Thank you to all that
follow me I as wander the world. Remember last year when I told in detail the
sad tale of our missing luggage as we headed to a cruise? I had a multi-part
story titled “My Pajamas Need a Passport”. In case you’ve been wondering, my
pajamas have been wandering... again.
Husband, Doug, and I
made it home from Uganda and Morocco on a Friday. Doug took Big Red (my
suitcase) to the carwash on Saturday for a bath and I repacked it Sunday for a
6:20pm flight from Tulsa to Gulfport, Mississippi. I was looking forward to Travel South, a conference for travel
buyers to meet with travel suppliers in a professional setting. I had
appointments with 70 travel businesses plus a number of industry related
activities. It’s fun, overwhelming, interesting and challenging… especially
when your pajamas are a no show.
Back to that Tulsa
flight. Our boarding time came and went, and we knew our flight was being
delayed. My connecting flight was at 8:00pm in Dallas, so I had a tiny bit of
wiggle room. That was, until American Airlines delayed twice more and now I wouldn’t
reach Dallas to make my connection. And… there wasn’t another flight to
Gulfport until 1:00pm… the next day. This is the moment everyone gets anxious.
Business travelers, like me, are scrambling to figure out how to make work and
meetings. Spring Breakers are trying to figure out how to get home or to their vacation
spot without losing any more time. I wait my turn in line to get Plan B. AA can
get me to Dallas, and since it is a mechanical issue, they will put me up in a
hotel and I can get to Mississippi Monday afternoon. But I have no pajamas... or
anything. The professional traveler
in me hates to admit, that I didn’t pack a carry-on bag for just such
emergencies, because it’s just supposed to be a short couple of flights. Sigh.
I ask the agent if
there was a chance to have my bag retagged to Dallas, so I could get it for the
overnight. She made some calls to where ever bags lay and wait and said it was
done. It wasn’t.
When I
finally made it to Texas, Big Red was nowhere to be seen. After a few laps
around that airport, and a demand audience with a supervisor, I was shuffled
off to enjoy three hours in a hotel, without pajamas, before needing to be back
to the airport to catch my United flight to Gulfport.
Dallas to Fort Worth,
Fort Worth to Gulfport, finally. My luggage is nowhere to be seen. American
Airlines blames United, United blames American. Sigh. I fill out the required
paperwork, and head off to the conference wearing the T-shirt, jeans and tennis
shoes I wore to church Sunday morning. I’ve missed 16 of my 70 appointments. I
ask at the front desk if they have an amenities kit that I might have as I have
a business dinner at a nice restaurant Monday evening. Housekeeping delivers a
laundry bag with 19, yes, 19 things to bathe with. No toothbrush, no q-tip, but
bars of soap and body washes. Sigh.
The story does end with
my pajamas showing up late Monday evening. If they could only talk, they could
tell me where they had been, as the airlines didn’t know. But I learned a
lesson. I may wear my PJs to the airport next time.
