Leaving San Francisco is always hard, but it was even more difficult this time.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about when travel goes wrong. And wouldn’t you know — just a few days later, I got to live it again.
After two hours of sleep, I woke up to catch an early-morning flight out at SFO. The conference I’d been attending provided free shuttles to the airport, and although I hadn’t signed up for one, when I made my way down to the hotel lobby, a volunteer asked if I wanted to get on. It sounded better than wheeling my baggage on metro system BART, so I headed to the shuttle. The driver asked what airline I was flying; I told him, and then boarded the bus.
Flash-forward to the airport, when I get off and wait for my luggage to be unloaded. That’s where things went wrong. My driver had unloaded my bag at Terminal 1, despite the fact that I was going to Terminal 2. By the time he drove back to the other terminal, it was long gone. In another language, some of the others riding the shuttle with me told him that a different shuttle driver had picked it up. He told me to wait at the terminal and that he’d hurry up and catch the bus that had picked it up and bring it back to me.
It turns out he had no idea who picked it up, and time was ticking away. I started to get concerned that my luggage was never going to be recovered — let alone make it to me before my flight — so I went to the airline desk to explain the situation and ask what the cut-off time was for checking my bag. They told me I only had a few minutes, but that if I wanted to wait, they could get me on the next flight no problem (except that it was six hours away). I decided to wait a couple of more minutes and reassess.
At least I got to wait in a new terminal while I hoped I'd get on a flight. (Photo by Bruce Damonte Photography, courtesy of San Francisco International Airport)
Meanwhile, numerous people from the shuttle company kept calling and asking the same questions, and they gave me a few false leads of shuttles to track down when they drove by. None had my bag. While I’d never want to lose my luggage, I was particularly distraught about the possibility of losing every contact I’d made at the conference I’d attended — all the business cards I collected, notes I took, and materials I received were in the bag. Plus, my only apartment key was in that bag, too, which I didn’t realize until later.
I decided to wait it out, and went to the desk to get put on the later flight. That’s when I was informed that every flight to SEA was sold out for the day, but that I could try standing by. Had I been told that when I first asked, I would’ve jumped on the early flight I was booked on without question. The initial guy I talked to said he still thought it’d be no problem to get on the next flight, so I took his word for it (I had no other choice at this point), and thankfully, an hour later, my bag turned up in some random shuttle company’s office, and I was reunited with it.
The next flight came and went, and I didn’t get on. Now eight hours into sitting at the airport and running on hardly any sleep, I was getting worried. The gate agents wouldn’t tell me where I was on the standby list, so I had no idea whether I had a shot at all of getting on one of two remaining flights. I called the guest care line and was told there was one open seat on the last flight of the day — if I went to a gate agent as soon as possible, I could get confirmed on it.
By the time I finally got to fly the friendly skies, I was pretty excited.
I did that. I explained my story, and the gate agent told me it didn’t even sound plausible or make sense. Being called a liar isn’t exactly my favorite thing ever. She said she couldn’t help me, so I went to try another agent. He was nicer, at least, and didn’t tell me I was making things up, but he too said he couldn’t help me. I called the guest care line again, and this time got some guy who couldn’t comprehend the situation at all and tried to get me to buy another flight.
I spent the whole day wishing I had just looked out the shuttle window and seen my bag sitting sadly on the sidewalk, or that I had just taken BART as originally planned. I eventually did get on a flight, and when that happened, I slept from the moment I sat down until the moment we landed. It was not a good day, especially considering that I lost out on an entire work day that I desperately needed. But it could have been much, much worse, and I always try to keep that in perspective. Thanks to everyone at the airline who was sympathetic — and no thanks to the one who said I was a liar. And word to the wise: Make sure the shuttle driver doesn’t offload your luggage at a stop that’s not yours. I know I’ll be watching for that every single time from now on.
