Soo...
I flew home for Christmas and landed in Hartford, CT at 2300 on 19 December 2006. All in all, I was in great spirits since I was home, had three very smooth, on-time flights and an unlimited supply of beer that was delivered to my seat throughout the 17 hours of flying.
Well, I was down at the baggage collection area scanning the myriad of suitcases and packages, waiting for mine to appear, but it never did. No big deal, that had happened to me before and I wasn't going to let it affect my good mood. So I went to the desk and filled out a form, arranging for my suitcase to be delivered to me the next day. I wasn't too stinky, and figured I could pop into a store and buy some clothes if I really needed to.
Well, despite using some Ambien, I didn't sleep very well and passed out around 4pm the next day. A couple hours later, the airport people arrived, dropped off a bag, and exited with much haste. I opened up the clear plastic trash bag and found the top flap to my suitcase...the part that you zip closed and about ½ of my clothes. With the exception of 3 pairs of boxers, a pair of socks and a winter hat...they were all utterly destroyed. It looked like somebody shot my suitcase with a .50 cal machine gun, then threw a grenade in it and finally ground it down on a high speed rubber track, letting the friction destroy everything. I'm sure it sounds like I'm exaggerating, but that's the closest and most accurate description I can give to paint a picture of how damaged everything was. It smelled like oil and there were burn marks everywhere.
To make things worse, I had packed my Army Class A uniform (one of the Army dress uniforms with medals/ribbons etc.) to wear to church on Christmas. It didn't even show up, only the black beret did. That alone is like $400.
I then had the honor of spending 2 hours on the phone navigating through "Press 1 for.." and "Press 2 if.." automated menus, only to finally end up speaking to some fellow that worked for United who pleasantly informed me that he would be unable to help since there was an orange TSA sticker on my piece of suitcase. That meant that the security people TSA, were responsible and I would need to contact them. So, I contacted them and they, not as politely, informed me that *THEY* weren't responsible since I was unable to locate a "Certificate of Inspection" among the ruins. So, I called back to United, re-navigated the inhuman menu and finally convinced United to let me file a complaint through them, but I have to bring my wreckage down to the Airport today, which is about 45 mins to an hour away.
So that's my plan for the day...in addition to a lot of shopping for new clothes. I'll keep you posted with the details, and I'll have to stick a picture up for you to Oooh and ahhhh at.
One good thing came out of all this....it sure is easy to figure out what I'm going to wear today.....
Jim
