GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

LET THE AMAZING LUGGAGE RACE BEGIN!** $1,000 REWARD Can Be Yours!! **

by

***5:45PM SUNDAY UPDATE…. DEADLINE NOW EXTENDED TO 9AM EASTERN ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19….

***LO AND BEHOLD!  Just a few minutes ago, I received the very first call back from a US Airways Baggage Claim representative since Thursday.  *checking watch* …. Um, I wonder if that’s because two East Coast CBS stations are about to air the story in the next 30 minutes?  Hmm.

The window of opportunity for someone to make the $1,000 reward may be closing!!

***WBTV-3 in Charlotte has the GayPatriot Lost Luggage Contest up on their website as their Top Local Story!…

***And KYW-TV 3 in Philadelphia will be airing my interview tonight on their news as well…. The contest is still wide open… no takers yet!

If you always wanted to be on “The Amazing Race” but couldn’t commit the time…. read on…..

Here’s the scoop:  During the ice/snow storm this past Thursday, I wound up not traveling from Charlotte to Philadelphia because of the ever-increasing delay in takeoff time.  The wait for me to talk to an agent in the Charlotte Airport was so long that there was no time to pull my luggage off the Philadelphia-bound flight, even though my reservation wound up being cancelled.

Thanks to the “care-not” attitude of US Airways, I haven’t seen nor heard news of my luggage since Thursday at 3:00PM.  I have followed all of the rules they told me to, but no one at US Airways seems at all motivated to help me.  The coup-de-grace was when, this afternoon, the 800-number for baggage problems ceased to function. So we hopped in the car and drove to Charlotte Airport.

After a 30-minute wait in line, the baggage office attendant said there was no information at all about my bag and that it was probably sitting somewhere in the Philadelphia International Airport baggage claim area.  They were swamped in Philly, he said.  His best offer of help:  “Email US Airways on our website and you will get an answer in 3-4 days.”   Well, I can’t wait that long.

And that is where the power of the Internet will now be tested.  I hereby announce a once-in-a-lifetime month week chance to beat US Airways at its own business:   FIND AND GET my luggage TO ME by 9AM on Monday, February 19, 2007 — and you will get $1,000.00. 

If you only FIND IT by that time tomorrow morning you will get $500.

Seriously.

Here’s how it will work.  My luggage is a black, medium-sized Victorinox/Swiss Army brand roller-board.  It has a bright, light green personal name tag on the side handle.  It also has a Star Alliance orange “Priority” tag on the luggage tag (lots of good that did!)

luggage.jpg

(Link to product is here)

The Contest Rules are pretty simple:

If you can get my luggage retrieved from US Airways Baggage Claim in Philadelphia and in my hands in Charlotte (by whatever means you choose) by 9pm tomorrow night 9AM MONDAY MORNING, I will reward you with $1,000.

If you can get my luggage retrieved from US Airways Baggage Claim in Philadelphia and successfully have a US Airways Representative call me to verify they have my luggage by 9pm tomorrow night 9AM MONDAY MORNING, I will reward you with $500.

To receive either the $1,000 or $500 prize, you must be able to provide me with the US Airways Baggage Tag ID# (on the baggage tag affixed to top handle), the flight number the luggage flew on (also on the baggage tag) AND the name and phone number of the US Airways Baggage Claim Representative in Philadelphia so I can follow-up.

All contents of the luggage must be intact.

There are THREE US AIRWAYS Baggage Claim Areas at Philadephia International Airport…. check ’em all!

The prize money is out of my personal wallet and will not come from any GayPatriot-related income from donations or Pajamas Media revenue.

NOTE:  US Airways employees are NOT eligible for this contest since they have already told me (with their inaction and policies) that they don’t care about my luggage; and in any case it is THEIR JOB.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! If you are the one to find my luggage… there are two ways to contact me:

VIA EMAIL

–OR–

Have a US Airways Baggage Claim Representative in Philadelphia call me at the home number on the Lost Luggage Claim I filed with them on Thursday.  Calls from US Airways will be accepted at anytime.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

PS — A few side notes:

If you are on the West Coast and have friends in Philly… call them and split the reward with them!

