Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
Perhaps you shy away from checking luggage.
Yes, you’re one of those who tries to stuff a far-too-large carry-on into the overhead bin.
It could be that you’ve once had a bad luggage experience.
It could be, though, that it wasn’t worse than the one endured by some British Airways passengers on Friday night.
They were only flying from London to Aberdeen, Scotland.
The plane was only delayed 15 minutes. Which, if you’re flying out of Heathrow Airport, is a success.
But when they got to Aberdeen, the frustration began.
As the Daily Record reports, the passengers stood by the baggage carousel.
No bags.
It was 10.30 p.m.
They stood and they waited.
No bags.
One passengers apparently tried to crawl inside the the hole from which the bags normally emerge to see if they could discover what was going on.
At 11.15 p.m., there came an announcement.
Yes, it reportedly included the words operational issues.
These operational issues seem to have had something to do with the operational reality that there were no baggage handlers to load the luggage onto the belt.
At 11.25 p.m., the police arrived.
Shortly afterwards, half the 200 passengers went home without their luggage.
It seems that baggage-handling responsibilities at Aberdeen airport are enjoyed by a company called Swissport.
I contacted Swissport to worry that the passengers appear to have been standing around for some time, without a clue as to whether they’d get their luggage.
I will update, should a reply come down the conveyor belt.
The company did offer the Record this statement: “We are aware of the disruption, which was caused by poor weather. We do apologize for the inconvenience and will continue to take every effort to avoid such situations in future.”
Well, that’s alright then.
Wait, the poor weather caused there to be not enough baggage handlers? Or had there been a sudden snowfall that had buried the luggage and no snow plows were currently available?
Part of the pain here, surely, is what appears to have been an apparent dearth of communication.
How frustrating it must have been for passengers to know that their luggage was sitting just the other side of a partition and that no one could or would send it on down to them.
This is just one tale. You will likely have much worse.
There are many more of bags that have been sent to the wrong city or just disappear altogether, although airlines have become better at not losing luggage recently.
Actually, that doesn’t tell the whole story. The situation has become worse for those who are making a connection.
Oh, but operational issues. When those words come out after you’ve been hanging around a long time, they really hurt, don’t they?