It occurred to me that 4 of the 4 people that are remotely interested in this blog may wonder about my unusual fixation with taking just one carry on bag during our coming 5 week crusade. The other 4 I don't think really care.
So for the four that wonder 'what's the obsession with one small carry on?', I have 11 reasons.
1. SLC - Detroit
2. Detriot to JFK
3. JFK to London Heathrow
4. London Heathrow to Tel Aviv
5. Sharm el Sheikh to Luxor
6. Luxor to Cairo
7. Cairo to Rome
8. Rome to Venice
9. Rome to London Heathrow
10. London Heathrow to JFK
11. JFK to SLC
11 flights, 11 opportunities to lose your luggage. Yep. I checked it out. Delta loses 6.7 out of every 1,000 bags and British Airways is even worse with a whopping 26.5 lost out of 1,000. (I can only guess about the airlines in Africa.)
I know what you are thinking, the odds are in our favor. It doesn't seem likely that we'll be the 6.7 out of 1,000 people that lose their luggage and I would agree. EXCEPT that Drew went without his bag for 3 days in Germany and had to borrow pajamas from our hosts - humiliating. A week later, Scott and Dave were one of the 6.7 as well when they went without their stuff in Italy for 3 days, sleeping in the nude so their sink washed underwear could be bearable by morning.
Have you ever tried to find your bag, following instructions written in Italian, calling an automated phone system in Italian? Have you ever spent the mornings of your vacation sitting by the telephone hoping that someone will call saying (in Italian) they are bringing you your bag? If you say, 'No big deal', then you must speak Italian.
No matter what happens to the 6.7, I'll have my 1 dress, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 shirts, and my underwear. No borrowing pajamas for me! Power to the people!!!
As one of the aforementioned people that are interested in this blog, I'd like to comment that Southeast Asian airlines are certainly worse. Not only did I have to suffer 2 days in Bangkok (92 degrees there, coming from SLC with snow on the ground) without luggage -but they stole things (flash light, carbeaner) out of Larsen's luggage in Siem Reap. At least Italian is in the standard Latin alphabet and you can recognize the letters. Thai script is non-decipherable, in my humble (yet supportive) opinion.
ReplyDeleteYet, . . . we survived! AND it's a good story to tell.
My advice? Get underwear you can wash in the sink that will air dry by morning and only bring 1 pair (wear one/wash one) It will save on space. :)
Also: Fingers crossed you don't get strip searched upon boarding your flight to Tel Aviv; it takes a lot of time and missing connecting flights is another hazard of international travel that tends to throw a wrench in schedules.
You survived the luggage horror, BUT, are there lasting effects from the strip search? Any post traumatic stress?
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