I used to dread this frequent travelers experience as I had heard many stories of delayed/ lost/ damaged bags from 'veteran traveler' colleagues and hoped I would not be subject to any such experience..
With the steady increase in the number of people traveling these days there is a lot of pressure on airport infrastructure across the world to make sure the baggage is managed/transferred to their respective flights. Frankfurt Airport is a major hub for transfers within Europe and to North America, it handles around 200,000 pieces of incoming and outgoing luggage in one day- each of which reaches its destination within 45 minutes - all this is possible using an automated conveyor system that reads the bar coded information on each baggage tag and directs it to its destination. During this time the ISO 9001:2000 certified system also calculates the shortest route to the destination extraction point.
And as luck would have it my first brush with delayed baggage was at Frankfurt airport, but I still believe the claims of Fraport AG which manages Frankfurt airport about their sophisticated baggage system as the issue with my luggage was caused due to a booking error.
Before I talk about my delayed baggage experience I'll narrate a few narrow escapes.
The first one was in October 2006, I was returning from Lagos (Nigeria) to Mumbai via Dubai by an Emirates flight, it seems I had stuffed the bag too much or that that bag suddenly decided to retire. The timing wasn't right for that as Lagos-Mumbai is almost an 18 hr trip including the stopover in Dubai and any bag which decides to give up in that sector is bad news.Well somehow the zipper of the bag gave way and it opened during transit with the lock in the zipper still in place it simply lifted from the sides as if wanting to take off on its own and not wait for the 8+ hours in Dubai. Thanks to the Emirates ground staff in Dubai they put the bag into a giant plastic bag.
I arrived in Mumbai unaware of the plight of my poor 3 year old bag..time ticked by as I waited for my luggage..and when the crowd started thinning around the baggage claim area and the minutes passed by, I started getting a bit anxious. I tried to think of pleasant things and made small talk with Sunil my colleague who was traveling with me.
When finally the belt stopped..I knew this was it. I went up to the lost luggage counter and was about to fill in the form when I thought of looking for the bag one last time...It was lying there in the corner in all its misery wrapped in a plastic body bag..ready for its last journey.I checked if everything was okay and somehow managed to secure the bag again with the zipper. Narrow escape I should say.
My next brush with the lost baggage situation was in Muscat in early March 2007.
I had taken a Gulf Air flight from Bangalore to Bahrain via Muscat, there were just 7-8 people who disembarked in Muscat, I was feeling happy that I'll breeze though immigration and be on my way to a quick nap before I start work. In the baggage claim area there were hardly a dozen bags doing the rounds on the belt...my new black 360d roller bag wasn't in sight.
The belt stopped, I located the lost luggage counter and informed them the details..they made a few calls and they asked me to hang on. After 15 mins, what seemed to be an hour the belt started moving again..with just my bag on it. It seems someone overlooked the Muscat tag and the bag was on its way to Bahrain, before it was retrieved in the nick of time. False alarm this time.
Then came the D day..
The 'Law of Averages' caught up with me and I finally lost my baggage(temporarily though) for the first time.
This was in late march 2007, I was on a 4 day trip to Brussels via Frankfurt on a Lufthansa flight from Bangalore.
Due to some last minute confusion on the flight timings the Lufthansa ground staff in Bangalore 'through' checked in my luggage to Brussels on the 9.40 AM flight from Frankfurt to Brussels, but somehow couldn't give my boarding pass due to some technical hitch as I was also confirmed on the 12.20 PM flight which wasn't cancelled as yet. I was told to collect the boarding pass in Frankfurt for the onward journey.
When I reached the transfer desk at Frankfurt airport they had no clue what to do with my situation. They directed me to the Ticketing counter where I paid some flight change charge and got the boarding pass for the 9.40 Am flight with less than 45 mins to go.
In this confusion my luggage was held by the system as the boarding pass issue didn't update in time. I reached Brussels around 11 AM but my baggage stayed in Frankfurt. I filled my first lost luggage application, and it seems it was quite a regular affair for those guys as they handled it quite efficiently. I was told the luggage will be delivered to my hotel by 4 PM..
With a heavy Ultra Sparc-Sun Solaris laptop server and a few documents in my hand baggage I was not carrying any personal stuff with me, I but somehow survived thanks to the Hotel. However I got my baggage only by around 8PM..paying the price of a last minute change when I could have reached Brussels with my luggage by 1.30 PM had I not decided to change to the 9.40 AM flight..
But as they say in Spanish 'Todo es para bien...siempre' - "What ever happens..happens for good..Always"
Maybe it was better to have learnt about the process...with Lufthansa than with Biman Bangladesh.
3 weeks ago
