So I hadn’t been home in a few months and when I did manage
some free time, I dumped some clothes in a suitcase, filled it with a lot of
gifts for family and friends and with big plans of taking a lot of lovely
photographs in a city that will always be home, I found myself standing with my
heart in my hand by the luggage belt of the Kolkata Domestic Airport. It had
been at least half an hour, and one by one all my fellow Jet Airways passengers
collected their bags and “fragiles” while I stood there hoping against hope
that mine would be just around the corner. But it never came and I slowly
became convinced that it was time I screamed at someone. My baby, my camera was
in there! If this should ever happen to you, do not do what I did instantly,
hurl abuses at the ground crew or throw things at them (it’s a bad idea
especially if you have sharp objects in your hand) and you might also want to
refrain from peeing in your pants (use the nearest washroom instead, it’s less embarrassing).
Try skipping these natural human reactions to save yourself the time and the
adrenaline and simply move ahead with the next steps.
1.
Stalk the baggage office for a while, try
listening in on their hushed conversations and see if they sound nervous about
lost baggage. This way you’ll get a clearer idea of the real situation at hand
instead of buying all the diabetic encouragements that they might feed you with
when you confront them.
2.
Storm into the office and demand an explanation,
don’t threaten to sue just yet.
3.
You might have to spend some time while the nice
lady makes phone calls trying to locate your baggage, feel free to make a few
comments about your super-precious suitcase and its contents while she makes
the calls.
4.
If they are unable to trace it still, you will
be required to fill up a form
5.
Remember to jot down the make and colour of your
bag and any identification marks that there might be on it. You will also need
to recall as many things as you can remember of its contents. They might not be
willing to note down something expensive (for instance my camera) for some
apparent security reason; which could mean that it could get stolen or could be
used by a suicide bomber (I’m guessing).
6.
Have an address handy that they could deliver it
to, when and if found.
7.
Walk out in a huff and act angry, in fact try
coming up with a few harsh comments while filling up the form (better chances
of them remembering you). Don’t forget to take with you their toll-free
helpline number and your reference id.
According to procedure, your baggage will not be declared
lost (after which you are eligible for compensation) till two weeks of them
making an effort to look for it since the day you, no, they lost it. Mine was a
happy ending, that is to say that they found my suitcase (it had never even
gotten loaded into the plane when it took off from Bombay) and it was delivered
to my home in four days, after four days of 25 phone calls made to the helpline
(eventually from a few different phone numbers).
Moral of the story:
1.
Take the extra effort to attach a large tag to
your bags with the origin and destination places, lest they assume that the bag
had taken a walk to the airport on its own, I’m assuming they thought my
suitcase had come to chill.
2.
Also, make some kind of identification mark for
easy recognition (however throwing it in front of a moving truck will make it
unique but might render it useless).
Nonetheless, I shouldn’t be complaining; I got my bag back
with nothing missing. But I am.
Hehe nice :)
ReplyDeleteLuckily hasn't happened to me, yet, but if it does will keep this in mind...:)
ReplyDeleteLucky...but for how long? :/
Delete