At Delta, We Know How Important Your Baggage is to YOU...

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that I spent my Friday traveling from Savannah, GA to Atlanta, GA to Minneapolis, MN on my way back home from a conference. You also know that I kept making "jokes" about hoping my luggage didn't get lost in Atlanta. Now, allow me to tell you a story.........

On the way down to Savannah, I purposely flew via Cincinnati since even though I've never had a problem with missed flights, lost luggage, or any sort of general cock-up in Atlanta in several trips through there....I've heard stories of woe from pretty much everyone else I know who has. So, to minimize problems getting to my conference, because the flights I would take would have only a 50 minute layover in Atlanta, and because I've recently embarked on a mission to see every major airport in the US, I routed myself through Cincinnati. I also didn't check my bag. In fact, I had gone out and made a special trip to get a bag that was both small enough to fly carry-on and big enough to hold my things for 4 days. But! I flew from MSP to Cinci on a very tiny Canadair Regional jet, then I flew from Cinci to Savannah on a plane that was somehow smaller than that, so no one's luggage fit in the overhead bins anyway and I had to gate check things. However, they were nice and gave them back to me when I arrived at each of my destinations. No problems, no delays, everything was in order.

On the way home, I managed to score flights with a 2.5 hour layover in Atlanta. It'd been awhile since I'd visited Hartsfield-Jackson, and I figured I was on my way home so even if they somehow canceled/delayed my flight it wouldn't impact me that much. So I flew through Atlanta. Again, I'd gotten my carry-on bag to try to minimize cock-ups in ATL, so I was feeling pretty ok. When I got to Savannah, they made me gate check my bag again. I expected that they would then just give it back to me in Atlanta and I could go on my way, but such was not the case. Instead, they took it, then asked me where my final destination was. I told them. I even GAVE them my boarding pass from ATL to MSP to show them the flight number and my name. They said they'd fill out the gate check tag, bring me the stub, and it would be waiting in baggage claim at MSP. I double-checked this by asking, "Baggage in MSP? I'm not picking it up in Atlanta? Pick it up in baggage claim at MSP?" They said yes. I foolishly trusted them. They brought me a stub from a supposed gate check ticket that they supposedly correctly filled out and supposedly put on my bag. I still foolishly trusted them.

So....I happily went on my way. I spent a delightful 2-and-a-half hours wandering about Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport buying some things, eating a delicious southern dinner (chicken, collard greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and a coke) from Paschal's in the airport. Then I boarded my plane, bid a fond farewell to Atlanta, and headed back to MSP. Where I went to baggage claim with a joking comment on my Twitter page about "the moment of truth". I wasn't serious. But. Delta was.

So......they lost my bag. Which doesn't have a scan tag on it because it was gate checked. Heck, I don't even know if it has a GATE CHECK tag on it. I don't know if the tag was even filled out correctly. And no one at Delta seems to know or care where it went.

I briefly came home for an appointment, then I headed back over to the airport to sit in front of baggage carousel 6 and wait for all bags from subsequent flights from Atlanta. I even went and checked on flights from Hartford, Connecticut since that's where my plane from Savannah to Atlanta was going next. No luck. And all the not-so-nice, not-so-caring, completely not helpful baggage agents at MSP (who are conveniently located at a desk immediately next to the carousel where all the bags from Atlanta end up) would tell me was that no one had scanned it yet so they couldn't do anything. I kept telling them that it didn't have a scan tag so no one WOULD scan it, but they didn't seem to care. They just gave me a $25 off coupon and a thing to redeem for 1,000 bonus miles. Great. Because I want to fly with you some more.

And so......after 12 hours and hanging out in Baggage Claim at MSP for 4 hours......my stuff is STILL lost somewhere in Atlanta. Here's hoping someone happens upon it and decides to get it where it needs to go.

EDIT: Saturday morning---The Delta agent last night assured me that it would more than likely come in on the overnight flight and someone would call me in the morning. They haven't.

EDIT: The nice folks in baggage in Connecticut returned my call to tell me they hadn't seen anything. Which, I appreciate. They actually took the time to call me back to tell me. And they were polite about it. Beats the folks at MSP who couldn't care less about my problem.

EDIT: Saturday night---still nothing. At all. No one cares.

EDIT: Sunday morning---a nice woman called from Delta in Pensacola, FL to tell me they had a bag here with no scan tag, no destination tag, no gate check tag, only my luggage tag with my address/phone number. I thanked her profusely and informed her that it was to go to MSP. She told me it will come at 3:15PM. I could kiss that lady. The folks at MSP are once again going to get dirty looks when I go over there to get it. Especially if they don't call me to tell me it's coming in.

So.....Pensacola, Florida. That's exactly where I would have thought to send it. Way to rock Delta, gate agents in Savannah, and the still overly uncaring people working the help desk in MSP. At least SOMEONE found my stuff and is sending it my way.

EDIT: At around 4 I happened to be out looking for plastic fencing for a super-secret special project so I just swung into the airport to see if my bag had arrived since no one at the MSP desk had called me about it yet. There it was. Sitting at the luggage carousel with no one paying it any mind whatsoever. So, apparently it got there on time, but no one at the desk had bothered to check on the bags that were just sitting at the carousel. Honestly. What stops people from just hanging out in baggage claim and stealing luggage???

BUT! My things have made their triumphant return home. And it doesn't even look like anyone had opened it up or anything. By some weird miracle. And the desk lady today reassured me that it probably got to Florida because "sometimes the bags just get left on the plane on accident." Fan-freaking-tastic.