It is truly incredible how little responsibility they take for your luggage.
On a Southwest flight three weeks ago out of Philadelphia we sat on the plane at the terminal and watched our clothing suitcase sit outside on the luggage cart in the pouring rain for 15 minutes.... Only 2 of the four carts had their covers pulled over them. The other two had covers but one of the workers pulled them back and then left for 15 minutes! It was almost surreal just sitting there and watching your stuff get soaked and being completely unable to do anything.
All of our clothing was soaked and so were the two lightstands that we had inside. I literally rang-out some of the clothing in the bathroom when we landed in Fort Lauderdale.
After seeing this on more than one occasion, we switched to Pelican cases for our carry-on equipment.
This actually happens all the time in the industry. Some poor sod packs a wine bottle or something similar in his checked bag, and it breaks due to rough handling, turbulance, or whatever. This causes his bag to leak all over the place, getting it, and any other bags around it, rather wet.
My policy is to never put anything I can't replace into checked baggage. Nothing beyond clothing or such. When I have found that my bag won't fit under the seat in front of me due to being stuffed too full of lenses, etc., I've taken the lenses out, and put them in my pockets. If I had a bigger lens I figure I could probably stuff it under my shirt.
I once worked with a company that had some contact with the aircraft industry and the baggage handling part thereof. I just know too much about what goes on in the industry so I will never trust anything in a checked bag. I would rather get off the plane and find another flight rather than checking my bag, it's just too risky. If you are going to check a bag, you might as well just throw the bag and all the gear inside it away.
Your responce on the U.S. Airways post was extremly helpful. Thank you for taking the time friend.
In light of the what you have mentioned, my first thought is a sports bottle that was open in a bag just above mine. Second, might have been a combination of an failed weather stripping and my bag being the closest to the door. Though it was cold, (colder then usual) in AZ, it was NOT raining. We may have flown through some showers however.
**shrug**
I've made many phone calls and emails thius morning and am not hopeful thus far. I've packaged my gear for Canon and expect the total damages to be roughly, $400-$1,000. Not a bad as it could be but enough to wash any profit from my travel to MS in the first place.
As for the "mist" phenomenon. I HOPE things will be corrected on their end. Again, the piolet DID address the issue but I had the headphones on and caught the tailend of what he was saying. I did make mention of it to all that I spoke to and emailed this morning.
THANK YOU!!. Would love to see your work if you have a link. 6 posts in 4 years. I feel lucky to have recieved 33% of your forum contributions.
I use a ThinkTank International v2.0 and will carry on every time. In the rare case where I'm taking more than what I can fit in there or know I will have to check-in due to a smaller plane connection, I pack the rest in a Pelican water tight hard case. Both bags are indestructible for their intended uses.
The price for any of the above is cheaper than any migraine or having to deal with disgruntled airline employees who have nothing to lose but the faith of passengers.
I had the dubious pleasure of flying trans-atlantic with this so-called airline earlier this year: never again will I subject my wife and children to this level of pain for seven hours. The flight attendants were at best indifferent and at worst abusive. Luckily, it only took a couple of hours in The Magic Kingdom for my family to put the experience behind them but next time we visit Mickey, we'll get there with Virgin or BA even if it costs double.
Hey Sam, sorry to read your horror story, and forget about being "31, full grown, manly, eat nails, kick @$4", because even as an "old man" like me and "been there, done that" quite a few times (used to live in war zone !) , but I would cry like a baby too if that $$h!t happened to me too! Yikes!.
Before any travel trip, I always take a snap shot of my gears (lay out on my bed) and save 2 copies for 2 reasons: (1) for insurance, (2) for Custom declaration purpose - to let them know that I brought, not buy the gear, thus they can't charge the Import/Export - if any. Well, now I can make the 3rd reason: use the pictures to sue the airline like US Air...
Thanks for sharing dude, and I hope with the insurance's reimbursement, you can "upgrade" your gear soon.
BTW, I never check in my gear, but only clothing - and rather being naked with my backpack to cover my butt and the lens pouch to cover my front - you got the picture, right?
As I was saying on your mirror post at General gear that all airlines are about the same, they all going through cost cutting phase and you get short changed.
U.S. Airway may not get award when it comes to customer service, but I do know one of their pilots can land on the Hudson, just ask any 146 passengers on flight 1549 from Jan 15 of 2009.
carlsbadbum wrote:
As I was saying on your mirror post at General gear that all airlines are about the same, they all going through cost cutting phase and you get short changed.
U.S. Airway may not get award when it comes to customer service, but I do know one of their pilots can land on the Hudson, just ask any 146 passengers on flight 1549 from Jan 15 of 2009.
"I asked if we could place the bags in the flight attendants cubby. "this plane doesn't have one sir". I was nervous but what could I do. I gave them my bag."
What could you do? lol. You get off the plane and get another one.
Your loss sucks.....really does and its not something anyone should go through but YOU handed your items to someone else who obviously had no respect for what they were given.
Maybe its just me but who here really hands strangers $6000+ worth of their gear without insurance on it?
Very strange.
Again I am not being mean....I wish you the best...don't take this the wrong way....but its very very strange. I know kids 12 years old who know better than to hand an Ipod to a flight attendant.
hyperion wrote:
I stopped reading when I read this:
"I asked if we could place the bags in the flight attendants cubby. "this plane doesn't have one sir". I was nervous but what could I do. I gave them my bag."
What could you do? lol. You get off the plane and get another one.
Your loss sucks.....really does and its not something anyone should go through but YOU handed your items to someone else who obviously had no respect for what they were given.
Nothing doing. I had a wedding the next day and that would have been way too risky. Riskier then obrading I'd imagine. Being 2,000 miles away and trying to find flights whne a bride expects you at her hotel room the next moring is a tough call.
Sam Hassas wrote:
Nothing doing. I had a wedding the next day and that would have been way too risky. Riskier then obrading I'd imagine. Being 2,000 miles away and trying to find flights whne a bride expects you at her hotel room the next moring is a tough call.
understandable.
Best of luck to you. Again I still think it was quite a risk but you obviously work a more rigid schedule than I and it was one you had to take.
Sam, I hope it all works out. I understand and it could have been me - on a Continental Express flight to EWR my stuff would not fit under the seat nor in the overhead bin. It was close. I was doing the Gaylord Focker routine, trying to WILL it to fit. The flight attendant told me I would have to gate check it. I said that the bag contained fragile stuff - cameras and lenses - and then said it also had uninstalled lithium batteries. That was the magic word. She put it in the coat closet behind the cockpit and handed it back to me when I got off. Too bad that wasn't something that was an option for you. Between that incident (I honestly had NO CLUE it would not fit - it is not very big AT ALL) and your unfortunate situation, should the need arise for me to travel to a shoot via air again, I will be going with a Pelican case.
Just read this news about stolen luggage and started wonder which is worse : my gear get wet or get stolen? Of course, if I have insurance then it would be a moot point. However, to me this only emphasis one thing: forget about check-in my gear (unless I worked for BIG outlet like SI or Natl Geography.)
Sam you just convince another FM'er, me, not to fly U.S. Airways. You should submit this thread to their corporate headquarters. They just lost another potential customer.
The flight attendant told me I would have to gate check it. I said that the bag contained fragile stuff - cameras and lenses - and then said it also had uninstalled lithium batteries. That was the magic word. She put it in the coat closet behind the cockpit and handed it back to me when I got off. Too bad that wasn't something that was an option for you. Between that incident (I honestly had NO CLUE it would not fit - it is not very big AT ALL) and your unfortunate situation, should the need arise for me to travel to a shoot via air again, I will be going with a Pelican case.