There are still honest people in the world...

[pdxfj]

It's easy to forgot there are still honest people out there when all you ever hear about in the news are the bad people.

In all the years of flying I've done, both international and domestic, I have never needed to deal with lost or damaged baggage.  That was until yesterday.

I saw my bag get loaded on the plane before my first flight took off.  It looked fine.  Before buying tickets for this business trip I worked out making a stop in Vegas on my way home for the weekend to visit friends.  Transfer through Denver.  Was a whopping $14 price difference between stopping in Vegas or going directly home.  Umm..think I'll stop in Vegas..

Spotting my bag on the carrousel in Vegas I see the end zipper pocket is open and the contents missing.  Great.. My FJ hat, another hat given to me by the plant manager of the facility I was working at, some socks and 5 rolls of quarters are missing.  The only thing I really cared about was the FJ hat, since you can't run out and get another one of those and the quarters were just spare change I tossed in a jar.

I do lock the zipper pocket and another zipper together only to keep them from opening in transit.  The lock was still attached, but chewed up a bit.  Guessing the quarters caused the pocket to catch on a conveyer.. I knew I should have put them back in my boots instead of in that pocket..

Off to baggage services I go.. Very friendly people who were grateful I was not at all pissed off.  I said the only thing I really wanted back was the one hat and I could care less about everything else.  Knowing there was a less than .000001% chance that was going to happen, but doesn't hurt to try anyway.

While she was typing away, I decided to remove the lock and put it into another zipped up pocket.  Opened one pocket to find a pair of socks..Huh.. I didn't put those socks in there..they were in the end pocket.. took the socks out and there were all of my quarters.. opened the top of the bag and there were my hats..

We were both pleasantly surprised to see someone had taken the time to gather things up and repack them into my bag.  She said it never occurred to her to check the bag to see if the contents were re-packed inside.

So kudos to United Air Lines and the honest baggage people who took the time to make sure my bad packing job came through with a happy ending. 

[movenon]

Refreshing to read ! TNX for the report. 
George

[CanDman]

true story.....back in 96 I was at a small strip plaza....came out of the coffee shop and went to get into my car....as I was looking down on the pavement I saw a fold of bills wrapped with a piece of paper...I picked it up and there was 250 dollars there laying on the ground.....the pc of paper was a withdrawal slip. I saw that the place of the withdraw was the bank in the same plaza.....so I took the cash and went into the bank. The account holders info was on the slip so they contacted him and he came back and got his money. One month later I lost my wallet......I retraced my steps back to the early morning when I last used my wallet....and I drove back to that same plaza and found my black wallet sitting in the snow in the same place where I found the bill fold a month earlier......what's weird is that there is a high school right across the street and that coffee shop was pretty popular.....there were foot prints all around the wallet and for the life of me I have no idea how it sat there in the snow for 8 hours without anyone seeing it.... .


And yesterday after work the whole crew went out for lunch and when we left...the owner of the restaurant chased me outside waving my wallet at me.....hey buddy ...you left your wallet....I had a few hundred bucks in it not to mention all my ID...........I have always believed in the virtues of being honest......chances are good that it will follow you in life..

[rktmanfj]

Good deal that someone who cared handled your stuff.

Having worked for the local airport authority for over ten years, I saw a lot of that kind of thing happen, with about an equal amount of bad outcomes.  Like anywhere else, some of the guys who work behind the scenes have a great work ethic, and some are worthless.  I've seen many heavily damaged bags come in with the contents falling out.

Even so, the only incidents I ever heard of where alleged thefts from baggage occurred was from bags that went through the TSA checkpoints.

One of the more memorable baggage related things I saw was a US Airways flight that arrived late, having sat on the tarmac in Philly over 5 hours in a snowstorm.  The airline let the passengers stand at the carousel waiting for their bags for about 45 minutes before anyone was brave enough to come out and tell them that the plane had arrived with no baggage loaded.

The bags arrived a few days later.  Many of the business travelers on board were back in Philly before the bags arrived here.

[The General]

mmmm....Might have ta get Joe to follow Candy this next Rally!   

[CanDman]

mmmm....Might have ta get Joe to follow Candy this next Rally!  

...you mean 'Say it's alright Joe' ? .....ok I admit...I plan to do some drinking....but I can assure you that I am a proper gentleman even after a dozen shots .....so if Joe's going to follow around after me......make sure the beers are cold and the liquor's paid for....that would be very decent  ...and if we lay down in some grass and stare up at the stars...I hope it's good shit......  

Genesis LIve in Concert 78 : Say It's Alright Joe (Try 2)


*Background video is of Toronto

[Arnie]

You've mis-understood.

Joe and I were following Bozo going to the OzRally at ~100ish kph when something flew outta Bozo's bag, bounced along the roadway and disappeared into the weeds.
Joe saw it, stopped 1/2km down the road, went back, found and returned it. 
It was Bozo's wallet with all his cash and cards as well as ID.

Good man to have following you :-))  Much better eyes than I have.

[CanDman]

You've mis-understood.

Joe and I were following Bozo going to the OzRally at ~100ish kph when something flew outta Bozo's bag, bounced along the roadway and disappeared into the weeds.
Joe saw it, stopped 1/2km down the road, went back, found and returned it. 
It was Bozo's wallet with all his cash and cards as well as ID.

Good man to have following you :-))  Much better eyes than I have.

I figured as much...you know me Arn....I was trying to be clever .....I had posted this reference in the "Down Under" section in "Let's Party" and wanted to imply that Doug thought I needed a guardian angel(chaperone) to watch that I didn't over do it.....but thx for the story....now my joke sucks....lol