I just returned from my annual, two week stay on Cape Cod.
I had a guest fly in from Chicago for a work/ play week and the following week, my son flew in from Virginia.
His flight on Friday was from Washington DC to LaGuardia, then connected to Hyannis Airport on Cape Cod.
I was thrilled to see him and then my jaw dropped after noticing the look on his face. His luggage had not made it onto his connecting flight and was still back in New York. There were no other flights arriving from LaGuardia that day so the earliest we could get it was Saturday.
There was a couple with two small children who were in the same boat. They were there to attend a rehearsal dinner that evening and the wedding the next day and then leave Sunday. They had no clothing, toiletries, diapers, essentials to get them through the night. I met them again the next day while picking up my son‘s luggage and they had to spend quite a bit of money to purchase outfits to wear to the rehearsal dinner plus everything they needed for themselves and the kids. I felt so bad for them.
A week later, my husband drove my son to the airport, but got stuck in heavy traffic and the airline would not allow him to check his bag because he was four minutes late and the baggage tag system automatically shuts down 40 minutes before each flight. Thank God my husband stayed in the parking lot as Liam had to think quickly and race outside to hand off the luggage so he could make his flight.
I heard about this and jumped in my car and drove through nightmare, Saturday, off Cape traffic to go meet my husband to pick up the luggage as he was heading directly back to New York. I was told that I could drop the luggage off to make the flight the next day but I was grossly misinformed. The woman at the counter said, 'absolutely not, all luggage must be accompanied by a person and there is no way they were going to let his bag on the flight the next day." I was dumbfounded.
I ended up driving back to my place on the Cape with his luggage, trying to figure out how to get it to him. I ended up driving it back to New York. On Monday, I bubble wrapped it and shipped it via UPS, and the earliest he would get it would be Wednesday. So that is five days without all his essentials. Plus, he was going back to work. Thank God he had carried all his electronics and work and school items he needed in his backpack.
It really made me think about how much we depend on the airlines and trust them with our precious items that we meticulously packed for our certain trips. But I’ve heard this story way too much, and I plan to travel with carry-on luggage from now on. It's happened to me before.
This is one of those, "You can’t make this shit up stories" and I am sharing it because one of the reasons I created my interchangeable shoes, sandals and boots is because you can travel light. You bring one or two pairs of sandals for your summer vacation, wear your sneakers on the plane and add a small bag of accessories to match all your outfits and you never have to worry about losing your luggage.
Also, check in luggage takes a lot of time to make its way to the luggage belt. And while you’re waiting, all of those 'other people' who hired rental cars are online ahead of you. I spent so much time in the airport these past few weeks and saw it firsthand and questioned if it may have made better sense for some of these people to drive to the Cape instead of taking a flight. Of course, if you’re coming from the West Coast, that’s not really an option, but it puts a heckuva damper on a vacation that you’ve planned and looked forward to for such a long time.
With that said, if you are traveling soon, think about reducing the number of items you need and try really hard to only use carry-on.
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