…from the wonderful world of overpriced hotel High-Speed Internet Connections. My friend Carolyn and I are in San Francisco, poised and ready for the WonderCon, which commences tomorrow morn. Amazingly, all our luggage is here with us, as well.
In the competitive business of Air Travel, I don't know why some airline hasn't tried to distinguish itself by upgrading the claiming of baggage from the days of Orville and Wilbur. Especially since 9/11 but even before, the effort all seems to go to getting the suitcases searched, checked-in and on the plane. On the other end, you could traipse the Baggage Claim area for days and not find someone who can tell you why everything turned up on the carousel except your Samsonite. I don't know why they don't spring for even one employee who's down there and in voice communication with those mysterious folks who, at some point, are supposed to put your bags on the conveyor.
We were early for the flight and I have to remember that when you're early for your flight, and you're travelling to a locale to which there are a lot of flights, there's a fair-to-middling change that your suitcase will go on the flight before yours. This has happened to my luggage a couple of times, and it happened to one of Carolyn's bags, this afternoon. At 10:00 this A.M., we arrived at LAX for the 11:15 United flight to S.F., so one of her two suitcases somehow wound up travelling on the 10:30 United flight to S.F. When we arrived, we waited at Carousel 1 for our bags and one of hers didn't show. So we waited and waited…and there was no one to ask, "Are there any more coming down?" Recalling the times I've found out my luggage got in before me, I walked around the area where they store unclaimed bags, but I missed seeing hers. Finally, another passenger in the same predicament searched and found someone…and because of that, we found the errant suitcase. You'd think, in the age of computers, someone could invent a better way to do this. They have these bar codes that are supposed to track our stuff and tell them where it is. How about if they have someone right there at the carousel to tell us?
Oh, well. We had great Chinese food for dinner and of course, that makes almost anything better. I'll be hosting panels all weekend and reporting in here from time to time.
I hope you enjoyed reading the above. It cost me $14.95 to post it.