If you are on the road a lot, you have probably had a baggage problem or two on a few trips. So a story about lost/delayed baggage is not real exciting. But I had quite an adventure earlier this week and felt that I must absolutely share it with my friends.
This incident happened during my trip to Birmingham, Alabama earlier this week. We were scheduled to leave from LA on Tuesday afternoon on a United flight via Denver. Our plane landed in Denver ahead of schedule but due to gate congestion, sat on the runway for over 45 minutes. We had less than 15 minutes to make our connecting flight but we made it (sans a few calories lost in the mad dash!). But guess, who (or what) didn't make it? Yes - my brown duffel!
The next flight from Denver to Birmingham was scheduled to arrive the following afternoon at 1pm. And we were scheduled to be on the same plane for our return flight at 1:30pm. I was on the phone with representatives from United (friendly CSRs from India and Phillipines) begging them to route my bag back to LA and NOT send it to Birmingham. I was scheduled to be on a flight back to Bangalore on the same day and I had to have my bag. After several calls to United, I received assurances that the bag would be routed back to LA.
The bag was routed to Birmingham.
Of course, not having a clue as to the location of the bag at any given point, I had accounted for this possibility. I must have spoken to the entire staff of United at the Birmingham airport because the Sikora Bag seemed to have been designated a celebrity status. When the plane arrived from Denver, the ticket agent asked the baggage handlers to locate the bag, retag it and leave it on the aircraft. This must have been the turning point in the story. As it turns out, the bag was on this plane and was thankfully not unloaded.
My duffel made finally made it back to LA on the same flight with me. Happy Ending!
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