BarbC
Member
I always fly with my guns, especially when I go to Florida so that I can go shoot with my dad. This time I took along my PPS and the Kel-Tec P3AT, in a padlocked box in my suitcase with a TSA lock on that. I got the red inspection tag at the airport inspection and all's well.
Coming back Wednesday morning, instead of the reverse route from Melbourne to Atlanta to Scranton, I had to go from Melbourne to Atlanta to Detroit to Scranton, with a 3-hour layover in Detroit. The wind in Detroit buffeted the large 767 before landing and, an hour into the layover, I re-checked the departure board for the 2:00 PM Scranton flight to find out it was cancelled.
Customer Service told me the next flight to Scranton wasn't until 9:00PM, arriving at 11:00pm. Ugh. But I could fly into Newburgh NY, leaving at 2:00 and arriving at 4:00. Great. Charlie could pick me up and we'd just drive out to Scranton the following day to retrieve the Escape from parking.
"Now, Customer Service, be sure to re-tag my suitcase for NEWBURGH."
"Yes, yes. Let me enter your baggage tag number into the system. What does your bag look like? No problem."
Land in Newburgh, NY - no suitcase. The agent assumed the suitcase was still tagged for Scranton and would be on the night flight.
I called early Thursday morning. The delayed luggage system "can't find" the suitcase. They suggest I check in later. I called after the morning flight in from Detroit. They still can't find the suitcase. I called after the afternoon flight. No information. So I started getting nervous and I told the agent, "Listen. They have to find that bag. There's guns in it." She kind of gasped and said, "What kind of guns?" I said, "Handguns. And I sure would hate if someone else just picked off my bag and walked away with it." She said, "I'll put a note in the system" which is basically, it seems, an electronic black hole.
We drove out to Scranton late yesterday and instead of going up to an agent, we went down to baggage to see if my suitcase was sitting on a conveyer belt, alone, going around & around. An agent said, "Oh, was this for the cancelled Detroit flight yesterday?" Yes! The bag was locked up in their backroom, safe, sound & unopened.
But it had somehow gone to PITTSBURGH before arriving at Scranton. Pittsburgh, Newburgh -- close enough.
I realized when the bag was missing that I really had no proof the guns were in there. The next time I take them along, I'm going to ask for an agent-signed copy of the inspection red tag to be handed to me as proof I had checked the guns in that bag.
Coming back Wednesday morning, instead of the reverse route from Melbourne to Atlanta to Scranton, I had to go from Melbourne to Atlanta to Detroit to Scranton, with a 3-hour layover in Detroit. The wind in Detroit buffeted the large 767 before landing and, an hour into the layover, I re-checked the departure board for the 2:00 PM Scranton flight to find out it was cancelled.
Customer Service told me the next flight to Scranton wasn't until 9:00PM, arriving at 11:00pm. Ugh. But I could fly into Newburgh NY, leaving at 2:00 and arriving at 4:00. Great. Charlie could pick me up and we'd just drive out to Scranton the following day to retrieve the Escape from parking.
"Now, Customer Service, be sure to re-tag my suitcase for NEWBURGH."
"Yes, yes. Let me enter your baggage tag number into the system. What does your bag look like? No problem."
Land in Newburgh, NY - no suitcase. The agent assumed the suitcase was still tagged for Scranton and would be on the night flight.
I called early Thursday morning. The delayed luggage system "can't find" the suitcase. They suggest I check in later. I called after the morning flight in from Detroit. They still can't find the suitcase. I called after the afternoon flight. No information. So I started getting nervous and I told the agent, "Listen. They have to find that bag. There's guns in it." She kind of gasped and said, "What kind of guns?" I said, "Handguns. And I sure would hate if someone else just picked off my bag and walked away with it." She said, "I'll put a note in the system" which is basically, it seems, an electronic black hole.
We drove out to Scranton late yesterday and instead of going up to an agent, we went down to baggage to see if my suitcase was sitting on a conveyer belt, alone, going around & around. An agent said, "Oh, was this for the cancelled Detroit flight yesterday?" Yes! The bag was locked up in their backroom, safe, sound & unopened.
But it had somehow gone to PITTSBURGH before arriving at Scranton. Pittsburgh, Newburgh -- close enough.
I realized when the bag was missing that I really had no proof the guns were in there. The next time I take them along, I'm going to ask for an agent-signed copy of the inspection red tag to be handed to me as proof I had checked the guns in that bag.
