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What's Brewing

Flying's luggage fiasco

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published March 31, 2006

There we were at 2 a.m., standing at Tampa International Airport's baggage claim, dead tired from a ski trip to Colorado and wanting only to get our bags and get home.

We watched suitcases drift by as people gradually collected their belongings and left. Our ski bag came first. The suitcases must be close behind, we thought.

Then the belt stopped. That was it for bags. Good night.

The woman at the lost bag desk took our information as if for the millionth time, expressing confidence our luggage would show up the next day.

She was half right. One of the pieces did. Mine remained in luggage limbo.

In a blink of a missed connection, we became members of a not-so-Medallion club of millions who lost their luggage last year. An industry report released last week said 30-million bags were temporarily lost by airlines in 2005, and of those, 200,000 never resurfaced.

Talk about a mountain of misery.

Apparently, the 30-million figure is up slightly from 2004 but represented just 1 percent of the 3-billion bags processed at airports last year, according to SITA Inc., a company that seeks technology solutions for the air transport industry.

Still, anyone in that crowd isn't taking much comfort.

I remember back when flying was fun. The flight attendants, who used to be called stewardesses, were friendly and glamorous in their tailored suits and perfect hairdos. The food was never particularly great, but at least you got food and it helped pass the time.

Overhead compartments were mostly for coats, briefcases and purses - not eight-piece luggage sets. I remember once when my party of four had a whole plane to ourselves.

Today, it's a different story. Most flights are packed or overbooked. Planes look like pigsties, with crumbs and wrappers all over the seats and floors. Flight attendants serve more as baggage handlers, trying to jam oversized roller bags into undersized storage bins.

Going through security can be as embarrassing as taking group showers after gym class. Take off your belt, Ma'am. Unbutton your pants, spread your arms and legs. Then move to the side and get reassembled next to that large man retucking his shirt.

For the average person trying to get from Point A to Point B, it's all quite disturbing. Canceled flights, missed connections and lost bags put a big crimp in travel plans and are only bound to get worse as airlines try to stay afloat amid greater security concerns and higher fuel prices.

I'd feel sorry for the airlines, if they weren't so darned annoying.

In the month that followed, the hunt for my missing suitcase became part of my daily routine. Call the airlines, leave a nice - or nasty - message depending on my mood and hope for a call back.

After the first three days, my "case'' was transferred to a dead bag center in Atlanta. The baggage people in Tampa, whom I'd come to know by name, washed their hands of it, saying good luck and GOODBYE.

My contact in Atlanta was a woman named Carla, who initially seemed eager to find my bag. She took down the description and the contents and said she would get back to me.

Every day for the next four days, I left her a message. Every day, I waited for a return call.

It turns out Carla was sick all week. No one checked her voice mail or picked up her phone.

Reality arrived soon after in the form of a claim notice seeking the description, brand, cost and age of every missing item. And don't forget receipts. Receipts for 10 pairs of underwear and my favorite jeans? Good gosh.

A month to the day after my original flight, the luggage arrived in Tampa, tagless with a broken handle but intact and nothing missing. It had been in Atlanta the entire time.

The airline offered me $75 or a roundtrip ticket good for a year. The principled protester in me wanted to snatch the money and refuse to ever do business with them again. The practical traveler in me took the ticket.

But next time I'll be the passenger stuffing my suitcase into the overhead compartment.

THE LAST DROP: Speaking of people on the move, Mayor Pam Iorio, in her annual state of the city address Tuesday, pledged to improve the area's mass transit. People in the Channel District shouldn't have to drive to jobs downtown, and tourists in the West Shore area shouldn't need a car to get to International Plaza. Seems like a no-brainer. Just don't let the airlines run things.

Susan Thurston can be reached at thurston@sptimes.com or 226-3394.

[Last modified March 30, 2006, 14:21:12]