by Joe O'Dowd
Home >> The Guitarist and the Irishman
Standing with the 100 or more passengers at the baggage carousel, I waited patiently as they all picked up their luggage and went on their way. One-by-one they disappeared until I was the only person there and the only piece of unclaimed baggage from my flight was a guitar case, whose tag announced that it should have been sent to MNL (Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport). Yes, in the Philippines!
It was late at night, the baggage hall was now quiet and deserted and an airport employee was sweeping the floor. As the guitar case disappeared behind the hole in the wall and reappeared for the fourth or fifth time before the belt finally ground to a halt, my thoughts turned to Manila and the poor musician who would probably end up in a similar predicament at MNL watching my DUB tagged bag going around and around on the endless conveyor belt.
Would he (or she) miss the guitar as much as I would miss a change of clothes tomorrow? When my bag eventually turned up three days later I thought again of the guitarist who may well have been deprived of his (or her) only means of earning a crust for three whole days!
Flying with baggage in the hold is asking for trouble. The – now infamous – poorly-translated sign in a Stockholm airport: “ We will be happy to send your bags in all directions ” rings quite true and I have since tried to cram everything I have into hand luggage to avoid mishaps.
British daily The Guardian recently published the top twenty worst airlines for losing passengers’ luggage and the results were surprising. Top of the list – at number one – was that little slice of the Empire on which the sun never sets, British Airways, which mislays nearly 30 out of each 1,000 bags checked in. Sitting happily at the bottom of the list was Cyprus Airways with just under 10/1,000 going missing.
Spanish companies Iberia and Spanair come out quite well at 17th and 18th position losing a mere 11.1 and 10.9 per thousand respectively.
Funnily enough, Aer Lingus didn’t feature at all. The Philippino guitar player and I must have just been unlucky!
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2008-09-11 10:00:00 +0200
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EasyJet “lost” my luggage twice.
Actually, they didn’t lose it, they just forgot to load it on my plane! The first time I had it back after a week, the second time after two days.
An annoying experience, to be honest, even if I got everything back.
Thankfully both times it happened when I was coming back from my holiday, therefore I was going home, where I had other clothes to put on, but there were people on the same flights who were actually going on holiday, and their luggage was “lost” as well, and they had nothing to wear. That must be really annoying!
If you’ve never had your luggage lost, you’ve probably never flown. I can’t even remember the number of times mine has been lost. That said, it almost always happens on the way home, so sometimes I even appreciate it being brought the next day right to my door.
A few years ago, my friend came for a few weeks. She flew into Barcelona and when I went to meet her, she came out suitcase-less. We were to spend a few days in Barcelona so we gave them my phone number and left the airport. Days and days passed and the suitcases did not appear. We called, we spoke English, Spanish, whatever was necessary, but never got through to anyone who could actually solve the problem (I won’t go into the huge customer service problems Europe has). So, a new wardrobe had to be bought, along with all sorts of personal items, etc. When we had lost all hope, literally after weeks, the suitcase suddenly appeared at my door, just in time for her to take it home with her. It is by far the worst scenario I have ever seen.
I am lucky enough to be able to say that my suitcases always come the next day if indeed they are lost. Sometimes they just like to spend the day in London or Paris. Can you blame them?
I’ve never lost my suitcase ever. I suppose one day my luck will run out and I’ll lose the suitcase, miss the plane and get ripped off by the taxi driver.
What a crazy idea…that of looking down at the world from space (with a big telescope, of course) seeing Joe “waiting patiently” at Dublin while on the other side of the world the guy in Manila played air guitar…sort of.
Your trick Joe of cramming stuff into hand-luggage sounds like a good one although the list of prohibited items in hand-luggage has suddenly got longer in recent years (See Ryanair’s list of several hundred prohibited items).
p.s. Talking of “losing things”...it’s curious to see that when people talk in Spanish of “losing the papers” in English there’s the expression “losing the plot” (or is it “marbles”?!)...among many other versions no doubt!
...Did someone say I’m not sticking to the topic?!...
Some airlines used to reimburse passengers for any clothes they had to buy while waiting for their things to be delivered. That was in the days BR ( Before Ryanair ) and the current rush to cut prices and costs. Those were the days when we were passengers . Now we’re clients . I often wonder, if the baggage could speak, what would it tell us? “ Hi Joe! ” says my bag, “ I’ve just had a wonderful time in Manila! ” Losing luggage going home after a holiday is of course a smaller problem.
I’ve lost my luggage a couple of times … but only once was it really a pain in the butt. I arrived home after a month long practicum for college in California. I had to hand in quite a few papers to my teachers but unfortunately they were still in my “lost” baggage. To make matters worse I don’t think my teachers believed me (even though I showed them the documentation) – I think they thought it was a modern version of “the dog ate my homework”, because they ended up taking marks off. How would the airline compensate me for poorly graded papers?