Tuesday I packed an overnight bag and headed to Bentonville for a late afternoon meeting. Preparation for the meeting had been lengthy but we were ready and the meeting went well. Based on the late hour of the meeting and the limited evening flight schedule out of NW Arkansas Regional Airport, I spent a short night at the new Hilton Hotel in Bentonville.
Wednesday morning arrived too early and I was on my way to the airport by 6:00 am. My flights into NW Regional on Tuesday had been pleasant and on time. I had brief thoughts that my ongoing travel troubles were over but I was not really surprised when my Delta flight was canceled about 25 minutes before we were due to board. Bad news, the flight was grounded for the day and the next available Delta flight was scheduled to depart for Charlotte, NC at 12:30 pm.
Much time was spent standing in the ticket line, an effort that resulted in a 10:00 am United flight to Chicago connecting with a 1:30 pm American flight to Knoxville. Not an ideal schedule for sure, but at least I would get home by late afternoon. I am happy to report the flights went off as scheduled and I finally arrived in Knoxville about 4:00 pm. It had been a long day.
My luggage was not so lucky. You guessed it, I was lazy and checked my bag along with a duffel filled with one of a kind samples that my boss brought to the meeting. The baggage carousel coughed up my personal bag fairly quickly but the duffel did not appear. So who was responsible for the lost the bag….Delta, United or American? An hour lost here going from airline to airline trying to track down who last had the luggage. American never had it, United thought they did but didn’t and Delta thought they didn’t but did. The luggage madness went on for several days, including numerous dead end phone calls. Finally Delta called this afternoon with good news, sorta. The luggage was in Savannah, ticketed with the name of a Mr. Gunnali.
Delta patted themselves on the back for finding the real owner and put the bag on a US Airways flight to Knoxville. I will spare you additional mundane details except to say that Delta did not follow through with instructions to US Air (who was suppose to do the hand off to American). Hours and phone calls later, the bag finally connected with me.
