Working at the airport sucked until I was paid to look inside the luggage
8 VIPs have spoken »
I found an interest article at USA Today called, “You can help airlines prevent mishandled bags.” It’s a quick primer on what you need to do to help the airlines move your bags along uninterrupted. This made me think of my limited experience working at Detroit Metro Airport.
I spent a lot of time working at the gate standing around doing nothing. Toward the end I spent little bit of time working in the Baggage Claim Area doing a lot of something and having a lot of fun.
The summer after I graduated from high school I worked for 89 days at Detroit Metro Airport. Oy vey, that was like doing time in a cement jail cell.
My main job was to provide information on connecting flights to the people coming off the plane. I did that for about 30 minutes and then there was a two-hour gap in time where I had to stay at the empty gate and “look busy,” according to the manager. But I couldn’t sit down or read anything. Excellent managerial skills at work right there.
The real airline employees — the bona fide gate agents — disappeared somewhere when the action ended but I had to stay there by myself standing in front of the podium. For two fecking hours. Gah I hated that job. A lot of the time I stood in front of the podium, which had a monitor and keyboard, and typed stories into the monitor. Then, after a while, I held down the back space key to erase what I’d written.
It made a satisfying clicking sound for every character typed or deleted. I did that for every break in the action until the gate agents returned to start boarding the next flight.
Sweep the Leg. It just occurred to me, right now, that I could have brought a paperback book to read while I stood behind the podium. There was a counter above the work space that hid the keyboard, etc. I could have held the book down on the desk next to the keyboard, out of the view of people passing by.
What a
dumbass.
I wonder
if it would
upset the
time/space continuum to
go back and share
that piece of advice with young Cardiogirl.
Toward the end of my sentence, I started working in the baggage claim area. I worked continuously each day sorting bags and trying to find matches. I also listened to a lot of angry customers scream at me on the phone. But I didn’t mind because I was doing something.
Anyway, that article at USA Today gave a few helpful tips on how to help grease the wheels in terms of getting your bags back. I have a few more tips for ya.
1. Don’t check your bags.
I’m not kidding. If it won’t fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat, leave it at home, gingah.
2. If number one is impossible, get to your gate at least two hours before your plane is scheduled to take off.
This is not the same thing as setting foot inside the airport two hours before your plane is scheduled to leave. You’re going to waste up to an hour checking in before you can stand in front of your gate. By that time you’ll have roughly 30 minutes before they start boarding.
If you get there with your carry on bag just half an hour ahead of boarding time you’re losing valuable space on the plane. All of those other people who got there early used up the overhead compartments and the space under the seats. First come, first served, jack. They’re going to jostle in front of you — because they were there first — to get on the plane. Hear me now and believe me later.
I cannot tell you how many people were shocked, dismayed and then thoroughly pissed off to learn — at the gate — that their bag was being checked in because there was no space inside the plane.
“But it’s a carry on bag. It’s the right size and I slipped past the ticket counter with the bag on my person.” Sorry Charlie. The same thing happened to all of those other people standing next to you. And because they got to the gate an hour early (after waiting around at the ticket counter) they used your space on the plane. I’m just telling it like it is.
3. If you have to check your bags, do it at the ticket counter at least two hours ahead of time.
Those bags are going directly on the plane. No stops, no holds. It’s the direct line to the belly of your plane. When your bag is checked at the gate you have to wait for someone to stop the flow of work, get up to the gate, grab the bag and then trundle back down to the belly of the plane.
More bags are delayed by checking in at the gate than at the ticket counter.
When a bag is checked in at the gate just before departure, 99% of the time the bag arrives after you do on the next plane. So you’re getting your bag that day, but it’s probably getting there five to six hours after you get there.
Trust me. If you have to check your bags, check them in at the ticket counter. Not. The. Gate.
4. Don’t schedule connecting flights.
This one sucks and is really difficult to achieve. When you change planes you have to pray that your bags made a direct flight to your final destination. If that happens, your bag is waiting for you a couple hours ahead of your arrival and things are groovy tunes. When your bag changes planes, just like you did, delays are almost inevitable. Good luck on this one.
5. Lastly, when you pack your junk leave the racy stuff at home. Or make sure your name, address and phone number are branded on the outside of your Louis Vuitton.
When someone neglected to label the outside of his luggage, I had to go on an excavating mission inside the luggage to find the name of the owner. There’s a reason why it’s more fun to work in the Baggage Claim area.
Tags: Things that get on my very last nerve
Whoa, first commenter?? How did THAT happen?
