AIR TRAVEL AND BAGGAGE HANDLING - 655

  

   AIR TRAVEL AND BAGGAGE 

                  HANDLING 

The recent clip in The Hindu Newspaper  under the caption ,

" The Thief That Was Not To Be "

has set me thinking . This coming as it does from a person who has quite a few  International Arrival Stampings on his Passport must make up for an amusing read .

One aspect of the Air Travel which has always seemed  a daunting task is getting  your luggage back at the end of your journey .

A : Finding the right Carousel earmarked for your flight is itself a problem to start with . The carousel number announced while you were inside the Aircraft for some strange reason does not match with the actual one in the Baggage Collection Area . In Large Airports where they have close to 10 or more Carousels , this becomes an even 
more difficult task .

B : Finding your luggage amongst the 100 s of similar looking Suitcases is always a big task . There are many who have their own way of identifying their Baggage .It could be  fastening of  coloured ribbons or pasting  glistening stickers on to your suitcases . It almost seems a miracle that you are still able to find your baggage .

C : Once ,  on our way to Manchester from Bangalore with a transit at London's Heathrow Airport , due to A  System Failure all flights were cancelled  till further notice at London's Heathrow.  Imagine more than 500 flights awaiting take off to various destinations across the Globe being cancelled halfway through their journey . The Luggage , thousands and thousands of Suitcases  were stacked  in a chalk marked enclosure  to indicate the Arrival Flight Number . We had  decided to proceed to Leeds where my son was then staying by train and claim our refund at a later date . Finding our luggage at a place  which  would have put our own Vickramasingapuram Sunday Market on the eve of a Chitra Vishu  to shame is an understatement.  That we did find our luggage and also found our way to Leeds was nothing short of a miracle and a divine blessing .

D : This one  is the most tricky one . Our almost annual trip to Regina in Canada has always been via Toronto or Calgary as the first port of landing in Canada . During departure at Chennai , Bangalore or Mumbai , while being handed over the  Boarding Passes  we are always informed  that the luggage will be handed over to us at Regina , our final destination .
For some strange reason this is not a set rule. Barring once , we have always had to take our luggage at Toronto and again rebook it on the flight to Regina . There is no uniformity and it is still a mystery as to what the actual rules actually are .

E : Getting hold of your Luggage at the Airport Carousel is one thing but finding your luggage missing altogether is always  sets you back in many ways  especially if it is in a sacred place like VARANASI where the CONTENTS inside the boxes have a  special meaning and are the VERY  reason of your visit to the sacred place . It took almost 2 days of constant pressure to get the luggage delivered back to us during one such visit .

AIR TRAVEL MAY BE ALL EXCITING IN MANY WAYS BUT BAGGAGE HANDLING IS SADLY NOT ONE OF THEM .