Baggage Handling - 682

  AIR TRAVEL AND BAGGAGE                             HANDLING 

The clip in yesterday s The Hindu under the caption

" The Thief That Was Not To Be "

has set me thinking . This coming as this does from a person who has more than 40 International Arrival Stampings on his Passport must make for an amusing read .

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

A : Finding the right carousel earmarked for your flight is in itself a problem as more often than not as in large Airports the Bay Number announced inside the Aircraft before touchdown  is often different from the actual one on the ground .

B : Finding your luggage amongst the 100 s of similar looking ones is always a daunting task . There are many who try and make the identification easier by fastening  coloured ribbons , glistening stickers on to the suitcases . It is almost a miracle that you are still able to find your baggage from the other similar looking suitcases .

C : Once on 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 world being cancelled halfway through their journey . The Luggage , thousands and thousands of them  stacked  in a chalk marked place indicating the Arrival  Flight Number left us all in a confused state . We decided to proceed to Leeds where my son was staying by Train and claim our refund at a later date . Finding our luggage in a place which would have put our own KOYEMBEDU Market to shame is an understatement.  That we did find our luggage and also found our way to Leeds was nothing short of a miracle .

D : This 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 Pass we are always informed that the luggage will be handed over to us at Regina .

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 are .

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

AIR TRAVEL MAY BE EXCITING IN MANY WAYS BUT BAGGAGE HANDLING

IS NOT ONE OF THEM .