Travel Tales: The flying suitcase

Those of us who have traveled for work or pleasure have all experienced the rush to try to make to the gate on time for flight departure. I would like to regale to you a tale so laughable and so implausible of a series of events that you would shake your head. Now, I know, if I was a bit mindful, I could have avoided a lot of headaches and anxiety. But, if I did, would I have a story for you today? 

My story begins with a text from my airline telling me that 6PM flight the next day was canceled and that I needed to rebook on another flight. To give you a bit of background, I was in the Bay Area for a few meetings. On the day flying out, I have three meetings set at 9AM, 11AM and 1PM. I called that very night and got the flight home switched to 4:30PM, thinking that I have about 2 and a half hours to get back to the airport. Now, I was flying out of San Jose Airport and my last meeting was in Newark, so I was pretty confident that I would be able to make it in plenty of time. 

The day started with a couple of internal calls, so I ended up not having any breakfast before my first meeting. Those who traveled in the Bay Area also know that one hour between meetings would be just barely enough for transit times. I, therefore, did not have a chance to grab anything in between meetings. I reasoned that I would be able to eat after my 1pm meeting since there would be two and a half-hour until my flight. I even planned in my mind the exact location I was going to go to that would allow me to also charge my laptop for the flight home. 

As luck has it, my 1pm meeting was shorter than I had allotted, so I celebrated internally on the extra time I gained to my time before my flight as well as the ability to get to a meal sooner. Since my dress shoes are not the most comfortable for walking about, I stopped in a residential area to swap out for my hiking boots. Imagine my surprise when I opened the trunk and the shoes weren’t there. I double-checked my suitcase; it wasn’t there either. In a panic, I ran back into the driver seat and called the hotel. After 5 mins of waiting, they came back and said yes, they had the shoes and if I wanted to pick up today. I looked at the clock, it was now 2:00PM, still two and a half hours. I told myself, okay, I could make it. I started driving back, making a few turns before the car’s beeping sound got my attention. I looked at the speedometer screen where a warning had came up: TAILGATE OPEN. I was such an idiot. I didn’t close the trunk. Now, I was driving a 3 row Infiniti QX60 SUV, so the trunk popped upward. I was thinking to myself that people must have thought I was an idiot with a big giant door opened way up and not noticed. I moved the car to the right side of the road, jumped out and went to the back to close the trunk. 

The blood drained out of my face. The trunk was completely empty. I had a large suitcase, so in order to place it inside the trunk, I had to flip down the third-row seats. Unfortunately, the design was not allowing a flat surface but more of an incline. Those who have these types of seating in their cars know what I am talking about here. The suitcase had flown out of the car and landed somewhere on the road. I looked down the road and didn’t see anything. I closed the trunk and quickly got back into my car and turned it around to look for the suitcase. I tried to retrace my route, going back to where I first stopped off. I didn’t see anything. I started asking everyone I saw on the road: “Have you seen a suitcase on the road?”. I even stopped a garbage man who was picking up trashes that day. When he pulled aside to pick up some trash, I drove past him, stopped in front of him and ran over to ask him. My thought was that he might have seen it and just picked it up and tossed it in the garbage truck. He shook his head. I ran back to my car and continued my pursuit, cursing at myself for being so absentminded and questioning why anyone would grab my suitcase. I asked the crossing guards who were out helping the kids crossed the roads. I asked the kids going home from school. I must have driven that route about 4-5 times. Finally, I saw a woman standing by the road. Lupita was about to go to work. She had a polo shirt that said FRESH on the left side. I called to her across the road and asked, “did you see a suitcase on the road?” She said “yes” and pointed to my suitcase which she has pulled to the corner of her apartment complex’s drive way. The relief I felt at that moment, I don’t think I would ever feel that way, again. I drove into the apartment complex’s parking lot. I thanked her profusely and got her phone number to send her something later. You would think the story ends here, but hold on to your pants, there is more to tell. 

I drove off and at this point, my GPS told me that it would be 3:08PM by the time I got to the hotel. I was driving from Milpitas back to San Mateo, where my hotel was. I had contemplated asking my sister, Daisy, to pick up the hiking boots but traffic was clear in my direction. As long as I take no more than 40mins to get back to San Jose airport, I told myself I would be fine. Now, I know, that would only give me 30mins to make my flight, but San Jose airport’s car rental is right across from the terminal. I just had to run across after dropping off the car. I also rented the car from Hertz, who has the e-receipt system, which would allow me to drop off the car and just leave. I am also flying on Southwest, who is much, much more forgiving with baggage than other airlines. Other airlines would not allow you to check your bags when it was past their cut-off time and if your bag wasn’t flying, neither would you. Southwest generously allowed you to check in your bags and if it was late, put it on the next flight at no additional cost. This would allow you yourself to make your flight even if your bag didn’t. I also have TSA pre-check, so half an hour was tight but very doable for me. 

