One of my big fears concretized

Since I started traveling, I have always been afraid that my luggage will be lost forever. Many of my acquaintances have had the misfortune to experience this misadventure. Over time, I thought I would be immune to this scary event.

I have always double-checked the airline’s requirements and always took the precaution of putting in my cabin luggage, the minimum to survive at least a week. Just in case!

With more than 30 trips to my credit and more than 20 airlines used, it finally happened to me. I felt helpless when I realized that no new luggage would arrive on the carousel and almost all the passengers had already left the airport. I started to feel desperate!

The catastrophe

The word catastrophe or disaster may be a little intense, but for myself, that’s how I felt. It was 2 AM on a beautiful Friday fall when I arrived in Montreal, my hometown, after 3 flights and more than 20 hours of travel. I was happy to arrive safely and on time. The immigration process was fast, the customs officer was pleasant. Everyone was courteous, no one hustled me to get to his luggage quickly. I was a tired, but I had rested during the flight, everything was normal!

The constatation

There were seven people near the carousel when my boyfriend and I realized that our luggage would not show up. A couple with a baby who received a damaged stroller and 2 other passengers who were wondering where their luggage was. 6 pieces of luggage were missing in total. I think it is a lot for the same plane!

An airline representative was there with the list of passengers who had a connection. Our names were first on top of the list; it did not reassure us She asked us to go to the oversized baggage section in case our luggage was dropped there, but nothing was found.

What to do to recover our property?

The representative asks us to fill out 2 forms, one for the customs service and another for the airline company. The customs template was straightforward and well explained. The one for the airline was like a mystery puzzle to solve. The representative tells us to provide the information on 3-4 boxes by encircling weird letters. She informs us that she will fill the rest later pretexting that the information would not be relevant to us.

We wrote the info and went to the airport agent. He discards the one for the airline company; I understand a little why. He checks the other form and told us to give it back to the representative who had now disappeared.

We found her near the baggage carousel with other desperate passengers to give her our forms. She tells us her name and the airline phone number if we wanted to do a follow-up on the research investigation.

We left the airport 2 hours later, with a copy of the enigmatic form and only with a telephone number! We arrived home at 3:45 AM, with only 4 hours to sleep before getting ready to work, the night was quick and short!

The investigation

My man did the follow-up with the airline company. The next day, he called the number and felt on a voice mail. He was a little upset because he could not talk to someone, but at least he left a message. Nobody gave us news until the next evening. He received a call telling him that a message has been left to the first airline company used during our trip. After that, nothing for 3 days. Suddenly, a call from our airline representative telling us that our pieces of luggage were found in Lima. City of our first connection.

The airline tries to make us accountable for this mistake by telling us that we should have transferred our bags in Lima, even if we checked twice, with 2 different people that our bags would be transferred automatically. Let’s move on this small detail. We were happy that our bags have been found!

A good ending for this story

Another day later, we have received the long-awaited call. Our pieces of luggage were in Montreal, and they will be shipped to us. We were so happy! We received our bags in the evening, at 21h33, after 6 days of patience. I do not even dare to imagine if it had happened when we left for our trip; I would have been stressed and angry about the situation.

What did we learn from this experience?

• Do not put gifts/souvenirs in the checked bags anymore.
• Never leave a memory card in the checked bag.
• Make sure to have a minimum of underwear in my carry-on when returning.
• Hot sauce is a vegetable, and you have to declare it.

 

Have you ever lost your luggage? Did you find them? How did you react?