Travel nightmare story

[mduffy31]

Okay I was just talking with a friend of mine about the nightmare that my parents have been having on their vacation, so I thought that I would share it with all of you. So they left Duluth, MN on St. Pat's day, they were flying to Acapulco with a group of friends for a vacation at a resort down there. So on Monday I go over to the house to water the plants and check on things and there is a message on their answering machine. It is some woman from a baggage office in Myrtle Beach SC asking about my mother's bag that it was in their office and they were wondering where it should have gone. I called the number that she left and of course they are not there because their office is only open for like 20 minutes a day. So I attempt to call my parents in Mexico and that doesn't work, so I had to go to work and I tried the next morning. I get through to my parents the next morning and I talk with my dad, this is how the conversation goes.

Dad: Hello

Me: Hey

Dad: Hey there...pause trying to figure out who it is..

Me: It's Matt

Dad: Oh hello...

Me: So did mom get her bag yet?

Dad: No, how do you know?

Me: Well I know where it is, it is in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Dad: Well why the FUCK isn't it here. (Yes we swear a lot in my family...Irish Catholic, go figure)

Me: I have the information for you if you want it

Dad: Well could you make some calls for us there, it is way to hard for us to get anything done here

Me: Okay no problem.

Dad: Here you mother wants to talk to you...

So my mother gets on the phone and I can just hear in her voice that she is just absolutely distressed. She tells me that when they were checking in the told the woman at the desk that she was putting the wrong tag on her bag, but the woman just blew her off, so when they went to the baggage claim in Acapulco they looked and saw that they didn't have the right tag, they had a tag for Myrtle Beach SC. They reported it, but they people at the Airport seemed like they were in their own world. They give me the claim number in case and tells me she loves me. She tells me that she did pack half and half but she has now run out of clothes and the Acapulco Wal-Mart doesn't have the nice clothes that she had bought to go to dinner and all her other stuff is in her suitcase. So I get on the phone and get a hold of the baggage office in SC, which by the way was a Continental Airlines office :wtf: because they flew on Northwest all the way. So she tells me that they have expedited the bag to Acapulco and it should have arrived on Monday. Well I took that information and called my parents back and told them the news. My mother is so happy that she told me that she was going to bring me back a real good bottle of Tequila. So I go to work and figure that my work is done.....well I was wrong. I get up for work at 10pm and I see that there is a message from some weird number and it is my father. He leaves me a message that the bag is not there at the airport and he is getting more upset. I get home from work in the morning and get back to work again. I call Northwest Airlines to track the bag that way because I figure that they lost the bag so they would have SOME clue what the fuck is going on. Of course it turns out that the file number that my parents have is wrong and they have NO record of the bag being lost. I get a little bit testy with her and asked her to call the airport in Acapulco and find out if they have it. She apologizes to me and tells me that if they were at an airport in the US, Canada, or Western Europe they would have better luck, but in Mexico things run very differently. I hang up a little peeved but I am not undeterred. I call the baggage office where I know that the bag was and talk to the nice woman again. I get from her the exact route that the bag took. So I call NW back and I get no help, they tell me that it is very probable that the bag is there but they are waiting for someone from NWA to come and pick it put. So I call my parents back.

Mom: Hello (sounds like she is going to cry)

Me: Hi Mom, I think I found your bag for you

Mom: Oh honey I hope so, I spent the night crying last night because I am so upset

Me: Well I know when it arrived there and what airline it came on, it left SC on US Air to Atlanta, Delta to Dallas/Ft. Worth
and on to Mexico City, and AeroMexico to Acapulco

Mom: (Voice Breaking) There is probably nothing left in my bag now... (not a racist comment settle down, just really upset
her bag is not there 5 days into their vacation, my mom doesn't say a bad word about anyone, a real angel)

Me: Here let me talk to dad.

I talk to him I tell him that it is very likely that the bag is sitting in the AeroMex terminal waiting for a NWA representative to come and pick it up. He tells me that he is going to call the concierge and see what he can do.

Long story longer, I get a message that on Thursday my sainted mother finally got her bag. Thank god that they were on a 2 week vacation or it really could have been worse, and that they are going to fly 1st class on the way home.