The final postscript – checked baggage

It’s nice that travel is now relatively routine in 2022 but it’s no where near as convenient and reliable was it was pre-Covid. Going to Slovenia, neither my backpack nor my large bike box made it onto my connecting flight in Heathrow despite having 3 1/2 hours between flights. They both came on the next flight, 24 hours later so all was well, but just barely. To get them in time I had to drive to the airport and spend nearly two hours there.

Coming home it wasn’t surprising that they didn’t make it onto my connecting flight in Munich since the flight was so delayed they had to hold the next plane 40 minutes for me to run to make the connection. My backpack arrived on the next flight 24 hours later. The day after that, it was delivered to me in Santa Cruz at 10:30pm, 27 hours after it landed.

My bike box finally arrived two days after I did, but on a flight from Frankfurt – maybe because it was so big? It was handed off to the courier service but took 35 hours to be delivered, finally arriving at 12:30am three days after me. In all cases there was no damage but the software systems that give the status were pretty pathetic. They crash, they don’t get updated, they do not inspire confidence. I would give the British Airways system a grade of C and Lufthansa’s a D. Luckily the people I talked to were better, doing their jobs as best they can.

In Ljubljana, I ended up with my baggage less than 10 hours before I needed it to start riding. At home in Santa Cruz, my bike was delivered 9 hours before my next ride which was at least consistent. I shouldn’t complain but FFS! Well, maybe I just got what I paid for. Going to Greece I paid the $100 bike fee for the first leg but never paid for the second. Coming home I wasn’t charged at all.