American Airlines Lost My Valet Checked Bag – Part 3

Read the first parts of this story here and here.

I didn’t know what to do.

The last thing I wanted was to miss my sons first ever tee-ball game. But…I really need my bag back. If there was a chance, however slim, I might find answers to its whereabouts by waiting to talk to those agents, I felt I had to take it.

Besides, even if staying didn’t lead me to answers, at least I would know that I had done everything humanly possible to secure my bags return. If I left, I would always wonder if I might have found it if only I had stayed.

Since I wasn’t 100% sure what to do, I asked Darrel and my parents for advice. Darrel felt about the way I did; not sure. My Dad, however, recently retired from working for an airline for 35 years. He felt that staying and asking the gate agent for any ideas was the best way to find my bag.

With a sick feeling in my gut, I made the decision to stay.

With more time to kill, I found an outlet for my phone and sat down to do some digging.

First I looked up and called Kalamazoo airport. After a few transfers, I finally got in touch with someone from American Airlines at the location.

The situation was very confusing to him; it took a while to get him to understand that I had never been there, I just suspected my bag may have ended up there. Finally he got it, and sadly answered that it was such a small station that if any bags showed up unclaimed there, they were opened and dealt with immediately. Mine had not been flown to Kalamazoo by mistake.

Then I called Detroit. I had less luck there. In the end, I never reached a person. I only reached an automated answering line for baggage services. All I could do was leave a message and hope for a call back, which so far, I have not received.

I wasted some time reading, and then it was time to try to find the people working that night.

Here’s the tricky bit: the gate agent working that night was off duty on Monday. However, her sister is also a gate agent there, and the other sweet employees suggested I ask her for help.

I found her easily, and explained the story. I told her I knew she was not involved in this, but that maybe, if she could ask her sister for me, her sister might remember something useful.

All I’d honestly hoped for was that she would pass along a message. Instead, she called her sister right then – and handed me the phone to talk to her myself! Amazing!

Even more amazing, the gate agent from Friday night not only remembered that flight, but remembered me! Unfortunately, she didn’t remember anything that could help. The only extra info she added was that, after we boarded the delayed flight, they had to wait for a LONG time for the ramp workers to show up to load the bags.

I apologized profusely for bothering her on her day off, and thanked her for her time. After handing the phone back to her sister, I asked if she knew where I could find the supervisor working that night.

She made a funny little grin, and said “Nope. He’s a floater. But I can call him for you!” And she did.

The supervisor was obviously a little off-kilter by the whole situation and had nothing helpful to add, but he was nice enough and said he would keep an eye out. He took down my information in case he found my bag, or any data on it.

Before I left, the sweet sister I’d bombarded asked if I was sure they had emptied the forward cargo hold on the flight. Apparently, the aircraft we flew on is a little unique and has two separate cargo areas. Sometimes the smaller, forward cargo area is overlooked.

I didn’t know, but it was at least another line to tug.

After gratefully thanking her, I left the gate area, totally defeated.

I had tried everything I could think of, and found nothing. Other than that one, slim line to tug about the forward cargo hold, my day of investigation left me with nothing.

Before I left for my flight home, I swung by the American Baggage Service Center again. Who knows, right? Maybe during all my running-around, the bag turned up.

This time, the supervisor on duty was incredibly nice and sympathetic. He took me back to browse the bags again, and I still didn’t find mine. He personally wrote down my claim number and information, and promised he would keep a close eye out for my bag and contact me if he finds it.

And that was that.

My easy, “sure I’m going to find it; I’ll be back by noon with my tote” day had turned in to a fruitless quest.

Not only did I not have my tote, but I was going to miss my sons first tee-ball game.

I started to cry again, but quickly snapped out of it when I realized that the flight status on my return flight indicated we would be arriving early.

Early enough that, if I pushed hard, I might make the last bit of Jed’s game.

Mama was on a mission. My day was NOT going to be a complete loss!

I had a seat near the front of the plane, and, with no baggage to deal with, the minute we landed and the seat belt sign turned off, I was up and running to the door.

I ran full speed from the gate to my car, and raced to the baseball field. I got to see the last 25 minutes of the game.

Jed was on the field when I raced up, and when he saw me, he forgot all about his game and ran over to give me the biggest hug I think he’s ever given me in his life!

I indulged for a minute (I needed a hug, too), then scooted him back to his game. Thank goodness tee-ball is very laid back!

After we got home and put the boys to bed, I called my home airport to ask about the forward cargo hold. The lady told me that too much time had passed; no one would remember that flight. But, she continued, they always open that cargo hold as procedure, so it was surely checked.

Another dead end.

Darrel held me while I sobbed on his shoulder for a good half hour. Monday was an emotional roller-coaster, and I was absolutely sapped out.

With “delayed baggage”, American gives 5 days of searching before they send out forms for reimbursement. That was day 3, and there was no sign of my bag anywhere.

I didn’t have much hope for a safe return of my kiddos videos and photos. Since I had started the day with such sure hopes that I would find my bag, that was the first time I had really processed what I had lost.

I felt helpless. All those memories…gone…and nothing I did or could do would make a difference.

The sad thing is, I’ve already experienced something like this. The first week Jed was alive, we took many photos and videos of him in the NICU on my phone. When he was just ten days old, though, my phone suddenly crashed. ALL my newborn son photos were lost.

It absolutely broke my heart.

Still, I survived. And took many more photos of Jed as he grew.

So what are the lessons I learned from this?

• We all know not to pack important stuff in our checked baggage. I would never have left the external hard drive or my tax papers in a bag I was checking in at the ticket counter or gate checking! But I had confidence in the “my God, it’s so simple there’s no way they can screw it up” valet checking process. I won’t ever make that mistake again. I will NEVER leave anything I can’t live without in a bag that leaves my possession. EVER.
• Back up my back ups. Photos and videos can’t be replaced if the original is lost…unless I have copies elsewhere.
• I need to make my peace with the fact that we are broke, we will always be broke, and we will never get ahead financially. This lost tote bag is going to cost us easily $450, and as an airline employee pass-rider, I’m not sure I’m actually entitled to any financial compensation for the loss. Every time we start to get ahead, we get hit with more monetary blows. I guess I’ll never be upper middle class ever again. I need to be happy with grasping the bottom of middle class with both hands and a prayer.
• As hard as it is, I’ve got to try to remember that losing those videos and photos is not the end of the world. I still have my beautiful boys to take MORE pictures of, and, thanks to the blog, there are some videos and photos I still have access to that were surely lost. Losing the proof of the memories doesn’t erase the memories themselves. It’s sad; heart-breakingingly sad for me, but I’ll get over it. Someday.

(I’d really rather not, though! So if anyone reading this works for American Airlines, or has a friend who does, and can throw a little assistance my way, I’d appreciate it more than you know!)

For the record, I’m not mad at American Airlines as a whole. The only person I’m remotely mad at is whatever ramp agent misplaced my bag in the first place. That one person screwed up, obviously, but EVERY SINGLE person I dealt with throughout this whole experience (other than the one baggage service center supervisor that wasn’t horrible but wasn’t very sympathetic) has been a total gem of sweetness, kindness, and as much help as they could give. That includes the people I’ve spoken to on the phone, as well as the many people I spoke to in person on Monday. Truly, they have some wonderful people working there. No one should let the one bad apple taint the whole bunch.

But I still want my bag back. 

---

Have you ever lost something irreplaceable? How did you handle it?