<p>Remember when I was concerned at Thanksgiving about what to remind my son about flying home?</p>
<p>Well, I forgot to tell him to not pack EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING that he owns. </p>
<p>US Air has lost his suitcase and now ALL of his clothes are gone. Even his brand new, very expensive winter jacket was in there. (And his glasses!) </p>
<p>What was he thinking? Why can’t they just do laundry at school and bring home the bare essentials? Well, I bet he will from now on!</p>
<p>Suitcase was mis-tagged and has been completely missing since Saturday. They are not optimisitic. He made out a list of what’s in there - “All my boxers,” “5 pairs American Eagle jeans,” " 2 pairs of Nike shorts" (it’s WINTER), there must be 20 shirts on the list, 3 pairs of gloves (WHY???).</p>
<p>I hate shopping. This is not good. Sorry, just looking for someplace to complain.</p>
<p>Weenie - I’m so sorry! Sounds very much like the sort of “occurrances” in my oldest son’s adventures. He tends to not really THINK before he packs - just literally throws everything into a suitcase, figuring all the bases are covered. I hope at least US Air gives you some $$$ compensation. And, there’s online shopping. American Eagle has good online pricing and quick delivery. At least you wouldn’t have to hit the mall to replace everything!</p>
<p>Oh, Weenie! I’m feel for you! How frustrating. This could SO happen to my S, a college freshman. He came home Saturday and had stuffed his entire laundry basket (one of those very large mesh, pop-up ones) filled with all of his clothes into his duffle bag. It literally ripped the duffle (a very nice Nike duffle), which now must be replaced. To top it off, he missed his flight to Los Angeles. He called from a payphone from the airport because he had not charged his cell phone. He went on standby for another flight an hour later and missed that one, too!!! He said he did not hear the gentleman call his name over the intercom THREE separate times. Too busy looking at his laptop!!! Called from a payphone again and kept getting cut off. He finally made it onto the third and final flight of the night but was too late to catch his connecting flight to our local airport so I had to make the 4 hour round trip to LAX - extremely crowded Saturday night – to pick him up, forfeiting the not-inexpensive ticket to the local airport and arriving back home at midnight instead of 8 p.m. as planned! I seriously considered letting him spend the night at LAX and try to catch the connecting flight the next day, but I knew I would not sleep at all under that scenario. His ripped, stuffed duffle went on to the local airport and H had to pick it up there the next day. Oh, and S brought everything home in that duffle except his house key, which he left in his desk drawer in the dorm. Since he’s home for a month, we’ll have to make a new key. Argh. (Glad to have him home, but argh.)</p>
<p>weenie, I can’t believe I have met someone at last who beat my son in this category.</p>
<p>This must be a boy thing. A couple years ago we visited S in Pittsburgh in about November; he came out to the car wearing socks and no coat (this was to go out to dinner!). Informed us he had stored most of his winter clothes in black trash bags in the fraternity basement and he had just found out someone had most likely thrown everything out. Of course everything sat there since the previous summer. Included coats, sweaters and sweatshirts, leather Uggs, nearly everything for warm weather. After restraining myself from strangling him, we hit the nearest mall before dinner…that was a very expensive meal.</p>
<p>On the plus side for you, the suitcase is SOMEWHERE. As soon as you replace everything, they’ll find it. Good luck.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about your loss. I bet the bag shows up in the next few days - even if they mistagged it, hopefully your son’s name is somewhere in/on the bag. I think they have to reimburse you up to $1200. And if it was completely their fault because it was mis-tagged I bet they’ll go higher. I travel all the time for my job - and I avoid checking baggage at all costs. I once had to call on the President of one of Italy’s largest companies wearing jeans and a polo shirt.</p>
<p>My D’s bag once went to Amsterdam without her, where they found it four days later. Unless the bag is stolen (hope not!), it will turn up sooner or later… these days people get very nervous about bags. (Of course, a friend’s D’s bag was labelled “suspicious” and blown up–years ago (1993!). She got back one-half of one of her favorite shoes, and an apology.</p>
<p>My S arrived home today with everything he owns in two 65-pound bags that were the first two off the plane. He’s taking next semester off and we told him to store nothing at school. He was wearing his top coat and suit–no room in the suitcases–which made him look very snazzy when I met him. (If you’re wondering: he trashed his bedding and towels (“they were gross”), gave away some other stuff, and shipped three boxes via UPS.)</p>
<p>Son went from London to Manchester by coach (bus) once and someone took his duffle bag by mistake. He did not find out until he was in Manchester. There was no hope of ever recovering it. He did have a change of underwear in his knapsack (I insisted he put it in together with his toothbrush). Luckily he had a credit card. He hit the GAP on Regent St. as soon as he was back in London. That rather put paid to his plans for sight-seeing.
S2 reported he’d lost his wallet over the weekend. Dad stopped credit card. As soon as that was done, S2 found the wallet among the mess he and his roommate had made, trying to pack for the holidays. :(</p>
<p>weenie, I laughed when I read the topic title, but the story really isn’t very funny. Sorry! Now you know what to buy him for Christmas presents. Maybe a trip to the thrift shop is in order.</p>
<p>got a backpack for Christmas. Never made if off the baggage carousel from the return flight to college. Only had a few clothes left. Max compensation then for a lost bag was $300.</p>
<p>Well…now you can imagine a tiny part of life for Tulane and other NOLA students this fall. DD still has no idea how most of her belongings have fared. I hope your son’s turn up quickly! Mine’s got lost on a layover in London last summer but they did magically appear on our back porch a few days later.</p>
<p>It’s the lack of anticipation, isn’t it weenie. Blessed be the boys.</p>
<p>H once lost everything but his passport in the Himalayas. He was carrying it all in a pouch (???) on a string around his neck–because that was the fashion in 1977. He spent hours on the mountainside looking for it. Then there was a 2 am telephone call to Connecticut from a public phone in Kathmandu to ask his father to wire transfer money for a brand new ticket and travel money.</p>
<p>So I shouldn’t have been surprised when S1 called us from Zanzibar saying he had missed his flight home, had to borrow money from hostel owner Mohammed Ali Mohammed to get to the airport, couldn’t get another flight out for several days and didn’t have a dime because he didn’t think he needed any on the plane so did we have any idea how he could survive? (Collect call). </p>
<p>The airlines once lost luggage with all my Christmas gifts. That never turned up but I did get fair compensation for everything. They lost another piece of luggage too–but we received good compensation there as well. Those are the two losses we’ve had among a dozen misplacements–in 30 years of international travel.</p>
<p>I bought student insurance for freshman/soph years. Didn’t have to use it thankfully. Cost very very inexpensive and I believe worthwhile for kids that travel airlines a lot.</p>
<p>weenie and Inca Mom…wonderful vignettes. Bye glasses? Bye-Bye Winter wardrobe, just in time for shopping in the mob scene. Thanks for sharing. I think you have just written the script for Home Alone 3: Kevin as Frosh Flies Home Alone for Christmas Break! It beats the movie scripts. And how many times have I told my son to take glasses, contacts and meds and all electronics in his personal carryon backpack on the plane?</p>
<p>I lost track of the time in an airport when I was in college, waiting for a connecting flight; I’d already checked my luggage, which arrived as scheduled. I went to the Port Authority, and missed the last bus, and spent a very educational night waiting for the 6:00 a.m. bus.</p>
<p>I drove to the airport and presented my ticket for my 9:37pm departure…but sadly it was actually my flight number that was 937 and the plane had taken off at 6:30 pm.</p>