I don’t know if I agree with USA Today’s tips. I’ve flown several times in the last few years, sometimes checking bags and sometimes not. Thing is, folks aren’t boarded onto the plane until a half-hour before it’s scheduled to leave. Heck, the plane isn’t even at the gate until right before they’re boarded right back up again! And unless the airline is Southwest, folks are boarded in the order they’re sitting on the plane, from the back to the front, so you have no choice when you board. Southwest, on the other hand, is a cattle call, so you pick where you sit as you board the plane. THAT can be fun — but they also fly bags free so it’s no big deal if you have to check them. That said, we checked our bags to and from Tucson/Phoenix over Thanksgiving, and they busted both of our bags. They totally broke one wheel off the little bag, and busted a buckle that holds a smaller bag on top on the larger one. Neither was covered by their luggage “insurance” — I guess they’ll only buy you a new bag if they put a ginormous gash in the side of it. Hmph. Fortunately my husband is handy and he bolted the wheel back on, and the bigger one doesn’t need that buckle to function.
I’ve never once had lost luggage — knock on wood. I usually fly Southwest due to its cheapness, and they did well with getting my bags to where they needed to go. But my husband flies United for the Navy when he goes on business trips, and they almost always lose his luggage. Bahhh. That really sucks because there’s no way he can pack his uniform and his boots into his carryon, and he’s not allowed to fly wearing a uniform. Terrorists like to use military folks as target practice, you see.
Ouch, I hadn’t thought about why he can’t wear his uniform on the plane. Man that’s a sad commentary on life as we know it. Seriously, that sucks.
It’s interesting how the clauses on those insurance forms are so slippery. Yeah, we’ll take your money. Oh, wait. There’s damage now? I’m sure that was an act of God.
Hey! Let’s hear about some of the funny/embarassing things you found in luggage!
Believe it or not, there was a lot of, um, used and beat up underwear.
Didn’t your mother tell you to wear clean (new) underwear in case you were in an accident? The same holds true when packing your bags.
Pack some new stuff, not the old stuff with holes and skid marks. Just sayin’.
Eugh! Lol.
I’ve only once knowingly had my suitcase checked and that was on the way to France on a school trip – they selected bags at random and mine came up.
Yeah, I swear that didn’t really check bags so much at the gate way back then. It was almost 25 years ago. Gah, 25 years — that’s crazy (sniffles in her coffee.)
Yeah, I was wondering what embarrassing things you found in luggage, too!
I keep trying to convince my wife that we can just go with carry on. She says impossible.
I did run across an electronic device (this was the mid-80s) that was probably a back massager. It was small, hand-held and wand-like because it was portable, right?
So that chick (women’s clothes in there) could, um, massage her back. By herself. Without injuring her wrist. Because it was light weight.
That was a back massager, right?
oh yuck. go wash your hands
(shudders)
I don’t travel much, but my dad travels constantly for a living, so I’ve long “known how to travel”.
What I have never understood are the people who think they can show up with HUGE bags RIGHT before a plane takes off, and still get on the plane, on time, and expect to see their bags again. These same people invariably talk loudly on the plane, are terrified of turbulence (not that I’m any better, I get flight sickness, myself) – but they scream about it – and seem to not understand that the rules changed after 2001. Oh, yeah, and they are also the tourists who stand in the middle of the busiest corridor in the airport/train station/bus terminal/TIMES SQUARE and just look around. Taking up as much room as possible. Not holding on to their children. And wondering why everyone around them is bumping into them and cursing them off.
…Not that I have a problem with tourists… Ahem.
It does boggle my mind when people stop in the middle of a busy walkway, no matter where they are. Grocery store, train station, airport, the mall. If you’re stopping GET OVER TO THE SIDE!!
That’s just a friendly reminder.
Ditto on all the above. You did NOT mention “racy things” for no reason, lady. . .
I also ran across what I considered skanky lingerie.
Why was it skanky? Because the, how shall I say, “seams” had somewhat crusted white stains on them.
(Shudders and douses herself with hand sanitizer.)
And don’t think you’re Cobra Kai if you have those teeny tiny locks on the zipper. They have a ton of keys that they use to unlock them. Sometimes I had to go through ten keys but eventually I found one that unlocked it.
Strangely enough, those were always the bags that were rated G.
Oh! I also ran across someone who had tons of candy in their bag. Isn’t that weird?
Yeah, it’s the racy things that would be a bit embarrassing if I had to get searched with there in front of anyone. I couldn’t care less if some random person sees my corset and vinyl collection.
Definitely it’s a different situation when it’s just the employee and the bag. But I did wonder if that person was sorta sweatin’ out the waiting of the bag 3,000 miles away.