This is an interesting lost bag story. I was chatting with another FF (Jeff) in our office the other day and we were swapping traveling war stories. After I amused him with one of my “ordinary” lost luggage stories he became quite animated and told me that he had the “ultimate” lost baggage tale. I hope you find it as amusing as I did.

The original itinerary was for a Sunday departure from OAK connects in ORD to SDF for an early morning meeting on Monday. On Monday after the meeting the itinerary was SDF-ORD-EWR where he would spend the remainder of the week working in Northern New Jersey returning on Friday EWR-DEN-OAK.

The flight from OAK to ORD was delayed by weather problems in ORD. After arriving in ORD he had missed the last flight of the day to SDF. Since he could not arrive in SDF in time make the meeting he had planned to attend in SDF, he arranged to spend the night at ORD and continue on to EWR in the morning. He did not ask for his luggage, as the whole place was a zoo so he just zipped over to the Hilton for a few hours of shuteye before the morning flight. He was assured the luggage would be transferred to the EWR flight in the morning. I’m sure you can sense where Phase 1 of the lost luggage is headed..

Monday AM - Phase 1 – Of course when he arrived at EWR the bag was nowhere to be found. Everyone’s best guess was that it was in SDF. After obtaining permission to buy a few things to see him through until the bag arrived he headed off to work after giving United his pager, work phone etc. .After work that day he called United to inquire about the bag. Good news the bag had been found in SDF and would be delivered to his Hotel later that night. After checking into the Woodcliff Lake Hilton, he asked the front desk to hold the bag for him when it arrived so he would not be woken up.

Tuesday AM – Phase 1 – The bag had not arrived at the hotel in the morning. A call to United confirmed that the bag was still in SDF and they had screwed up moving it to EWR. United conceded the fact that he might need some additional clothing and gave him permission to buy some additional clothing items. They promised to deliver the bag to the hotel later that day. By now Jeff was getting leery and asked the hotel to page him when the bag arrived at the hotel. Sure enough the hotel paged him and when he called them he asked that they hold the bag at the front desk until he returned that evening. Little did he realize that the luggage odyssey was only beginning!

Tuesday PM – Phase 2 (AKA the Luggage Odyssey) – After having dinner with a few friends he arrived at the hotel about 20:00 and asked for his bag at the front desk. The desk could not find the bag and Jeff assumed they had put it in his room. Alas, it was not there and he returned to the front desk. A fruitless search entailed. The hotel admitted the bag had arrived but were clueless on where it could be. Jeff needed some additional clothing items and the hotel agreed to pay for some more clothes. After snagging some more clean clothes Jeff returned to the hotel. Still no sign of the bag.

Wednesday PM – Phase 2 – The bag has been located in BOSTON! Seems that a tour group had stopped at the hotel and his bag that was being held at the bell stand had been inadvertently been loaded on the bus with the rest of the tour group luggage. The bag was coming on a bus and someone from the hotel would go pick it up and hold it for him until the morning.

Thursday AM – You have to laugh phase - No bag. It had missed the bus. Need more clothes? No problem! Go buy what you need. The bag will be in later today.

Thursday PM – You want to cry phase - No bag. Another boggle in Boston – the bag was on the way. Go buy yourself something pretty.

Friday AM – I want to go home phase -No bag – New dilemma - a weeks worth of new clothing and no suitcase to pack it in. Solution – hotel springs for a new suitcase.

Sorry for the long story but I found his story rather amusing and agreed I could not top this one. Jeff is 1K on United and Diamond at Hilton and was not shy about asking for what he needed. It would seem that both United and Hilton tried to make the best of a bad situation.

PS - The next week when he arrived back at the same hotel his bag and a nice gift basket were waiting for him in his room.