one.o.eight

« What Price Space? (Soyuz 1) | Main | Pd »

April 28, 2006

inContinental

So you're asking yourself, "Did you ever make it out of South Carolina, or are you living like Tom Hanks in Terminal?" In a word: yes... to the former.

Our aircraft eventually arrived, and with its tires still warm from landing, we boarded and were off! The flight was pleasantly uneventful, and the seats this time were infinitely more comfortable than they had been on my outbound flight.

Have you ever have one of those days? Well, you might say this had been one of those for me. -- Ya think? -- But then the day just kept on going.

As I disembarked I called the car service through which I had reserved transportation home (a benefit of business travel) to discover that the airline had informed the service that my flight had landed hours ago. So they had written me off as a no-show and had planned on keeping the money I had paid up front for their services. However, I appealed to their humanity (by finding common ground in focusing our mutual ire on the stupid airline), and they were kind enough to send the car back to pick me up. Seeing as how I had already paid them, they were kind of obligated in my book, but this is New Jersey after all, and nothing ever seems so easy here.

So while I awaited the car to arrive (40 minutes ETA according to the driver, but it actually took almost 1 hour 20 minutes -- no worries), I headed off to Baggage Claim Area 9 per the marginally helpful instructions from one of the flight arrival/departure information monitors that seem in short supply at Newark Airport... where I proceed to wait along with my fellow passengers (with whom I had become somewhat acquainted during our unscripted sit-in at Gate 3 in South Carolina) for almost a whole fucking hour for my luggage!

After this unreasonable waiting period we were finally told by a "helpful" airport staffer that if we had not seen our luggage within 20 minutes of disembarking that we should head over to Unclaimed Baggage and file a claim for our missing bags. File a claim?! Missing luggage?! We practically just landed! So en masse the members of my flight head over to Unclaimed Baggage to inquire as to how it was possible to lose the luggage for an entire flight?!

Now outside the Unclaimed Baggage office there was this tumultuous pile of unclaimed luggage waiting to be processed, identified, possibly pilfered, and then ultimately auctioned off (if the pickings were good enough) or returned to their rightful owners (if they weren't). It was quite a sight to behold; a mound of precariously heaped baggage which seemed ready to collapse should the wrong bag be removed. And guess what? What do you think comprised the bulk of this Jenga-esque tower of "lost" bags? Yep! The luggage form our flight! The ground crew had apparently unloaded our plane and then transported our luggage directly to Unclaimed Baggage. Perhaps the same efficient airline employee that sent my car away was responsible for directing the Newark ground crew as to where to dump our bags.

Unless I am forced to otherwise, this is the last time I fly Continental... or maybe just fly into Newark.

Posted by Tacitus at April 28, 2006 09:50 AM

Comments