Home, But Not Entirely....

So, I made it home...but not all of my stuff did.  Personally, I think it's still in Frankfurt somewhere and I am no longer fond of Austrian Airlines.

You see, I was required to gate check my second carry on as the flight was fully booked and room for carry-ons was as a premium.  First, the person at the desk didn't give me correct instructions for where to put the bag once it was tagged, then the flight attendant mis-read the tag and assumed it was being checked through to Washington.  So, I'm fairly certain the tag only took it as far as Frankfurt.

The attendant told me that I could check at the arrivals desk to make sure the bag was successfully loaded on to my flight to Washington.  First, the arrivals desk couldn't as they weren't connected to the right system, then the departures desk told me that the system wouldn't be updated for 30 minutes.  I went and bought some duty free chocolate and came back.

Then, we had to go through a line for TSA.  After that, we had to go to the desk and double check our boarding passes.  At that point I asked if both of my bags were on the flight and I was told that they were.  Big Fat Liars.

At least I got to see the final Harry Potter movie and Slum Dog Millionaire along with some episodes of Big Bang Theory before landing in Washington DC to find out my bag was missing.  This is the bag with most of my souvenirs and my leather coat!

I got hung up with the lost luggage desk for awhile while they searched for it...they finally gave up and sent me running through customs and racing to the tram to my gate.  Where we stood around in a confusion cluster while 3 different flights were boarding from the same gate.  Half hour flight with the stand up comedian flight attendant and no air conditioning.

Got back to Roanoke, got my bag...got in my car and it started!  At least that went right.  I had to fill up the tank and headed home.  I did make it home awake...which was a challenge considering I had been up for 23 hours.  I fell into bed.

This morning, I called the airline and...no record of my bag.  Surprise, surprise.  I filed a missing bag report and have a claim number.  I'll call back this evening.  I know everything in it will be broken into a bazillion pieces.

When I get home, I like to spend time going through my loot and playing with my presents to myself.  Notsomuch this time.  So, I've gone through my photos, cleaned them mostly up (quick job, so they're not perfect).  There are more than 300 of them.  So, if you are interested...and have a free couple of hours, you can see them all here: Vienna/Budapest Photo Album.