Beware the Airlines!!!!

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Steven F

Joined
Oct 12, 1999
Messages
1,237
I just got back from a trip out west and wanted to alert you folks to a very real problem. In packing for my trip, I decided to take my James Mattis' Kumar Karda that had just arrived. When I reached my destination and retrieved my one piece of "soft" luggage, I noticed that it had obviously taken quite a beating (moreso than usual). It was not until I got to my hotel room and started to unpack that I realized just how badly my bag had been handled -- the sheath of my khuk had been seriously scuffed-up in several places, so much so that the coloring was completely abraded off. I'll be able to re-color it to some degree, but it will never again have that "brand new" look. The pity is that this sheath, like the khuk, is a true work of art -- incredibly well designed, constructed, and finished. So, my friends, my advice is this -- if taking a valued khuk on an airplane, don't make the mistake that I did and just toss it into your luggage without some kind of protective layering.
 
That's infuriating. Perhaps you could file a damage claim with the airline. If there's one person in North America who knows about goods damaged in transit, I suspect it would be our own Uncle Bill. He may have some advice. My own practice is to stick to carry-on luggage whenever possible, tho I suspect the only way to travel with the Kumar Karda would be with a checked bag.
 
I'll see you and raise you one. A friend of mine who is a professional bass guitar player had checked his bass (in a locked ATA-approved flight case) along with the rest of his luggage. He boarded the plane, and was starring out the window when he saw one of the baggage handlers casually walking away from the plane with a very familiar looking bass guitar in his hand--SANS FLIGHT CASE. Needless to say, my friend simultaneously blew a gasket and had a cow. He went to one of the flight attendants and told her what was going on. She said she was shure that he was just going to turn it in to "Lost Luggage," and assured him that he wasn't stealing it. (Even if that were true, how could the stewardess allow the guy to check the bass in as "lost" when she knows who the bass belongs to and has the owner of it standing right in front of her?) He told her he had it double-locked in a $400 heavy duty flight case and asked her to call airport security, but she thought this request was absurd and irrational. So he got up, pushed right past her, and ran out of the plane (the gate was still attached), took the "employees only" door down the service stairs and out onto the tarmac, where he ran up to the guy from behind (he was still walking and never saw him coming) and yanked his bass out of the guy's hand. He ran back and re-boarded his plane, and the baggage guy just stood there empty-handed. He never saw his $400 flight case again. We are expecting it to turn up at the Unclaimed Baggage outlets in Scottsboro, Boaz or Decatur (Alabama). I wonder how much he'll have to pay them to get his own flight case back, or how beat up it will be (if he ever sees it again). From then on he has always left his basses at home and just rented one when he gets to his destination.

What's the point to this story? Better damaged than stolen.

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I DO NOT CHOOSE TO BE A COMMON MAN

"It is my right to be uncommon...if I can; I seek opportunity...not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stole calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say,
This I have done, and this is what it means to be an American."

--Dean Alfrange
 
Dean, after reading about your friend's experience, I don't feel so bad. In fact, I guess I'm pretty lucky -- it could have been a whole lot worse!
 
here's a tale of simple human error rather than attempted larceny. Once I had to check out of the Omni Hotel in Atlanta some hours before I was done with work. I called the bellman up to the room to take my bag to the locked storeroom. He gave me a tag number and I gave him a tip. Hours later when I was ready to go and went to the lobby bell desk, they couldn't find the bag anywhere in the storeroom. The guy who I'd given it to was off duty. Eventually they got him on the phone. Here's what'd happened: in the upteen floors between my room and the lobby he experienced some sort of brain hiccup such that instead of taking my bag to the storeroom, he convinced himself that I was right behind him on my way to the airport. So he took my bag, which had important (to me) work papers in it, out to the curb at the hotel entrance and just left it there. In hindsight, it must have eventually got mixed in with some other bags and placed in a cab occupied by people flying to Newport News, Va. When they got to the airport they must have just waved at the pile of bags in the trunk and had the Skycap tag them all as their's. After my bag had been spinning around the carousel in Newport News for 3 full weeks the airline--it wasn't even my airline--gave me a call and I got the bag back. Good thing there weren't any khukuris in it.
 
Whenever I gotta go to L.A. I try to fly into Ontario instead of LAX. On one trip I had no choice and HAD to fly into LAX.

After landing, I zig-zaged through the sea of humanity to the baggage claim. Pretty soon the conveyor starts running, everyone happily grabs their bag and leaves. A few minutes later the conveyor stops, I'm standing there alone, empty handed, "Wha?"

So I go to the idontgiveadamn guy in the baggage office who really doesnotgiveadamn, "Fill this form out."

20 minutes and one baggage claim form later...

"Isn't there someone you can call?"

He makes a few phone calls and says, "They're sending one bag over from security. It came in on a different flight, maybe it's yours."

"Security? Wha?"

"Don't ask me."

I walk over to the conveyor as it starts running and my bag drops down--conveyor stops. It was one of those suit bags which folds in half. I immediately open it up to discover that all my stuff has been rummaged through. Even my trusty analog electric alarm clock has had the cord unwound. Nevertheless, everything's there, just jumbled. "What's up with this?," I'm thinking.

Pretty soon I'm sitting in the parking lot which doubles as as the Ventura Freeway. Nothing to do but accept the traffic, and be thankful the radio works.
Zen.
Suddenly, I realize what happened...

That morning,I was in a hurry, and in the top corner pocket I packed my alarm clock (with the cord neatly wound-up), next to a can of deodorant, tossed a spare cell phone battery on top, and tightly zipped it up.

Somewhere along the line they must've x-rayed the bag and you can imagine what the security guy thought he saw on his monochrome screen: a tubular container, a timing device, neatly wrapped wiring, and a battery.
eek.gif


 
Gutbuster, Chris S.

Paul


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Paul Neubauer
prn@bsu.edu
A tool is, basically, an object that enables you to take advantage of the laws of physics and mechanics in such a way that you can seriously injure yourself.
 
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