tyberius

This has been a bad bad trip.

AC misconnected me arriving in Toronto due to the crappy weather conditions yesterday (or the day before, my head is confused now). I was connecting on LOT to Warsaw. Taking off on the Dash 8, one hour delay on the tarmac, "sorry our auxillary power unit is not working so we can't control cabin temperature, just think of it as being in Cancun." OK, understood, nothing we can do about it but be patient.

Getting off the flight every AC agent refused to talk to me as soon as I said LOT even though I was coming off of an AC flight.

Had to make the long walk all the way down to the international terminal to get an AC agent to talk to me. Called Aeroplan as it was an AP ticket and AP and AC did the finger pointing about who was supposed to rebook me. Got a voucher for the Holiday Inn, called AC reservations to rebook, they put me on the next LOT flight.

Get into the hotel, check the seat map and find out LOT is using charters all this week I guess until the 787 returns on June 7th. So it was some carrier with a domestic business class out of Portugal and wasn't going to fly that overnight long haul. Called in and got the ticket switched to AC -> LH via Munich.

Got into the AC flight. "Sorry it's a bit stuffy in here. Our auxiliary power unit is not working. Things will get to normal once we leave."

Entire flight is delayed, sweating, waiting for the gally. So, no water, no nothing in Executive First. OK, patience still intact.

Arrive in Munich. Galley delay made me misconnect *again*. In the rush to try to get out to the flight, leave behind a plastic bag with two shirts, underwear and a bottle of Woodford Reserve in sealed duty free bag. Mind is only on rebooking the second frickin misconnect.

Go out and talk to the AC agents. They refuse to help. I say they misconnected me, they say go talk to Lufthansa.

So I go talk to Lufthansa, and realize my duty free bag is gone. Apparently this is very hard to retrieve in Germany. But they work on it very hard and also rebook me nicely onto the next flight.

Agent has to meet me at customs with the bag. He hands it over and says how will you get it through security. I said it's sealed. He says no it's not.

So I open it up and someone has switched a half empty 1 liter bottle of baileys for my Woodford Reserve.

So, three possible culprits:

1. flight staff
2. cleaning staff
3. passengers

Doubt it was the guy handing the bag to me because he'd have to get a half empty bottle of baileys out of nowhere.

So, who do you figure ripped me off?

What are the chances that AC is going to replace my bottle? (zero, thread closed)

Nice big F. U. to AC from me today. Two misconnects and then they steal my booze.

Well, someone took it. Someone with access to a half empty bottle of Baileys to switch into the bag.

padregusmao

Perhaps better to view it as a half full bottle of Bailey's.

xLuther

Just to clarify from YYZ on and back you were not on AC metal a little lost as to actual airlines you flew on ?

padregusmao

Seriously though sorry to hear of what sounds like a tiring journey. Hope Warsaw is better than the trip there.

Often1

All entirely irrelevant as to the booze. Could have been perfect flight with no delays and booze still stolen.

My recommendation is to move on. OP left the bottle. Tons of people had access to it and he will never ever determine who was responsible. Who is actually responsible? In a moral sense, it's the thief. In a pracitcal sense, nobody.

This was OP's own error and there's nothing to be done about it.

SFO777

Agree. Although my head still aches from trying to read OP's story.

montrealer

Reminds me...

About a year ago, flying home from Europe, weather problems. My first flight lands late at Heathrow, missed connection to Canada, confusion everywhere. As I'm figuring out options with my travel dept on the phone, see email from wife that we're out of Amaretto and something else, can I get some at duty free. Make mental note to grab some if I have time after rebooking. Get a yucky rebook on two airlines via ORD, but will get me home. Rush out of plane in ORD, grabbing duty free bag as well as my own bag from the overhead bin, zoom through U.S. immigration. Need to change terminals and with a curse realize that I can't take bottles through security for my remaining flight home. I manage to stuff bottles into rollerbag and check it just in the nick of time . I get home and do family stuff. I'm horrible about unpacking and only unzip my bag a few days later, open up the duty free that I've forgotten about...and discover two bottles of Cointreau instead.

Then it hits me...I didn't actually have time in Heathrow to buy anything

First inclination is to confess my thieving ways and get the Cointreau to its rightful owner, or at least pay them back. But we realize that with several days' delay, multiple airlines and multiple countries involved, the chance of that happening is precisely nil - and even if I miraculously found the right person, I couldn't even send them a Canadian cheque (vs US check) they could cash. We're still on the 2nd bottle, quite enjoyable once in a while.

My thieving karma was neutralized when a few months later I left a pair of headphones in a seat pocket. Realized it right after existing the airplane, but they were never "found". I can only hope the Cointreau drinker's karma deficit has also in some way been neutralized.

ffsim

I hate to see good booze go to waste as much as the next guy, but count your blessings that you still have clean underwear. Then go find the nearest bar, order a Woodford Reserve, and toast the fallen bottle.

Seriously, I know how you're feeling and I hate it. A moment of distraction caused by a million things going on around you and someone takes advantage of it. Just enjoy Poland.

ffsim

It's amazing how our minds work (or don't work) sometimes. Also, it's amazing how karma works

guessaaa

I like how we go from "flight crew, cleaning crew, or passengers stole my booze" to "AC stole my booze" in 4 lines without any rationale or justification. I don't see how you can blame AC. Claim it on credit card insurance and move on.

tyberius

You stopped reading before the last line.

tyberius

I was delayed 32 hours in total.

I do not have clean underwear.

On arrival in Poland walking to baggage claim I saw a girl behind the currency exchange counter run out and smash into a girl from Hong Kong trying to take a photo of the booth. Screaming at her "YOU ARE TRYING TO TAKE MY PICTURE I WILL CALL THE POLICE" and trying to grab her phone.

I told the HK girl to call the police and I would be a witness to the assault.

Police came, didn't speak english, took both of our passport numbers and used the tourist info to translate.

Guy said she was welcome to come back and take the other girl to court.

Didn't bother taking any ID or anything from the attacker.

Passerby before this said "Get on your flight and go home."

Burned an hour in the airport trying to support the victim.

Got to my hotel, they left me out a nice expensive bottle of mineral water.

But, and this is not a joke, someone drank half of it already. How can this even happen.

Enjoying Europe, enjoying Poland.

tyberius

Are you really sure about that? I'm not so sure, I'm going to go back and think about it a while. Maybe you might be right about that, but still, undecided.

If a passenger switched it while in flight then it's not my error.

Furthermore, leaving something behind on a plane does not entitle someone to steal it and substitute something else any more than leaving your door unlocked at your house entitles someone to take whatever is inside.

tyberius

Originally AC -> LOT.

Reroute AC -> AC -> LH ... duty free was stolen on the second AC flight.

AC misconnected both legs.

worldtraveller73

Sounds to me like a passenger mix up on the part of someone else collecting the wrong bag.

I can't see airline staff doing this, they have too much to lose. Busted for theft is a pretty fool proof way to end a flying career on a 1st world airline.