Suitcase

I went from Copenhagen, to Amsterdam, to Minneapolis, to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, in Minneapolis, my suitcase was not there. When I finally arrived in Las Vegas, and could file a claim, apparently the suitcase was still in Copenhagen! Much later I heard, it had been to London in those 24 hours. What fun! I was finally reunited with my suitcase - 3 weeks later, when I was back home. At that point, my suitcase had failed to turn up in Washington on time, and went through Amsterdam when it was found again.

It was weird not having my suitcase. I learned a lot about how airlines work. I also experienced an odd sense of freedom. And yes, some of the time I was worried and angry, and dreaded having to buy everything again.

And now I've tried it, here's some advice - if it should ever happen to you.

• Read the fine print about what you're not supposed to put in your suitcase. I put the recharger for my camera in there, a $100 item, but couldn't get any refund for that, because the fine print said I shouldn't have done that.
• Is it essential, irreplaceable stuff? Don't put it in your suitcase. My reason for this whole trip was to go to a conference, and it took some of the joy out of it, not to have the material, I packed for that conference.
• Put a travel itenerary in your suitcase, your name and stuff like that. If your bag is lost, it "knows" where it should've been, right away.
• Ask! Ask when and where you should make your claim. Ask if you should make more than one claim. Ask for written down instructions. At one point, I had 2 different informations about the size of the refund I could get. At another point I discovered, that I should make an extra claim 5 days after the original claim, and include copies of documents (like the original plane ticket), I maybe didn't have anymore!
• Look at the bright side of life! You get to buy new clothes. You don't have a huge suitcase to haul around. I also got a kick out of the idea, that my suitcase was grown up, and should see a little of the world on its own.

Created: 20 May, 2007 - Last changed: 20 May, 2007 - Comments (0)