Fingers crossed it all goes well. But even the most hardened travelers have something go wrong from time to time.
I had an incident with my bag coming off a flight out of San Fran into Vancouver.
My bag is quite distinct and has all the required bows and big identifying labels showing it is my bag. But still I found myself at Vancouver airport, in a hurry to catch a connecting ferry, in the unenviable position of watching a bag identical to mine go around and around the luggage carousel.
I have never seen anyone with a bag like mine. I got it in Sydney years ago and I bought it because it was different.
Even though identical in every way, I knew this interloper doing the airport equivalent of a session on a hamster wheel wasn't mine because I had checked the bag tag. Yep it was an Australian address, probably purchased in the same shop as mine. This wasn't a good sign.
As soon as it became obvious no new bags were entering the system I headed over to the the very friendly and super helpful man at the lost baggage counter. He swung into action as he stated his annoyance with people who couldn't or wouldn't obey the airport's constant pleas to check they had the right bag before leaving the concourse.
He rightly pointed out that people think they are too busy and important to take a few seconds to check.
He tried all the obvious things like phoning the number on the imposter bag, putting a message over the airport intercom system. As time ticked away it was becoming increasingly obvious I wasn't going to get that ferry.
Then the paper work started and the questions.
So many questions related to one little common blue bag.
This is why I recommend you take photos of all your luggage so you can show the person at lost and found exactly what it looks like. Despite the amount of time spent lugging that bag through airports and hotel lobbies, you would be surprised how hard it is to remember the more intricate details.
As I reached for my phone to start showing the guy my photos, we noticed two women, red faced and puffing running toward us .... with my blue bag in tow. I've never been so pleased to see that bag.
However the woman who had lifted my bag was more concerned how this had held HER up and how could we hurry this up because they had tight connections that were being messed with.
Then, as a dispossessed afterthought, she added "oh well ......... these things happen".
Until now I was happy to just glare and get on with my day but the last comment raised my heckles. and my brain disengaged as my mouth flew open. I pointed out that "perhaps if she had checked she had the right bag then maybe she wouldn't be in this position".
Now I was fuming mad and off I went into a rant ....... "and ignorant, unthinking people like her who couldn't spend five seconds to check the label on the bag were the reason this sort of thing happened. It had nothing to do with fate or some off-chance divine intervention".
Then she poured salt into the wound and offered in a very off hand way to give me money for my loss.
How do you recompense the fact that the sit I was going to included an 86 year old woman who was petrified of the dark? The ferry at 5pm would have got me in before dark, the later ferry wouldn't.
Unthinking Actions Often Hurt the Innocent
So here we have a situation where someone elderly and afraid is sitting alone in a big house, the sun is going down and she is wondering if this total stranger all the way from Australia is even going to show up. How do you recompense that?
Luckily the customs lady who had to bring the bag napper back into the secure area, read my body language, stepped in and suggested we just agree to differ and get on our way.
I did miss the ferry but luckily BC Ferries provide free Internet for their passengers so I was able to log into Skype and phone ahead to let my elderly charge know what had happened. I was able to assure her that although I wouldn't be there before dark, I would be there.
If I'd known it was going to cost me $80 to get a cab from the ferry to the house instead of taking the bus for $2.50 I might have considered taking that horrible woman's guilt money. But in hindsight I wouldn't have wanted the energy of that women's money anywhere near me, even for a short period of time.
As the very wise and observant man at the lost baggage pointed out, as I was thanking him for his outstanding service, "people like her would never understand that their actions caused so much distress for others and what's more she wasn't the type of person who was ever likely to change her behavior because people like her could never own her part in what went wrong".
Crikey, you find the most extraordinary everyday sages in the most unlikely places when you travel!
My day was much enriched by meeting the wise airport workers at YVR.
I had an incident with my bag coming off a flight out of San Fran into Vancouver.
I have never seen anyone with a bag like mine. I got it in Sydney years ago and I bought it because it was different.
Even though identical in every way, I knew this interloper doing the airport equivalent of a session on a hamster wheel wasn't mine because I had checked the bag tag. Yep it was an Australian address, probably purchased in the same shop as mine. This wasn't a good sign.
As soon as it became obvious no new bags were entering the system I headed over to the the very friendly and super helpful man at the lost baggage counter. He swung into action as he stated his annoyance with people who couldn't or wouldn't obey the airport's constant pleas to check they had the right bag before leaving the concourse.
He rightly pointed out that people think they are too busy and important to take a few seconds to check.
 |
| Your Bag Carries Important Things Like Clean Underwear - its not good when it goes missing |
Then the paper work started and the questions.
So many questions related to one little common blue bag.
This is why I recommend you take photos of all your luggage so you can show the person at lost and found exactly what it looks like. Despite the amount of time spent lugging that bag through airports and hotel lobbies, you would be surprised how hard it is to remember the more intricate details.
As I reached for my phone to start showing the guy my photos, we noticed two women, red faced and puffing running toward us .... with my blue bag in tow. I've never been so pleased to see that bag.
However the woman who had lifted my bag was more concerned how this had held HER up and how could we hurry this up because they had tight connections that were being messed with.
Then, as a dispossessed afterthought, she added "oh well ......... these things happen".
Until now I was happy to just glare and get on with my day but the last comment raised my heckles. and my brain disengaged as my mouth flew open. I pointed out that "perhaps if she had checked she had the right bag then maybe she wouldn't be in this position".
Now I was fuming mad and off I went into a rant ....... "and ignorant, unthinking people like her who couldn't spend five seconds to check the label on the bag were the reason this sort of thing happened. It had nothing to do with fate or some off-chance divine intervention".
Then she poured salt into the wound and offered in a very off hand way to give me money for my loss.
How do you recompense the fact that the sit I was going to included an 86 year old woman who was petrified of the dark? The ferry at 5pm would have got me in before dark, the later ferry wouldn't.
Unthinking Actions Often Hurt the Innocent
So here we have a situation where someone elderly and afraid is sitting alone in a big house, the sun is going down and she is wondering if this total stranger all the way from Australia is even going to show up. How do you recompense that?
Luckily the customs lady who had to bring the bag napper back into the secure area, read my body language, stepped in and suggested we just agree to differ and get on our way.
I did miss the ferry but luckily BC Ferries provide free Internet for their passengers so I was able to log into Skype and phone ahead to let my elderly charge know what had happened. I was able to assure her that although I wouldn't be there before dark, I would be there.
If I'd known it was going to cost me $80 to get a cab from the ferry to the house instead of taking the bus for $2.50 I might have considered taking that horrible woman's guilt money. But in hindsight I wouldn't have wanted the energy of that women's money anywhere near me, even for a short period of time.
As the very wise and observant man at the lost baggage pointed out, as I was thanking him for his outstanding service, "people like her would never understand that their actions caused so much distress for others and what's more she wasn't the type of person who was ever likely to change her behavior because people like her could never own her part in what went wrong".
Crikey, you find the most extraordinary everyday sages in the most unlikely places when you travel!
My day was much enriched by meeting the wise airport workers at YVR.
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