I dare not post this to Twitter or Facebook because my friends will be upset that I'm mentioning this.
But this weekend trip to Walt Disney World I just got back from? My husband and I were in a party of 5, and of our group, 2 of them had some major luggage problems.
Person #1: Mechanical problems with the original plane. It was deemed that she would miss her connection, so the airline put her on a slightly later, but *direct* flight to the destination. She arrived earlier than originally planned, even with the delay from the original plane. The problem? Her check-ins didn't get transferred to the new direct flight. Did they fly on that mechanically problematic plane? No, because it was deemed unflight-worthy. Instead, they left her luggage in LAX (on the tarmac?) for hours until they transferred her bags to another plane that would wind up making the same connection as the person... much later in the day.
When she arrived at Orlando International, she had to go to the Delta baggage service counter downstairs at the carousel. I don't know what she had in her carry-on, but what she didn't have was her toiletries, or anything to sleep in for that night. She had no change of clothing, either.
When we got to the resort, she had to go to the gift shop to see if she could find a large T-shirt she could wear as a nightie.
A while later, one of her suitcases showed up. Yay. She was lucky; it was the one with her toiletries and her change of clothes.
However, we were all there for the marathon weekend, and her running shoes were in the as-yet missing bag.
Fortunately, it showed up in the wee hours of the morning.
Person #2: She was running back to back on two half-marathons so she packed two full sets of running gear. She was wise to carry all of that in her carry-on, which was, in effect, her gym bag. Her check-in? Apparently landed in Orlando with her, but somehow it went off to do its own thing, and Disney did not have the bag for her when she arrived via Disney's airport shuttle bus to the hotel.
Her bag finally showed up, also sometime in the evening.
In the meantime, my husband carried everything (including his running togs and shoes) in his Tri-Star, while I carried all my stuff in a Western Flyer. I recently bought the waist strap for the Western Flyer, so I just wore mine like a backpack. We got up at 0-dark-hundred and walked to the BART station, to ride BART to SFO... but oops; we fell asleep, and wound up in Daly City, a bit past where we wanted to transfer to the airport BART train. We didn't want to be late, so we quickly rushed off of the station and hopped into our cab (done easily since we each only had our one bag).
Made it to the airport in plenty of time to check in AND get some to-go food for the flight. We would've boarded earlier but we like putting our bags in the overhead (Virgin lets you board early if you have no carry-ons, or you can put your carry-on under the seat in front of you).
Those bags were with us the entire time. We were on direct flights, and had no mechanical problems or delays on our flight.
But I could see where big rolling uprights and such would be a possible pain point (like when we decided just to catch a cab). I gotta say, I so love traveling light!
Oh, and I *LOVE* those waist straps. They're nothing fancy, but they keep my WF from jostling around when I walk fast.
But this weekend trip to Walt Disney World I just got back from? My husband and I were in a party of 5, and of our group, 2 of them had some major luggage problems.
Person #1: Mechanical problems with the original plane. It was deemed that she would miss her connection, so the airline put her on a slightly later, but *direct* flight to the destination. She arrived earlier than originally planned, even with the delay from the original plane. The problem? Her check-ins didn't get transferred to the new direct flight. Did they fly on that mechanically problematic plane? No, because it was deemed unflight-worthy. Instead, they left her luggage in LAX (on the tarmac?) for hours until they transferred her bags to another plane that would wind up making the same connection as the person... much later in the day.
When she arrived at Orlando International, she had to go to the Delta baggage service counter downstairs at the carousel. I don't know what she had in her carry-on, but what she didn't have was her toiletries, or anything to sleep in for that night. She had no change of clothing, either.
When we got to the resort, she had to go to the gift shop to see if she could find a large T-shirt she could wear as a nightie.
A while later, one of her suitcases showed up. Yay. She was lucky; it was the one with her toiletries and her change of clothes.
However, we were all there for the marathon weekend, and her running shoes were in the as-yet missing bag.
Fortunately, it showed up in the wee hours of the morning.
Person #2: She was running back to back on two half-marathons so she packed two full sets of running gear. She was wise to carry all of that in her carry-on, which was, in effect, her gym bag. Her check-in? Apparently landed in Orlando with her, but somehow it went off to do its own thing, and Disney did not have the bag for her when she arrived via Disney's airport shuttle bus to the hotel.
Her bag finally showed up, also sometime in the evening.
In the meantime, my husband carried everything (including his running togs and shoes) in his Tri-Star, while I carried all my stuff in a Western Flyer. I recently bought the waist strap for the Western Flyer, so I just wore mine like a backpack. We got up at 0-dark-hundred and walked to the BART station, to ride BART to SFO... but oops; we fell asleep, and wound up in Daly City, a bit past where we wanted to transfer to the airport BART train. We didn't want to be late, so we quickly rushed off of the station and hopped into our cab (done easily since we each only had our one bag).
Made it to the airport in plenty of time to check in AND get some to-go food for the flight. We would've boarded earlier but we like putting our bags in the overhead (Virgin lets you board early if you have no carry-ons, or you can put your carry-on under the seat in front of you).
Those bags were with us the entire time. We were on direct flights, and had no mechanical problems or delays on our flight.
But I could see where big rolling uprights and such would be a possible pain point (like when we decided just to catch a cab). I gotta say, I so love traveling light!
Oh, and I *LOVE* those waist straps. They're nothing fancy, but they keep my WF from jostling around when I walk fast.
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