Luggage… you never realize how important a case made of either leather, zippers, and/or water resistant textures that hold your clothes, brushes, cosmetics, and food until its gone.
For some: a trip can be made or broken.
So I’m going to share my advice up front:
DO NOT… DO NOT expect your luggage to arrive on time when you ride Air France Delta… especially when the French are on strike. If you know where I’m going with this.. please take a seat because my story has a few plot twists.
*special thanks to Tsipy and my Mom for spending an equal amount of time spent in Europe as on the phone in various Delta Airline locations and services.
The Actual Story: 🙂
Well on June 10,2013 my mother realized at some point that my ticket and passport names did not match and therefore we sped our way to the Pittsburgh airport. We arrived at.. Idk 3:15 I think(close to an hour early). My mother soon learned at the checking area that France was on strike the next day and would begin at exactly 4:00am. well she negotiated with the women and got my bag to Berlin. However I did not exactly get there on time(I’ll get to that later). Everyone comes and checks in and gets on the plane and we arrive in Paris(the only European country that we can fly directly to).
The strike as begun.
Everyone else who had checked in as a group after I did received their basin the French airport baggage claim. We remain their for about 4 hours while Smitty and Sara go to figure out a way to get us(all 32) to Berlin. Now keep in mind; people have not slept and its already the 11th. Well my bag doesn’t show. I call my mom. I think she says,” oh honey. I’ll file a complaint”. Totally was wrong about that. Well I’m still sleep deprived and I’m not thinking about my bags. So we leave and and get onto a train for Mannheim and then to Berlin.
Next day: I tell Tsipy about my lost bag and she and my mother spent tons of time talking with Delta and AirFrance. These phone calls continue through out our trip and as time passes I’ve increasingly become more agitated. In my mind I’ve decided. OK this bag is gone. oops.
Not only do the phone calls continue, but the reports and updates do too.
So I learned that my bag went from Pittsburgh to Paris; continued on to Berlin. We arrived in Berlin and they lost my bag. several days later I learned that they might have sent it back to Pittsburgh. Tsipy updates me and says the bag will be sent to airport in Prague and delivered. We went to Dresden and then Prague. Well the bag never reached Prague because I talk to Tsipy and she says it stopped in Prague and continued on to Hong Kong. Well that’s and issue. So then we have a nice time and then the trip ends and still no bag. Mean while with out any clothes I went shopping a lot. I felt like i was married to H&M because i went there so many times. but I also borrowed clothes from my roommate a few times.*thanks Caroline 🙂 So the day after the trip ends my mother receives a call telling her that they have shipped my bag to Berlin and would drop it off at the hotel(only about 8 days late). She told them that it would be a lot of helpful if they just sent it to France when my family went back to France.
On Thursday, 20 of June; we received my bag 4:00pm.
Unfortunately the story continues….
While my bag was traveling the globe, my mom bought another bag for all the clothes that we bought. At 6:05pm on June 23, we realized that the new bag we had purchased was now missing.
I have not gotten this bag back yet, but hopefully I will get it around 5:00 today.