If you have some personal connections with folks in the news media in Philly or Charlotte and can help shine light on US Airways incompetence, I’ll make sure you get a nice gift certificate to Best Buy.

I will use the comment section to clarify and/or answer any questions… or EMAIL ME directly.

Comments

  2. I don’t…and I’ve even gone to Europe, in the dead of winter, with nothing but a carry-on and duffel bag.

    It’s all about knowing how to pack.

    Unfortunately, ND30, Bruce has to check luggage due to his sleep-apnea equipment. I don’t think it can be carried aboard.

    Bruce, if I’m wrong please correct me.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  5. Granted, there’s not much the airlines can do about the weather.

    But since we’ve had commercial air travel since the twenties (I think), one would think that by now the airlines would have figured out what to do.

    I avoid air travel as much as possible. Even the boarding process struck me as so unorganized – as if it had never been done before.

    I do have to give Useless Air a kudo, though… they did get me out of Norfolk, VA the day before Hurricane Isabel struck.

  6. Your CPAP equipment can be carried on. GET A LETTER FROM YOUR DOCTOR OR YOUR SLEEP LAB TO CARRY WITH YOU that describes the equipment. We type these all the time for our patients.

  7. We played this game with my son’s luggage on a return flight from Aspen to Indianapolis not long ago. The culprit airline was United; the luggage customer service number connected you to (I’m not kidding about this) phone operators in Bangalore. India, thank you very much. Each one spoke accented English and gave an unlikely Western-style name, such as “Alan.” They assured me they would look for the lost luggage every few hours (where they would “look” was never quite clear) but apart from that the only thing they could do was apologize. And to give credit where it’s due, in my experience, nobody apologizes quite so abjectly and often as a Bangalori. Chin up, Gay Patriot – my son’s luggage showed up 11 days after he did, and the airline that found it was… US Airways!

  10. Aren’t the airlines supposed to match passengers to bags before taking off? I remember that one of the measures they were discussing after 9/11 was “PPBM,” or Positive Passenger Bag Matching. But it’s not clear whether that program was ever fully implemented. If so, that means the TSA wasn’t doing its job either… unless they did pull your bag, and it’s still in Charlotte.

  11. Original flight CLT to PHL to ABE. Aircraft disabled. Luggage transferred and departed without us, to another PHL flight. Direct CLT to ABE flight arranged, but had 3 hour wait at CLT. Upgraded to first class, given food vouchers and a $ 90 credit on each ticket. Arrived ABE on time. Agent at ABE at taken luggage off carousel and had it waiting for us in his office.

  12. Damn, Bruce, I wish I had read this over the weekend. I live about 30 minutes from the Airport and probably could have gone down there and grabbed your bag and shipped it out. Good luck, and if something happens that you need someone to go to the airport, send me an email and I’ll be glad to go.

  14. Dear Gay Patriot, the solution to this problem would be a central bag tag tracking system that every airline is required to use and RFID tags.

    Passangers assume that the bar-codes used today are standard across airlines and airports and that bags are scanned at each step of the process, but neither is true.

    Even the very best airlines in the world, such as Singapore, Cathay Pacific and Emirates have no clue where any of the bags are.

    US Air lost my bags for three days a couple years ago. Singapore sent my bags around the earth the the opposite direction that I was going. Alitalia / Air France lost my bags while I was in Europe for 10 days and got them back to me the night before returning home.

    Theoretically the TSA will allow you to bring the COPD equipment on the plane, but I wouldn’t count on it in real life. And I’d certainly leave plenty of extra time to argue your case and then check it if they refuse.

    Every time we board a plane with our babies it takes 30 minutes of arguing with the TSA to convince them that babies need to eat.

  15. i wish i had read this pre flight..i flew from san francisco to philly (united airlines) then had a connection (us air) to boston last saturday..arrived in boston with no luggage..have gotten the same run around all week from us air..live in dc so wanted the bag sent there..have been told all week that it was at dulles and would be delivered within 24 hours..got a call thursday from us air saying they had it in boston and they described it right down to the cute little ribbons..told it was going the next morning to reagan national..person i spoke with this morning had no record of us air locating luggage..expect next contact from them will be a ransom note..