Losing Your Luggage Is Lame

Having your luggage lost doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it can disrupt your entire vacation. I've had my luggage go missing twice now, most recently on my trip to Vegas for a bachelorette party. As mentioned in my previous post, I was in Chicago for work and was supposed to fly from Chicago to Portland to Vegas. Of course since O'Hare is O'Hare, my flight was delayed. Fortunately, Alaska Airlines was able to book me on another flight, directly to Las Vegas. I had to wait another two hours to depart, but since my flight was now direct, I arrived two hours earlier than planned. Great! When I asked about my luggage, they told me that Alaska was responsible for getting it to Vegas, but American (my new flight provider) was in charge of delivering it to me. It sounded so easy! But it never is.

After my flight arrived, I checked in with the baggage service counter for American Airlines. The girl at the office was trying to do 17 things at once, running out to check on a jammed conveyor belt, calming down a guy looking for a missing passenger, etc. When she was finally able to return her attention to finding my luggage, she told me she didn't know where was and filed a claim for it. She said once it was located, they would deliver it to my hotel. I was so tired, I didn't care. I just wanted to leave.

The next morning it hadn't been found. I wasn't too worried about it, but I did need to supplement my now smelly clothes with something a little fresher. And possibly a swim suit. This meant a trip to the mall after breakfast. Two hours later, I had most of what I needed, but still no luggage. We went on with our day, hanging out at the pool, getting ready for our evening out, eating dinner and finally, seeing the Thunder From Down Under (side note: SO WORTH IT!). 

Anyhoo, by the time we had to leave for the airport the next day, my bag was still missing. Now I'm pissed. The most frustrating part was that no one could tell me anything about my bags. How does that even happen? These things are tagged and scanned fifteen thousand times every time someone looks in its general direction! But all I could do was give them my home address and ask that if they ever found it, they would send it there (I didn't even get shout-y or stomp-y, though I really wanted to).

As I was sitting at the gate, waiting to board the plane home, I got a phone call. They found my suitcase and it was in Las Vegas, could I come pick it up? Um no. I'm getting out of this crazy town. But yay!! So instead they were able to put it on another flight to Seattle and would deliver it to my house after that. Two phone calls and a day later, it finally arrived. Turns out airlines don't like talking to each other very much and require constant monitoring to get anything done. But it all ended well. I got my stuff back, the airline is going to reimburse me for the things I had to buy, and I didn't have to pay a checked bag fee! Sometimes it really is the little things!