The Family Letter A little of what’s going on with me, some ranting, and more!

The Joys of Travel

Turns out AKMA[1] and I have something in common... Bad travel days.

But let's back up... Thanksgiving was wonderful, the first traditional Thanksgiving in a while that I've spent with really close friends, some of whom I haven't seen in over a year.  It was a good visit and relaxing, even the Black Friday shopping.[2]  We went to a movie and then home.  Good stuff.

Saturday we just hung out most of the day and sent off some of the friends back to their home in western MT.  Then a few of us went on a hike, when I noticed that my hiking boots--now six years old--were seriously out of tread in spots.  So we stopped on the way home and I invested in a new pair, these waterproof[3], and nice winter driving gloves[4].

Church in two places on Sunday...  It is good to hear friends preach, and even better to just hang out in the pews.

Then it went downhill.  I got dropped off at the airport at Billings about an hour before my flight.  I already had boarding passes and only carry on luggage[5] so I was able to sail right through security to the gate...  Where I found out the flight was two hours delayed, and wouldn't get into Denver until a hour after my connection home.  Oops.  Went back through security, talked to another airline, no go.  Talked to Frontier for a very long time about various schemes ranging from flying through four cities to get home at 5 a.m. Monday to going back to my friends' home and flying out Monday morning.

We finally got me on a flight to Denver, with a connecting flight home Monday late evening.  Not ideal as I'd miss a full day's work and have to stay in Denver overnight, but better than nothing.  A friend booked me a hotel room in Denver and I went back through security.

(Yes, this is a long story.  Hope you're sitting down.)

Time came to board the plane, and as I got on I realized that one carry on wasn't going to fit.  So I talked to the woman at the front of the plane, and she directed me to place it at the end of the jetway to be plane-side checked.  "Don't I need a tag," I asked.  "No, don't worry, it'll be there plane side in Denver, just go ahead and get seated," she replied.

BIG MISTAKE.

At Denver people were collecting bags plane-side.  None of them were mine, so I asked the baggage handler.  "Is that yours over there by the plane," he asked.  "Yes, looks like it," I replied.  "Okay, there's no tag so I'm not allowed to give it to you, you'll need to go down to baggage claim and get it there."  "Pardon?!  They told me I didn't need a tag!"  "They lied, I can't give it to you, now please move on."

Over an hour later everyone else had bags, and mine couldn't be found.  Wasn't on the luggage belt, wasn't in the claims office.  After a bit longer they told me to go to my hotel and file a lost-baggage claim in Oklahoma.  I nearly lost it with one employee... They just didn't seem to get that there was no tag, it wasn't CHECKED luggage, it was CARRY ON.  I can't file a claim with the baggage stub, I WASN'T GIVEN A STUB.  They couldn't track it by the bag tag, IT DIDN'T HAVE ONE.

So I gave up and went to the hotel, where I verified that I had clean socks and underwear (phew!) but no clean shirts.  That meant I'd be wearing the same shirt all day Sunday and Monday.  Whee.

On Monday morning I got some work done online at the hotel and did more research on flights and lost baggage.  Someone finally was able to say that my CARRY ON luggage went to Las Vegas, and was going to be shipped back to Oklahoma via Southwest Airlines[6]

Let's pause and sum up: A CARRY ON (not checked) bag followed me from Montana to Colorado, where I was denied access to it because a Frontier employee told me it didn't need a tag.  It was then somehow placed on a flight to Las Vegas rather than simply being carried into the airport for me to pick up.  Again, it had no tag or bar code, so nothing telling anyone to send it anywhere, much less Vegas.

That is a whole new level of DUH.

Assured that it had been found and was going to meet me that evening I checked out, walked to WalMart for a new shirt and some other things, walked back to the hotel, and got a shuttle to the airport.  At the counter I made my best puppy face, explained that I was a day late reporting for duty, and begged to be put on standby for earlier flights.[7]  It worked.  I spent a few hours in the USO[8] and then went to the gate for the earlier flight.  I was informed that there was little to no chance that I'd get on... But I did!

So I ended up back in OKC about 3.5 hours earlier than planned.  And... You guessed it.  My bag was no where to be found.  I filed a claim with great detail, mentioning the whole "no tag needed" part, collected my car, bought a new electric razor[9] and came home.

Yeah, so not happy.

This morning between things chaplain I called first Frontier HQ, who said that the bag had gone to Vegas and should be en route to OKC if not already there.  Called the local baggage office and they didn't have it, but promised to check with Southwest when they opened.  A bit later he called back and said they had it, and would courier it over sometime today.

At this point, mind you, I was far from optimistic.  I expected to get the wrong bag, or find it empty, or... Something.  Yeah, yeah, I sound a bit like the Ref.  That's what I get for spending a couple of days with him.

But LO!  This evening I met the courier outside the base at a little, dimly lit[10] parking lot, and he handed over the goods: One fully loaded suitcase, complete with new gloves, boots, electric razor, and all clothes!

Phew!

I still think a note to Frontier is in order.  After all, they didn't misplace the bag at first, it was denied to me when I could see it in Denver because I was mislead by one of their employees about a tag.  I haven't decided if I'll include the hotel bill from Denver as a hint, or just strongly encourage them to train their employees better.  We'll see.  After all, tracking a bag with no bar code and tag to Las Vegas and figuring out it had to get back to Oklahoma--again, with no tag indicating destination--was pretty good sleuthing. 

