I revise my proposal to include on-site showers!
Ya know, I agree with the sentiment about people carrying too much crap on board planes; I travel with a laptop and a small shoulder bag and that’s about it. But the poster in question lost me with this:
Dude, it’s ridiculous to assume that you can extrapolate your happy experiences to every other traveler. I flew a total of six times in 2005, and my checked luggage failed to make the flight three out of those six times, on two different airlines. It took three days for my bags to catch up with me in the worst case, and never less than 12 hours in the others. Most of these flights were on business, and I don’t get to choose the airline, so your recommendations are really not all that helpful.
I don’t want to carry all my worldly possessions in the cabin; I’ll be perfectly happy with the laptop, a change of socks and underwear, and a tube of toothpaste with brush. I therefore can only hope that the situation returns to the usual level of hassle as soon as possible.
Firstly, I was under the impression that the recent increases in security have been imposed by the governments of the UK and USA; they have nothing to do with airline rules.
In any event, I could say that if you don’t like the level of security that allows people to carry ordinary tubes of toothpaste on board a plane, how about if you take the bus instead?
I wonder if they’d allow me to carry Tom’s of Maine toothpaste. It’s all natural !!!
I’m complaining because I wasn’t allowed to bring my own damn water on the plane. I dehydrate easily; I get bladder infections if I dehydrate. I drink an average of a gallon of water per day and dehydrate more quickly on airplanes. Going two hours without water (really, without more than about 4 oz. of water; I did get the one little cup) on an airplane is uncomfortable for me.
Most of the flight(s) was taken up by beverage service, takeoff, and landing - all of which times you can’t really get up. While the cart is in the aisle, you can’t go to the back of the plane, and while they’re serving other people it’s difficult to ask for refills because they’re serving other people.
On these particular flights I did drink oodles of water before going through security and while waiting for my flights. If I hadn’t, I would have been absolutely miserable. I was merely saying that I was glad my flights were so short and disappointed that additional water wasn’t offered in light of the new “no liquids” rule. I thought they might offer additional or enhanced beverage service since the rules were brand new and most people are accustomed to bringing their own water on airplanes.
Another thing that you could do is to alert the flight crew right off to the fact that you have a medical condition that requires lots of hydration and ask them to give you more in the first place. They do have cans of soda and juice, for example, and I’m sure I’ve seen cans of club soda or seltzer.
But you’re right – there should be a way for the airlines to provide the beverages that we are not allowed to bring on board.
My luggage has been lost permanently five times including twice with all of my Christmas gifts for other people in them. My wife has had hers lost permanently twice. We have had ours temporarily lost with a 2 - 4 day find and delivery time about 8 times including our last big vacation to the USVI last summer. Those were delivered in the middle of our week long vacation. Good times. The 12 - 24 hour losses have been too numerous to mention. Consider yourself lucky because I really, really hate replacing everything I need on a short-term basis or fighting with the airlines for months over what my favorite Polo shirt was worth. It happens to lots of people although I gather that I have much worse luck that others.
Absolutely right. I flew back from L.A.X. yesterday, connected in Philly and got home. JohnnyLA, this one’s for you baby.
I got to LAX at 7:00 am for an 11:30 am flight. Insane- but have you ever driven in LA between 6am and 8pm? Nightmare. So, since my body was still on East Coast Time and I was up at 5:00am ANYWAY ( grumble grumble ), I left for LAX. Sailed down the 110 t0 the 105, got rid of the rental car, and got to the terminal.
Where there was no line. At all. For my boarding pass. I checked my bag, handed it to a TSA person where there was no line for that, got into a line with SIX PEOPLE in front of me for prelim boarding pass check, and went up the steps to TSA Screening.
Where there were less than five people in front of me. I swear to god. JohnnyLA, I hate to break your heart here but yesterday at LAX, it honestly did not even take me 10 minutes to go from walking into the little chutes that keep you in line at Screening, through Screening, to putting my sneakers back on.
It was bizarre. I kept looking around, wondering where the heck all the people were. I know this will never happen to me again, but wow. Wow ! I got breakfast, read my book, people-watched. It was beauuuuuuuuuutiful.
And on both flights, the attendant making the initial announcements clearly said something totally new to the script. " If you have a specific medical need for water right now, or extra water during out flight, let a flight attendant know. Otherwise, we will be through the cabin later with drinks and food". I was impressed. It is not the airlines fault that the new regs are in place, and they are responsive to such needs.
