the fact that it’s “suppose to be forwarded.”
No one warned me that my bag was not on my flight, despite obviously having this information in their system by the time I stepped foot into SFO.
I really hope I get my bag. But regardless I will never ever ever ever fly American Airlines again because they are incompetent…
*** I think loud conversations in unknown languages always appear more obtrusive then loud conversations in familiar languages. Also, since most of the European passengers were traveling in groups too large to be sat together, they spoke loudly to each other to make up for the distance. Unlike the American passengers who generally travel alone or in groups of 2, the Europeans were probably more excited about coming to SF than we Americans were…EDIT 4/11/10 5:20pm
AA located my bag! Woohoo!!! They located it in JFK. It was never forwarded to SF because during or after the inspection by homeland security the ticket with my name and destination was lost. They say it will be forwarded any time now, but I seriously doubt this. It’s been over 10 hours since they told me and the bag’s still in NY with no word from JFK. Good work AA! To AA’s credit though, they have given me an allowance of $150 to buy necessities, a nice sum if you’re on the beach and need a bathing suit, dress and a few toiletries, but not enough if you’re in an unfamiliar city and need more formal clothes to attend a 5 day training in. The part of the process I’ve found most interesting is how thoroughly they inspected my luggage once it was found without identification. When the woman from baggage claim customer service asked me to name a few items in my bag which she then entered into a database… she was able to list another dozen items that were in my bag, from the names of my books to my little glass bottle of eucalyptus oil that was packed in my little bag in the little pocket of my bag!!!
George Carlin on Airport Sercurity (before 9/11)
check out this guy… angry at American Airlines for delaying flights because of safety issues.
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