I flew from Providence, RI to Philadelphia, PA on February 15th, the
day *after* the massive snowstorm. US Airways continued to insist
that the flight was only an hour late, right up until the time the
plane was scheduled to board, at which time they finally admitted
that the plane was actually still in Philadelphia, waiting for a take-
off slot on the sole functioning runway.
When I finally got to Philly, about 3 hours late, I had missed my
connecting flight to Paris on Air France. They took off about 5
minutes before I got there. Fortunately for *my* travel, US Airways
themselves had an underbooked flight to Paris leaving slightly later
that evening, and I was able to use my Air France ticket with them.
They also rebooked me onto a later Air France Paris-Venice flight.
The situation with my bags (checked through onto the already-departed
Air France flight) was noted by the US Airways agent right then and
there. I was led to understand that the worst-case scenario would put
my bags on the same Air France flights the following day, putting
them 24 hours behind me.
Upon arrival in Venice, I went to the "Lost Baggage Claim", and gave
them the basic bag descriptions, and baggage tag numbers. They
provided me with a small emergency kit (T-shirt, toothbrush and
paste, razor and deodorant), and told me that I was entitled to claim
100 Euros for replacement expenses. They gave me a dossier number,
and contact information.
I received my "non-costume" bag less than 2 days later. This seemed
to have come in according to procedure, but there was no trace of the
"costume" suitcase. Air France's first assumption is apparently that
a bag has gone missing at Charles de Gaulle, even though they can't
actually tell. I made sure - repeatedly - to suggest to them that
they needed to check whether US Airways ever handed the bag over to
them, especially in light of the
other missing luggage!
At this point, I have sent in my receipts to claim my 100 Euros, and
I've provided Air France with a detailed inventory of the bag and
it's contents via fax and mail. If they fail to turn it up, they are
liable for a whopping $400, unless there's some happy EU law that
supercedes the small-print on the tickets I was issued. I may have
some redress through the VISA card which I used to purchase the plane
ticket and some of the contents, but I'm not ready to deal with that
yet. . .
In case anyone wants to look for it, here's a photo:
It's the ~22" Swiss Army Werks 2.0 upright in nasty green (shouldn't
be hard to spot!)
Unfortunately, the nice Swiss Army/Victorinox people don't want your
name tag to be lost, so it's on a bright red plastic thing which
slides down into the top of the bag, just behind the pull-handle
(meaning you kind of have to know it's there, even if it is bright
red). My fear is that some baggage mangler managed to tear off the
bar-code tag, and they haven't been bright enough to a) find the
cleverly hidden name tag, or b) open the dang suitcase, where the
first thing they'd see is a full-page receipt from Cellular Abroad,
which includes my name and address.
Just in case the manglers didn't rip the bar-codes off, the number is
0037 US 058325, and the bag was checked through Philadelphia on to
Paris then Venice, so it had the CDG and VCE codes in nice big letters. I
can be reached at:
r o b e s p i e r r e t t e - a t - y a h o o . c o m
I am offering a reward for information leading to the return of my costume.
Here are photos of the various pieces. Click on the thumbnails to see the images in more detail:
The Full Ensemble
Cuff Detail
Cape Front
Bodice Front
Muff