Lost Carry On Bag?

The true story offers unforgettable lessons you can use just in case you lose yours

Strange statement! Considering that cabin bag invariably rests overhead, literaly just over our seats. Also, we Indians are up from our seats moment the plane comes to a halt after landing. Promptly, we pull the baggage compartment above. We remove our bag and hold it securely. Or wait till we begin to disembark, keeping a hawk’s eye on it.

Yet, my friend’s wife lost her cabin bag few days back. She was returning to Mumbai from Kandla, a small port town in Gujarat. It’s a fascinating story, especially the end. Read on.

Forgot!

His wife was returning from her school excursion to Kutch in Gujarat. Along with 38 eleven-year-old students and five other teachers. She forgot her bag in the departure lounge at Kandla airport. She realized her mistake the moment she boarded the aircraft. She pleaded with the airline staff to let her fetch it, but permission was denied. The crew, in fact blocked her way, lest she gets adventurous.

Her persistence perhaps made them relent eventually. “We’ll get it. Please describe your bag.” She did. And they brought it within minutes. Relieved, she deposited it into the overhead cabin stowage. And sat back to enjoy her flight back.

Once she landed in Mumbai, she picked up her belongings, and stepped out of the airport, leading the students as she wheeled her bag. A minute after she bid farewell to the last one, she realized the bag looked and felt, eh…a little different! Same color, similar dimensions, weighed about the same. But this bag wasn’t hers!

Thus began her ordeal.

One counter to the other

Hearing her story over the phone, my friend advised her to go back to the conveyer belt and catch hold of someone from the airline. To confirm, he even called the airline helpline and explained the situation. The executive on the other end suggested his wife should contact the ‘lost and found’ counter at the airport instead. He dutifully passed on the tip to her.

She wasn’t allowed inside the airport, so there was no way she could contact any airline staff near conveyor belt. The search for ‘lost and found’ counter took her to departure section. The counter was shut — operated only between 9 am and 5 pm!

Frustrated, she approached the airline ticket counter. A staff member behind the countere directed her to meet airport security. “Only they can access the CCTV footage at Kandla and would be in best position to trace your bag,” he informed her authoritatively.

She struggled to find airport security section. Eventually when she did, the security pesonnel shooed her off, firmly telling her, “Please contact airline counter.”

Harried, she retraced her steps to airline ticket counter. This time a different executive, but more understanding, suggested she calls airline’s helpline and lodge a complaint.

She did just that. Meanwhile, my friend too did the same proactively from his phone! “Two complaints for the same problem should be better than one!” he concluded after he heard his wife’s story. Helpline’s advise: ‘please go home with the bag’. At long last, she was home, more than 4 hours after she had landed.

A long frustrating evening for a small mistake, she reprimanded herself.

Help arrived!

Once home, she spoke to her school head, who in turn requested the travel agency to help. Thankfully, the travel agency was run by one of the parent, so action followed swiftly. The ‘parent’ asked her to share details of her bag along with its photograph and a list of contents inside. He assured her he’ll have news for her ‘soon enough’.

Bad news inside the bag!

Curious, my friend and his wife decided to open the mistaken bag they now had. To their utter dismay, they discovered it was full of packaged food. And nothing else! Theplas, khakra, Haldiram namkeen, etc. Their hopes of recovering her bag immediately dashed. It was highly unlikely that the owner of the bag would bother to make an effort to recover a few hundred rupees worth of food stuff, they reasoned.

Later in the day, when my friend recounted me the story, I couldn’t help but agree with his assessment. Still, I had to add my bit. “I’m sure this person who’s bag you have is a male, may have visited Kandla on business, and perhaps picked up food stuff to take abroad. He must have been in a hurry, reason why he mistakenly picked your wife’s bag,” I commented, wearing my Sherlock Holmes cap. “Why else would anyone carry a bag full of Indian namkeens? He must be sitting somewhere abroad now.”

He seemed to agree. “Sounds realistic.”

“But if he’s still in Mumbai, I’m sure he’ll contact,” I tried to reassure.

But his wife was unconvinced. “I might as well say goodbye to my bag and clothes and my precious shopping from Kandla,” she bemoaned.

Post our discussion, my friend and his wife planned how they’ll distribute the food articles, and to whom.

Anti-climax

Later in the next afternoon, however, the travel agency ‘parent’ called to inform his wife that her bag had been found! “It never left Kandla,” he said.

The person, who’s bag she had, was screaming at the airport staff, raising hell! Upon being informed that his bag is now with someone else in Mumbai, he insisted on looking at his bag’s picture and the contents inside to confirm before swapping it with the bag he had. The pictures were sent to him promptly. He was satisfied.

A bit of an anti-climax? But a happy one.

Next, his wife was asked to go to the airport and deposit the bag at the same airline counter. “The bag will be sent to Kandla, and your bag will be brought back. Once we have your bag, you can collect it from here,” the executive at the counter informed her .

Her bag arrived the following day. My friend and his wife drove down to the airport yet again, but this time, to collect her bag. Ironically, the executive at the counter was the one who’d misdirected her to report the loss to airport security three days ago.

Lesson

Big lesson to learn is following:

If you realise your cabin bag is missing, raise an alarm while you are inside the aircraft cabin.

That is the only time airline staff can help — they can stop the bus, make announcement inside the bus, a staff member can contact passengers heading towards the arrival lounge.

If you miss doing that, simply call airline helpline and file a complaint (take complaint number), deposit the ‘wrong’ bag you have, and then just follow-up with airline till your bag is found and brought back. And don’t forget to wish yourself a lot of luck. Because, an airline doesn’t accept any responsibility for loss of cabin baggage.

Making noise is the only thing that might work.