Carla Schoepfle

Last weekend Pete and I flew to Indianapolis, IN for Pete’s dad’s birthday.  Apparently I’m batting 100% for lost/delayed luggage when I fly from Indianapolis to Washington National Airport.  And because of the new regulations - all my toiletries (yes including my prescriptions) were in my checked luggage!  Luckily I had a refills of my prescriptions here at home (and I was flying home), and my makeup store was still open (Yes - I really did purchase all my makeup again.  And yes - I know this is shallow).   

We finally got our luggage back Monday night.  We were supposed to get it back Sunday night (about 5 hours after it’d been lost) but the driver felt it was too late to call (as if someone who’s just lost luggage is going to be upset with a late night call saying - “your luggage is here”).   

Then the lazy driver never called the alternate numbers (i.e. the work number) and was wondering why he couldn’t reach me at home (um… Hello - it’s Monday during business hours - aren’t many people at work on a Monday? Wouldn’t that be a good number to try?)  

So I finally reached him late afternoon.  This is after calling the voice mail 5 times and getting routed to a “select a mailbox to retrieve voice mail from” message (his boss said that this is how the phone is setup and that the driver would eventually answer).  When I reach the driver, I’m informed that he needs to get delivery instructions before attempting a delivery (so the card from the airlines that you hang on your door where you can check “leave luggage at back door” and then sign your name is apparently useless and not part of their process).   

So then Mr. lazy driver lets me know that he’s approximately 30 miles away and it’ll be “seeevvveeerrraaaaaal …. hooouuuurs … ” before he’s back in my area.  But at that point in time he’ll be happy to leave it on the back door.    

However, I have my luggage back.  I’ll have to re-organize my packing strategy for my future flying (to ensure I have my prescriptions and contact lens container are actually on my person) since the new restrictions don’t allow all of my toiletries to be part of my carry-on.