Conference started.
No luggage still. "Located and Delivery Initiated."
Much anger.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
WTF?!?!!?!?!??!
So my itinerary for this trip was to fly from O’Hare to JFK at 12:50 PM and arrive at 4:00 PM, then catch the 5:25 flight from JFK to Zurich. Not a lot of time to make a connection, but since I was going straight through, that’s fine.
Things started badly and got worse. The flight I was on kept getting delayed—weather in New York made traffic control there bad so flights couldn’t land. Our take off got pushed back to 1:45 then 2:15. We’d get in 10 minutes before our other flight was scheduled to leave.
Eventually the time came for us to board—only for them to not let us board because a “foreign substance” was found on the plane. No details other than they were putting us on a different plane at a different gate. We march over, to have our flight delayed until 2:30, with a scheduled landing at 5:40. Crap.
Fortunately a colleague of mine was on the same flight, so we were in this together. We go ask what the people at the gate recommend we do. The woman who helped us said that our Zurich flight may be delayed as well since everything is so bad there. And if not, they’d put us on another flight, even another airline, so we could get to Zurich. Good enough…we board and fly to JFK.
We land at 5:25. I immediately pull out my iPhone and see the Zurich flight was delayed as well…until 5:45. JOY! Not only that, it was 2 gates over from where we would deboard. So all we have to do is run 200 feet and we’re there.
Except we couldn’t…the gate we were going to wasn’t ready, so we sat in the plane for 20 minutes. We get out of the plane, run like hell, and find out that our Zurich flight just pulled away from the gate without us…at this point we realize there were roughly 10 of us who were trying to make that connection from Chicago. Ten! And they couldn’t wait 5 minutes.
We walk to ticketing to see what they can do. One person gets on a Delta flight 3 hours later that gets him to Zurich 3 hours later than he would have otherwise…good for him.
Not us, though. We talk to the ticket agent for 1.5 hours as she tries to get us to Zurich. The best she can do is get us to London, leaving JFK at 9:15pm and arriving at 9:15 am (or something like that) and then have us fly from London at 7:50 PM and arrive at Zurich at 9:55 PM. Now remember, Zurich is not our final destination…we have a 3 hour train ride to Davos for this conference…and the trains stop running at 9PM. She says to see in London if they can get us on an earlier flight, but she said, our bags may not make it. “They can’t pull them?” we ask…no apparently. “They can’t ship them to Davos for us?” No she says. Crap….
Oh, and our Zurich flight sat on the runway until 7:15...so was there for most of the time we were trying to get rebooked.
We get to London and talk to a ticket agent who immediately gets us on a 1:15 PM flight to Zurich, arriving at 4:00 PM. This is now British airways. She says no problem getting the luggage and that we’re all set. Hallelujah!
We get some food and then get on then get in line to board the plane. They scan my ticket and a red light goes off. The woman asks to see my luggage claim ticket. I show her, she scans it, and then says “You’re set.”
“Does that mean my bag is on this flight as well?” I ask.
“Let me double check.” Pushes keyboards…confused look. Not good. She calls over another agent. She says she’ll call down to see if the bag is there and asks me to sit before boarding the plane.
“You are set, Dr. See-eh-sla. Your bags are on board.”
“Great. Thank you so much.”
I tell my colleague we’re set and we head to Zurich. We arrive without issue and head down to claim our bags.
We wait.
We wait more.
We see the same ugly green plastic suitcase pass by 5 times. Our bags are not there. A baggage agent comes over and asks our names.
“Oh, you are not on the list.” “The list” is the list of bags in their office. He takes us back to take our information.
“According to the computer, your bags are at JFK.”
Blank stares.
“When they arrive, we will send them to you in Davos. Should take less than 24 hours once they arrive. In the meantime, would you like an overnight bag of shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc ?”
This guy was really awesome. I can’t imagine anyone in the US being as courteous as he was in this same situation. In fact, the times I’ve had baggage issues in the US, the agents tried to turn it around like it was my fault. This guy really tried to help. That was the one bright spot.