Someone who suffers profound dehydration would have been properly taken care of.
Have I mentioned yet how easy it was to get through security at LAX yesterday? 
Ooops. I missed CrankyAsAnOldMan’s post. Flying out of my podunk airport, nobody actually hand-examined my shoulder bag. Flying out of LAX, there were army personnel AT my gate- 4 or 5 of them, in addition to TSA personnel. Each and every single bag, laptop or carry-on item was examined. This included my plastic bag with sammich, cut fruit and all-important Hershey’s Bar with Almonds. ( I could die flying? I want chocolate !!! 
)
As for Desitin, get baby wipes impregnated with Aloe. Should soothe that chapped delicate skin just fine.
Depends on what airport you are going through and the time of day.
Orlando has notoriously long security lines - particularly when the cruiseline buses start arriving. One day a week (can’t remember the day), two of the big ships let off at the port, both debarking and arriving at the airport about the same time in the morning. The influx of passengers can mean security lines over an hour long. Add to that the antsy and tired children leaving Disney World, and the security line there can be a torturous experience.
Poster #1: In 25 years of flying I’ve only had my bags lost once and when they were returned there was a $20 bill in one of the pockets and a certificate of appreciation.
Poster #2: In the past 2 years alone I’ve had my bags lost 10 times and in the 2 cases where I actually got them back, someone had taken a dump in it and zipped it up.
Face it, neither one of you can extrapolate your experience to everyone else. I know this isn’t a factual forum or anything, but does anyone have access to REAL LIFE STATISTICS for bags lost by airlines?
Wow, that must be post 9/11. I used to fly out of Orlando all the freakin time (95’-01’) and security lines were never more than 3-4 people deep because they had so many of them.
I’ve seen them that way pre-9/11 and post 9/11. If you hit the cruise ships unloading, they have a ton of them - but the cruise ships are vomiting 10,000 people into the system in a two hour window.
That’s good to hear. I’m glad they started doing that. I wish they had done that for mine, but what can ya do? Now that it’s been a few days, they’ve probably had enough people have problems that they’re doing something proactive about it.
Now, when will they figure out how to make duty free secure so I can get my Scotch at Heathrow duty free?
Just wanted to add that I recently flew through Orlando for business last week, and took me over an hour to get through security. A lot of the time was wasted w/ the security people giving the hard search to a couple of little (appx 3 and 5 year old) kids. They both started bawling when the security people took the girls magic wand and the boy’s plastic sword away from them.
I think hell was just manifested on earth.
I know the parents should have been more thoughtful beforehand, but the insensitivity of the particular TSA person (both kids had to walk through On their own, w/o their parents, and the TSA guys just took the toys out of their hands and tossed them on the conveyer). The result -> 2 screaming young kids, and the parents were not allowed to touch them to help since they were on the other side of the metal detector.
Yep, I feel safer now.
I’ve been looking for this information, and I’m about ready to invest in a tinfoil hat. The airlines are indeed required to collect this information. There’s a website devoted to airline statistics (here), which publishes hundreds of similar reports (on fatalities, delayed flights, etc.), but I cannot for the life of me find the report on lost luggage. Maybe someone else can.
No one else seems to be talking, at least not about recent numbers. I did find this page, which reports,
Then there’s this USA Today report, which is frustratingly lacking actual numbers - though they have a sidebar chart with numbers, but no years. The article says,
So it seems that baggage losses are getting worse, but I can’t find good data on just how bad they are. Maybe someone else can find something more useful with these as a starting point.
WhyNot, you are on the right track by questioning these stats without data. Statements like this:
can be very misleading. For example, we don’t know what the starting point is, how it’s measured, and what the definition of “lost” is.
For example, if my bag is not at the baggage carousel when I get off the plane, but the airline delivers it to me intact and complete 3 hours later, is that “lost?” If my husband’s luggage is right there on the carousel, but when he gets home he finds that his camera (which he foolishly put in an unlocked bag) is gone, is that “lost?”
If a million passengers each check 2 bags, and a total of 2 bags are mis-routed, but those two are for 2 different passengers, is that two in a million or two in two million? Is that better or worse than both bags lost for one passenger? It’s still two bags lost, but in the first case it’s two reports; in the second case it’s one report. I could use that simple set of numbers to say the rate loss stayed the same (2 bags out of 2 million) or dropped by 50% (2 million bags, only one loss report)