Carry-on carried off

I have a cautionary tale for those folks who stow their carry-ons in the first overhead space they come to when boarding a plane, even if it is far forward of where they’re seated.

On a flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on March 2, 2017, my husband, Bill, did just that. When it was time to deplane and we got to the spot where he’d stowed his bag, it wasn’t there. In its place was another one, not his. We figured someone had grabbed the wrong one by mistake.

We told the flight attendants and hurried to the baggage claim, where, though we had no bags coming in, we needed to go through Customs with everyone else. We ranged around the baggage claim area for at least 30 minutes looking at everyone’s bags. It didn’t help that at least three planes had arrived within minutes of ours, so the place was a zoo. Bill’s bag never appeared.

He reported the missing bag to everyone there who was in uniform and filled out forms with the carrier, Delta Air Lines, including the address where the bag should be delivered, if found.

When we arrived at the resort, we advised the desk of the problem, and the lady there said she’d be calling the airport and Delta every day.

Meanwhile, Bill bought a couple of T-shirts in town and borrowed a swimsuit from our friend. He was also able to buy the medications he needed at a pharmacy in town, since prescriptions weren’t needed for most of them. (The rule of always packing meds in a carry-on kind of broke down in this instance.)

On March 9, upon landing in Atlanta on our return, Bill’s cell phone once again worked and he received a voice-mail message from Delta telling him the bag was waiting for him in Atlanta. What?! How did it get back to Atlanta?

This message was only three days old, the bag having been found after four days of “doing its own thing” someplace. We arranged to have it sent on to Richmond, Virginia, on the plane we were taking. We picked it up at baggage claim, found nothing to be missing and we all lived happily ever after.

Although this story had a good ending, I hope it will serve the purpose of cautioning people against stowing their carry-ons where they cannot actually monitor them.

FLORENCE DRAKE
Readfield, ME