So I go buy some underwear, socks, and a t-shirt and travel to Davos. Here I sit, hoping my bag shows up tomorrow. It is cold and rainy here….my jacket is in my suitcase. I am set for clothes for tomorrow, but will have to do more shopping if I don’t get my bag then. I’m not happy. I’m tired. The end.
Things started badly and got worse. The flight I was on kept getting delayed—weather in New York made traffic control there bad so flights couldn’t land. Our take off got pushed back to 1:45 then 2:15. We’d get in 10 minutes before our other flight was scheduled to leave.
Eventually the time came for us to board—only for them to not let us board because a “foreign substance” was found on the plane. No details other than they were putting us on a different plane at a different gate. We march over, to have our flight delayed until 2:30, with a scheduled landing at 5:40. Crap.
Fortunately a colleague of mine was on the same flight, so we were in this together. We go ask what the people at the gate recommend we do. The woman who helped us said that our Zurich flight may be delayed as well since everything is so bad there. And if not, they’d put us on another flight, even another airline, so we could get to Zurich. Good enough…we board and fly to JFK.
We land at 5:25. I immediately pull out my iPhone and see the Zurich flight was delayed as well…until 5:45. JOY! Not only that, it was 2 gates over from where we would deboard. So all we have to do is run 200 feet and we’re there.
Except we couldn’t…the gate we were going to wasn’t ready, so we sat in the plane for 20 minutes. We get out of the plane, run like hell, and find out that our Zurich flight just pulled away from the gate without us…at this point we realize there were roughly 10 of us who were trying to make that connection from Chicago. Ten! And they couldn’t wait 5 minutes.
We walk to ticketing to see what they can do. One person gets on a Delta flight 3 hours later that gets him to Zurich 3 hours later than he would have otherwise…good for him.
Not us, though. We talk to the ticket agent for 1.5 hours as she tries to get us to Zurich. The best she can do is get us to London, leaving JFK at 9:15pm and arriving at 9:15 am (or something like that) and then have us fly from London at 7:50 PM and arrive at Zurich at 9:55 PM. Now remember, Zurich is not our final destination…we have a 3 hour train ride to Davos for this conference…and the trains stop running at 9PM. She says to see in London if they can get us on an earlier flight, but she said, our bags may not make it. “They can’t pull them?” we ask…no apparently. “They can’t ship them to Davos for us?” No she says. Crap….
Oh, and our Zurich flight sat on the runway until 7:15...so was there for most of the time we were trying to get rebooked.
We get to London and talk to a ticket agent who immediately gets us on a 1:15 PM flight to Zurich, arriving at 4:00 PM. This is now British airways. She says no problem getting the luggage and that we’re all set. Hallelujah!
We get some food and then get on then get in line to board the plane. They scan my ticket and a red light goes off. The woman asks to see my luggage claim ticket. I show her, she scans it, and then says “You’re set.”
“Does that mean my bag is on this flight as well?” I ask.
“Let me double check.” Pushes keyboards…confused look. Not good. She calls over another agent. She says she’ll call down to see if the bag is there and asks me to sit before boarding the plane.
“You are set, Dr. See-eh-sla. Your bags are on board.”
“Great. Thank you so much.”
I tell my colleague we’re set and we head to Zurich. We arrive without issue and head down to claim our bags.
We wait.
We wait more.
We see the same ugly green plastic suitcase pass by 5 times. Our bags are not there. A baggage agent comes over and asks our names.
“Oh, you are not on the list.” “The list” is the list of bags in their office. He takes us back to take our information.
“According to the computer, your bags are at JFK.”
Blank stares.
“When they arrive, we will send them to you in Davos. Should take less than 24 hours once they arrive. In the meantime, would you like an overnight bag of shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc ?”
This guy was really awesome. I can’t imagine anyone in the US being as courteous as he was in this same situation. In fact, the times I’ve had baggage issues in the US, the agents tried to turn it around like it was my fault. This guy really tried to help. That was the one bright spot.
So I go buy some underwear, socks, and a t-shirt and travel to Davos. Here I sit, hoping my bag shows up tomorrow. It is cold and rainy here….my jacket is in my suitcase. I am set for clothes for tomorrow, but will have to do more shopping if I don’t get my bag then. I’m not happy. I’m tired. The end.
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