Rather than  make this post any longer, I'm going to unpack a bit and call it a night.  Night!

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1. Esteemed professor.  Hire him. [<--]
2. I got up early enough to go along with the group that decided to hit the mall.  It wasn't as nuts as I thought it would be, perhaps because Billings isn't exactly a metropolis.  I trailed the rest around the mall, looked at a few things, and made one purchase, the acknowledged bargain of the day. ((70% off.  I can't say more because it might be a gift for someone who might be reading this blog. [<--]
3. Gortex lining. [<--]
4. From the look and feel they're probably meant for hunting or something, especially given the extra grip on the trigger finger and thumbs, but they'll do very nicely for driving and casual use. [<--]
5. That's an important point.  Note the TYPE of luggage. [<--]
6. Remember, I was on Frontier. [<--]
7. Frontier seems to have a "no standby" policy, but agents can violate that policy as needed. [<--]
8. Same USO as the trip in May, and the chaplain's cross I left them then is indeed in one of the display cases, neat! [<--]
9. The old one was wearing out anyway, and in the lost bag. [<--]
10. Honest, it was dimly lit.  Well, okay, mostly dim. [<--]

Go United!

It has been a while since I've given kudos or recommended a product or service on this blog.  It just takes something fairly spectacular to get me to share the experience.  United Airlines just made the grade.

While many airlines are applying baggage fees and overage charges to troops deploying to war zones (yes, you heard that right), United is still allowing up to three checked bags of 70 pounds each to military personnel on orders.

This makes my life easier as I am flying United from here to my next assignment in September.  Since my "unaccompanied baggage" shipment may arrive up to two or three weeks after I do, I couldn't really send my uniforms that way.  I wasn't looking forward to all sorts of charges, but figured I'd bite the bullet and pack the bare essentials and hope that it all worked out in the end.  Now I can just pack everything, and maybe a few other things I would like to have on arrival, and not worry about how much it will cost me.  Thank you, United.

In the meantime, I hope the other airlines get the message, especially with deploying personnel.  It is one thing to be charged for a PCS move.  When I, and others like me, arrive, we'll be on a US base, not a war zone.  While we'll be busy settling in, there's always time for filing for reimbursement as necessary.  But to ask someone to go off to fight--and maybe die--and then charge them for the privilege, asking them to worry about filing for reimbursement...  Yeah, smooth move.  There's some irony in here someplace...  Oh, yeah, these troops are fighting for our freedom, including the freedom to charge the troops for baggage.  Heh.

Today’s Post Office

I am a bit behind on the calendar, but I'll play catch-up on that in another post here in a moment.  Been a busy couple of days... Thursday was one of those 12-hour-days, out at 8 a.m. in at 8 p.m., and included the pleasure of dental surgery.[1]  Didn't sleep much at all that night because of the tooth and the drugs, I think, so Friday I was a bit zombie-like.  I did get some errands done, though, which was good.  They included getting the car safety-checked so I can finalize the sale[2], and setting up mail forwarding to my new address in Oklahoma.  That's where we come to the Post Office.

Today's Post Office...  For the most part, they don't let me down.  When I just want to send and receive stuff, it all works just fine.  But when I move, it all seems to break down.  Apparently they're not fond of change, and would prefer we all just stay put and stop changing addresses.  Here's a couple of examples:

• When I moved from PA to HI a few years back I tried to change my address online.  They wouldn't do it, because I was living in a church-owned building, so they said the new address was for a business.  Went into the office to do it, and the clerk said, "Why didn't you do this online?"  *sigh*
• When I moved across town out here I was also leaving church-owned housing, so again, couldn't do it online.  Got the exact same question from the clerk.  *sigh*
• That was less than a year ago, and all first-class mail will be forwarded for a year, right?  Apparently that only applies to mail they want to forward.  The bank that has my safety deposit box sent me several notices that the payment was due, to the old address.[3]  I get a call that I now have late fees, didn't I get any of the notices?  Nope.  Apparently the post office didn't want to send those on.
• I got my new address in Oklahoma this week, so figuring I'd get a jump on things I signed on to change my address and start forwarding in September.  This time, I thought, it would be easy!  I'm moving from an apartment (with an apartment number) to a house!  Residence to residence!  "I'm sorry, we cannot complete this change online as one or more of your addresses is a business."  *argh*  
• So I went down to the actual post office on Friday and dropped off a change of address card.  Get this: Which they turned around and mailed to my present address.  That's right.  Rather than making the change, they mailed me the form.  I thought at first I'd made an error, but all the information is correct and there are no notes on it.  They just treated the thing like a postcard and sent it to one of the two addresses on the form.  Mind you on the front of the form, the side with the stamp and bar codes, it is specifically addressed to the postmaster.  Um...  *aaaaaaarrrrggggh*   

So now I have to get back in the car, drive back to a post office, and turn it back in.  But this time I know to speak slowly and explain their own form to them, so they don't, you know, send it to me in Oklahoma or something.

Today's post office... Definitely not what it was.

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1. More on that later, too, perhaps. [<--]
2. Done now, the title has been signed over and the new owner is doing the transfer. [<--]
3. Forgot to update them because I never use the box. [<--]