Be careful what you pack on your next trip by air.
Last month I took a flight to Budapest, Hungary with a plane change in London England. I arrived at the airport in Budapest, and waited for my checked bag to come down the chute and onto the carousel. It was a large plane, it was full, and there were a lot of bags. It was a long wait. My wife’s bag arrived. We waited some more. Finally the belt stopped. My bag was not there. There were a half dozen other passengers still looking for bags.
The next step was to find out where to report lost luggage. The lost and found counter of course. While waiting in line to talk to a clerk, a tour guide from the river cruise company found us. She was wondering why we had not shown up at the place we were supposed too meet. She helped us fill out the required forms. We learned that my bag had not been placed on the same plane as my wife’s bag, the plane we were flying on. There were two other planes flying that same route that evening a couple hours apart. My bag was supposed to be on the next plane to arrive about 6:00 PM. The river cruise staff would look after picking up the bag and delivering it to the ship. Apparently this happen often and they had a procedure in place for handling it. I was told to expect the bag in my cabin around 7:00 PM.
After checking into the cabin, I gave a copy of the baggage report to the concierge so he could follow up on the bag. After supper, about 6:30 I checked with the concierge for an up date. He was only able to confirm that the bag was supposed to be on the next flight. A little before 9:00 I thought I would go to the onboard shop and buy one of their branded golf shirts to wear the next day. As I was heading up the stairs, I met one of the staff carrying my bag down to my room. It had finally arrived.
I my room, i tried to open the bag. It had been sealed by a tag with a label that said AIRPORT SECURITY. It was a sturdy tag and I had to take the bag to the reception desk to have them cut it off.
My thoughts were that there was something in my bag that required special inspection. The bag did not look much different inside than when I packed it. There was something that may have raised suspicion. I was taking a dozen packages of drink flavour crystals to my daughter. She had asked that I bring them over to her because she could not buy them in her local grocery stores. They were still packed as I had put them in the bag.
I do not know the actual story, but I learned in school, that if you have not heard any “rumours” to make one up.
Be careful what you pack, and include a change of clothes in your carry on.
Where would you like to go today?
Sorry to hear about your luggage issues. Garry once opened his luggage to find s a card that said: Inspected by Homeland Security. Now what showed up there!! Enjoyed your blog. Well written!
This was funny! I read it because I commented on a question you had about posting on the blog challenge page, and decided to click. Glad I did, I look forward to reading about your travels!