Dinner in San Diego, luggage in LA...
None but a blockhead
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Dinner in San Diego, luggage in LA...
Well, not quite. Close, though.
Just back from LHR-LAX-SAN, SAN-SFO-LHR. First leg on BA, all subsequent on United. Nothing like longhaul in United to remind oneself how spoiled even Y-class pax are on Virgin... the first time in ages I haven't been able to choose my seat, so welcome to the geometric centre of a 777. Channel 9 was nice, though; hearing the ride reports further along the track really did help.
Anyway. The LAX-SAN leg was on an Embraer EMB-120, which deposited us in San Diego pretty much on time at around 19:00 - but without our bags. My companion's bags turned up on the subsequent flight, but mine were swilling around in LAX until much later. I decided to go to the hotel anyway -- hanging around the airport and missing dinner wasn't attractive. The nice lady who took my details promised that the bags would be ferried to the hotel when they arrived "probably on the 11 o'clock. That's one of the big planes", and they duly turned up at 1am, where the severely zonked SLF was awoken for the emotional reunion.
I thought bags weren't supposed to travel without their owners? But that's not the strangest part of it: when we arrived at SAN, we noticed that there were a load of bags hanging around by themselves next to the carousel. When the next flight came in - the one with my companion's impedimenta - some of its pax found their luggage had already been delivered and was among the stuff that had been cooling its heels since before our arrival on the flight before.
What on earth is going on? Given that we had to go through immigration and practically out of the airport at LAX before handing our bags back in - a few yards away from an open door to the outside - the security implications are not insignificant if someone works out how to game the system.
On the SAN-SFO-LHR return, a completely different process was in place - we were delayed on the first leg due to an overflowing bog, and time was very tight to make the connection. We didn't go through security a second time; instead, we were shown to an unlabelled door behind which a bus took us through the backside of LAX to what looked like a employee-only lift (judging from the signs) that took us right to the heart of the departure gate. Nobody asked us about liquids at any point either, which given United's $5-a-beer policy would have been useful gen!
R
Just back from LHR-LAX-SAN, SAN-SFO-LHR. First leg on BA, all subsequent on United. Nothing like longhaul in United to remind oneself how spoiled even Y-class pax are on Virgin... the first time in ages I haven't been able to choose my seat, so welcome to the geometric centre of a 777. Channel 9 was nice, though; hearing the ride reports further along the track really did help.
Anyway. The LAX-SAN leg was on an Embraer EMB-120, which deposited us in San Diego pretty much on time at around 19:00 - but without our bags. My companion's bags turned up on the subsequent flight, but mine were swilling around in LAX until much later. I decided to go to the hotel anyway -- hanging around the airport and missing dinner wasn't attractive. The nice lady who took my details promised that the bags would be ferried to the hotel when they arrived "probably on the 11 o'clock. That's one of the big planes", and they duly turned up at 1am, where the severely zonked SLF was awoken for the emotional reunion.
I thought bags weren't supposed to travel without their owners? But that's not the strangest part of it: when we arrived at SAN, we noticed that there were a load of bags hanging around by themselves next to the carousel. When the next flight came in - the one with my companion's impedimenta - some of its pax found their luggage had already been delivered and was among the stuff that had been cooling its heels since before our arrival on the flight before.
What on earth is going on? Given that we had to go through immigration and practically out of the airport at LAX before handing our bags back in - a few yards away from an open door to the outside - the security implications are not insignificant if someone works out how to game the system.
On the SAN-SFO-LHR return, a completely different process was in place - we were delayed on the first leg due to an overflowing bog, and time was very tight to make the connection. We didn't go through security a second time; instead, we were shown to an unlabelled door behind which a bus took us through the backside of LAX to what looked like a employee-only lift (judging from the signs) that took us right to the heart of the departure gate. Nobody asked us about liquids at any point either, which given United's $5-a-beer policy would have been useful gen!