I got to the hotel, ran into the lobby and shouted to the ladies at the front desk, “SHOES!” The manager was quick to point to the clerk my shoes which they had tossed into a trash bag. After the clerk handed me my shoes, I yelled “THANK YOU SO MUCH” and ran back into my car to start my drive back to the airport. I tapped my GPS to take me back to the airport and well, some of you might have guessed it, there was an accident on the 101. It was toward the end of my route, so I told myself that it might clear up and started heading to the airport. Along the way, I considered all my options: 1. Fly out of Oakland at the 6pm flight. 2. Fly out of SJC at a later flight. 3. Turn around and fly out of SFO, which was much closer at this point. Of all of those options, the most viable was the first. Flying out of SJC on a later flight would mean having to ask my neighbors to come watch the kids as my husband had to leave for work that evening. With the current flight plan, we were going to miss each other by half an hour, which wasn’t as big a deal as our kids are 12 and 9. Any more than that, I wasn’t feeling comfortable. SFO flights were unreliable, so I wasn’t sure if option 3 would work out. Also, I would have to return a car to a different location than my pick-up location. My corporate plan with Hertz penalized the driver for this and it would cost a lot to do so. I didn’t think it was financially prudent to do so. I know, I know, but it doesn’t matter to me who is paying for my travels, I don’t think I should pay more than necessary. In fact, I even stopped off to refuel the rental car. Google Maps has this great option where you can search for a gas station along your route and it will tell you how long it would take as well as the prices sometimes. I picked a “quick stop” option and while the car was gassing up, I changed my dressed shoes to my hiking boots.

You can imagine my stress level, inching along that last 15-20 mins on that last 2-3 miles to the airport. I cursed everyone who cut in front of me as well as the SJ transportation people who couldn’t clear out that crash sooner. When I finally got to the car rental facility, it was 4:05PM. I ran and waited impatiently to cross the two big roads between the terminal and the car rental place. I contemplated jaywalking but the heavy car flow prevented me from doing so. Now, if you remember, I had a big suitcase, which meant that I had to check it in. I ran to the Southwest check-in counter. First, I stopped at the A-Plus and A-Plus Preferred. The line wasn’t moving an no one who were at the counter seemed close to being done with their check-in process, so I ran over to one of those kiosks. After keying in my information, the kiosk told me that I couldn’t be checked in. Of course, it was way past check-in time. I ran to the counter at this agent and pleaded for her help. I said, “I don’t care if the suitcase doesn’t make it, but I need to be on that plane.” She said, “hand me your ID”. While she looked up my information, I lifted the suitcase up on the scale. It was 1lb over the limit, so, of course, I had to take something out. Luckily, it was only for one pound so that was easy enough for me to get it into compliance. As soon as the agent gave me the bag tag, I took off and ran to security. As I ran through the line, I asked everyone in front to please let me pass as I had only 10 mins to make it to my gate. They were all so kind to let me do so. I got to the metal detector, walked slowly through the apparatus and yes, you guessed it, I got selected for random extra screening. So, now I had to wait for a female TSA agent to come around, open up the millimeter wave AIT lane, screen me and then pat me down. She got to my shoes and said, “you would have to take off your shoes.” If you remember, I had put on the hiking boots. My thought was that I would be able to run faster. So, now I had to unlace my shoes and wait while she put it back on the conveyor belt to be x-rayed again. I looked at the time; I now had 16mins before the plane took off. The flight was still showing as on-time. If you fly a lot, you know that the gate actually closes 10mins before a flight is scheduled to take off if it is on-time, so realistically, I had 6 mins to make it to the gate. I took my boots as soon as it came off the conveyor belt and ran through the terminal. 

Well, would you believe it, I got to the gate and they were just deplaning. Whew! I sat down to put on my hiking boots and relax a bit. My friend called to see if I was still in town for that evening to have dinner together. So, I told her the series of events that occurred to me in the past three hours. As we were chatting, the agent who helped me checked in my bag, tapped me on the shoulder and said, “you left your ID at the counter.” My friend and I laughed even harder. The amazing thing is that I lost my shoes, my suitcase and my ID and regained them all back. 

I hope you enjoyed my story and if you would like to share your own tales of travel, I would love welcome them by any means. You can comment or message me privately. Thanks for reading and safe travels to all my fellow road-warriors.