This is not a good way to start a vacation

If I could single handedly bring down NWA/Delta airlines, believe me, I would.

I landed at JFK yesterday morning to find that my luggage did not arrive with me. I was pretty proud of myself - I handled it pretty calmly. I kind of had a bad feeling when I left Minneapolis because the person who checked me in was super confused - she thought I had 2 bags to check but then realized she was looking at a different person's baggage ticket and not mine. I am kicking myself for not looking down at my suitcase to see what 3 digit code was on my baggage ticket. But I trusted the NWA employee, and headed to my gate.

Last night, the JFK lost baggage person told me that my bag had been found & was being sent to my friend's apartment. It arrived at midnight & Alissa's fiance went down to get it. I freaked out when I opened the door and saw that he was holding this small little duffle bag. It had my baggage claim ticket on it, so the person that checked me in must have put my baggage tag on this bag, and put some random dude's ticket on my bag.

I'll spare you the details of the 15+ calls I've made to various people at NWA's lost luggage department, but suffice it to say it has not been a pleasant experience. I was starting to feel rather hopeless so Alissa & I decided to do some investigation of our own. The duffle bag didn't have any identification, so Alissa handed me some surgical latex gloves and we started exploring the contents of the duffle bag. We found some Medtronic polo's with a division name on them, so Alissa googled the division, found a phone number, and called and left a message. We knew it was a long shot, but at this point, I was willing to try anything.

Miraculously, two extremely helpful Medtronic people called me back. The 2nd person was able to tell me whose bag I had in my position and told me where he was flying to - aka, where my bag most likely is.

Ladies & gentleman, my bag is in Mexico City. Great. Not exactly the kind of place I want my bag sitting around, unattended. Not that I have anything against Mexico City, but I'd feel a heck of a lot better knowing it was sitting in a place like Cleveland, OH or something like that.

So yah. Vacation is really not off to a great start. Despite the luggage debacle, I am having a great time. I just really hope that someone can help me tomorrow - the person I spoke to tonight at NWA said she can't call Mexico City because it's International & she doesn't have their phone number. WTF??

So yah, lessons learned:

1. Don't fly NWA.
2. If you have to fly NWA, don't check your luggage.
3. If you do check your luggage, check the tag they put on your bag.

I promise all further blog posts, which will happen upon my return, will be of a positive nature.

Time to drink a glass of wine. It's been a bit of a stressful/tense day.