R
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That's happened to me a couple of times in the states - bags arriving on the flight BEFORE mine, although I've never actually had it delayed over there 
. There have been previous threads and I seem to remember that the consensus was - this sort of unaccompanied bag is less of a security risk because it's difficult for a 'baddie' to engineer the situation to their advantage. That said, if you deliberatley book a flight with a longer connection time than necessary (to have a meal and a beer, plain spot, whatever turns you on) there seems to be a fair chance that your bags will make the connection you rejected.
More important than the miniscule security risk to me was the fact that my bag, with some expensive camera gear in it, was just dumped for 2 hours in the arrivals hall where anybody alse could have picked it up and taken it! Remember that the baggage hall is landside and the luggage belts are open to the public to wonder in off the street - that's where many people "meet their party"
now. Surely bags just left in a pile like that are asking to get pilfered.
. There have been previous threads and I seem to remember that the consensus was - this sort of unaccompanied bag is less of a security risk because it's difficult for a 'baddie' to engineer the situation to their advantage. That said, if you deliberatley book a flight with a longer connection time than necessary (to have a meal and a beer, plain spot, whatever turns you on) there seems to be a fair chance that your bags will make the connection you rejected.More important than the miniscule security risk to me was the fact that my bag, with some expensive camera gear in it, was just dumped for 2 hours in the arrivals hall where anybody alse could have picked it up and taken it! Remember that the baggage hall is landside and the luggage belts are open to the public to wonder in off the street - that's where many people "meet their party"
now. Surely bags just left in a pile like that are asking to get pilfered.
None but a blockhead
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I'm not worried by the security risk, particularly. Anyone who goes through an airport with their eyes open and their brain on will know that a smart, determined terrorist would have no problem getting whatever they wanted through - and terrorism in general is not and has never been much of a statistical risk for most people. It's just that practices like this highlight the absurdity of much that's said and done 'for our safety'.
Much higher chance of getting bags nicked, of course, but that's true of so much of the baggage handling system! The more I fly, the more I learn to pack my portable life into the carry-on. Always assuming, of course, that I'm allowed to carry anything actually useful on in the first place... next time, I might just turn up in Speedos with my passport and credit card hanging from a string around my neck.
R
Much higher chance of getting bags nicked, of course, but that's true of so much of the baggage handling system! The more I fly, the more I learn to pack my portable life into the carry-on. Always assuming, of course, that I'm allowed to carry anything actually useful on in the first place... next time, I might just turn up in Speedos with my passport and credit card hanging from a string around my neck.
R
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Its a nice rule, but...
I think air carriers around the states tend to stick more to a policy of bag match at origination, rather than bag match at connection. Since so much travel is done via hubs around these parts, connections aren't always as seamless as one may think. I've had my bags on my connecting flight, the prior connecting flight, and the next flight (despite a 3-hr weather delay at the connecting city). My guess would be that an assumption is made that if you're ticketed to pass through a hub and make the first flight, your bags are ok to go onto a flight before yours.
I've been able to use that to get routed on earlier connecting flights. I was initially told that if I had checked baggage I couldn't move to an earlier flight because passengers must remain with the luggage. I asked then if they could promise me that my luggage would stay with me on my flight rather than be loaded onto the earlier flight and be an easy target for theft as it sat around at my final destination. That elicited a rather nasty look and standby status for the earlier flight. In the end, the earlier flight was so delayed (though still earlier) that I took the later one I was ticketed on. And yes, my bags were sent on the previous flight.
I've been able to use that to get routed on earlier connecting flights. I was initially told that if I had checked baggage I couldn't move to an earlier flight because passengers must remain with the luggage. I asked then if they could promise me that my luggage would stay with me on my flight rather than be loaded onto the earlier flight and be an easy target for theft as it sat around at my final destination. That elicited a rather nasty look and standby status for the earlier flight. In the end, the earlier flight was so delayed (though still earlier) that I took the later one I was ticketed on. And yes, my bags were sent on the previous flight.
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Seen that before on one of my Travels to Portland, got delayed in Seattle for several hours, it was raining apparantly, and messed all the flights up. When I eventually arrived in PDX, no bags on the belt, found my bags in a next to lost lugage, which at PDX is open to the world, anyone could have walked off with them! Fortunately nothing of value in there, but concerning non the less.
