There Are Two Types Of Luggage – Carry-on And Lost

July 24, 2018

Although I was assured by several people that getting to the Dublin airport two hours early would be enough, I was glad I had given myself three hours.  

Since I had made the choice to check my suitcase (should have listened to my inner voice), I had to queue up in the check-in line.  Luckily I had the coveted “Priority” stamped on my ticket and I was able to stand in the shorter line.  

The airport was a zoo.  Several flights out of Dublin had been cancelled yesterday, so those people were in line as well as all the people for flights cancelled earlier in the morning.  Yikes!  People were not happy.  I had all my paperwork in order, so once it was finally my turn, I was able to get my business done quickly and was off to the first of several security checkpoints.  

Some security screenings required shoes to be removed, some required electronics, liquids and powders to be removed, some just waved us through.  A final security check point was actually more – it was a US Immigration/Customs check, which allowed us to clear in Dublin and not have to wait in the lines once reaching US soil.  It was very convenient, particularly since I have Global Access and there was nobody in the line in front of me. Yay!

For my trip home, I had chosen an aisle seat of the middle section (of three seats) in the bulkhead area of Premium Economy.  It was much roomier and allowed a better recline than my seat had on my trip to Dublin.  Although definitely not as nice as flying in Business, it was a pleasant flight.

We arrived in Philadelphia without much fanfare and I was able to spend some time in the Centurion Lounge in Terminal A before heading to Terminal B to catch my flight to Dallas.  Unfortunately, I would wait a bit of time before my flight could leave… six hours in fact.  Our pilot found a “small” mechanical issue while doing his pre-flight, which, apparently, turned into a much larger issue once they started looking into it.  The plane was ultimately taken of service and another plane was flown in from Boston. 

Not much of this information was communicated to the waiting passengers – the information we did receive was provided much later by the new pilot. It took the airline about five hours to determine whether they needed to provide any food/drink due to the length of the delay and, this was done only after several passengers took to social media to address the issues (conversations with the dwindling ground crew had already been exhausted). Eventually, bottles of water and bags of chips were wheeled out on a cart in order to placate the crowd. 

Once on the plane, it was delayed another 15 minutes when the Captain advised they were just waiting for the luggage to be put in the hold before push back from the gate … and, then we were finally on our way to Dallas. 

In Dallas, while he was on the way out of the terminal, the Captain from our flight approached the bag agent and advised that there were “only four local bags on board, none of the others made it.”  What?!?!  He was the one that said we were further delayed so that the bags could be put on board. 

The line to make a claim for lost luggage was long and there was only one agent on duty to process the paperwork.  I finally arrived home to my warm bed about 3:00 a.m. 

This is why I try not to check my luggage.

Epilogue:  I did not get my suitcase before I left to catch a flight for work-related travel later in the day.  Upon landing, I received a call from the baggage delivery service saying that since I had not picked up my phone when they called to arrange delivery of my bag, they were returning it to the airport and I would have to figure out how to pick it up myself.  When I advised them that I wasn’t able to answer my phone as I had only just landed from yet another flight,  I was told it wasn’t their problem and I’d just have to find a way to get my own bag from wherever the airlines put it when they returned it to them.  Argh! What has happened to customer service?!