A little FYI about MCO and soaking wet luggage

[kaytieeldr]

This thunderstorm was visible from quite a ways out. We saw it coming, and we KNEW it was going to delay the flight at least an hour before the announcement of delay was made. With the radar and such they had to have known well in advance that a storm with a lot of lightning was coming, which is why I don't understand why they had luggage out in the open.

I think most people don't realize - there isn't a lot of room inside most terminals to hold outgoing (or, for that matter, incoming) luggage. Sure, maybe a small airport with only a couple/few outbound flights per hour... but when you get thousands of passengers and their luggage every hour, it gets sorted onto carts by flight, and as someone pointed out above, brought to the plane to be loaded as early as possible. If it then starts lightning, well, the ramp agents can run faster than the carts can move - and that includes any RAs in the plane holds placing luggage.

Safety first.

 

[nkereina]

That does stink but I'm sure it's such a common occurrence for them, which is why no one batted an eye about it. I flew on a nonstop flight from Buffalo to Atlanta on Delta last year and they lost my luggage for about 10 hours. After multiple phone calls, they finally found it and made me pay a taxi $40 to deliver it. I made multiple calls and emails to customer service when I got home and heard nothing. Nature of the beast with airlines I suppose

 

[housetomouse]

But the fact that AirTan doesn't give a rat's hat that they DRENCHED my luggage does not make me a happy camper.

AirTran is the worst, in my experience. We haven't had that specifically happen, but I will try my best not to fly AirTran again. They really don't care, even more so than the other airlines.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I think most people don't realize - there isn't a lot of room inside most terminals to hold outgoing (or, for that matter, incoming) luggage. Sure, maybe a small airport with only a couple/few outbound flights per hour... but when you get thousands of passengers and their luggage every hour, it gets sorted onto carts by flight, and as someone pointed out above, brought to the plane to be loaded as early as possible. If it then starts lightning, well, the ramp agents can run faster than the carts can move - and that includes any RAs in the plane holds placing luggage.

Safety first.

I guess they probably put the luggage cart out at the gate in anticipation of having a plane to load it on, but then the plane was diverted/delayed. They chose to use the first plane after the storm to go to another city, and then they changed the gate for our flight. So really, our luggage may have been sitting outside for more than 3 hours. Now that I know how common it is to leave bags in the rain I will be MUCH more conscientious about the way I pack.

That does stink but I'm sure it's such a common occurrence for them, which is why no one batted an eye about it. I flew on a nonstop flight from Buffalo to Atlanta on Delta last year and they lost my luggage for about 10 hours. After multiple phone calls, they finally found it and made me pay a taxi $40 to deliver it. I made multiple calls and emails to customer service when I got home and heard nothing. Nature of the beast with airlines I suppose

That would make me FURIOUS!

I got an e-mail from AirTran this morning with the certificate numbers for our flight credits, so they did address my complaint appropriately after I e-mailed them.

 

[DVCconvert]

Originally Posted by jackskellingtonsgirl
But the fact that AirTan doesn't give a rat's hat that they DRENCHED my luggage does not make me a happy camper.

You're lucky they didn't tack on another service fee for washing your bags for you!

 

[Inkmahm]

Who knew??? Thanks for that info. Looks like another trip to WalMart this week.

I do tend to wrap my stuff in plastic. Why? I've had stuff break in someone else's bag and get on my bags. I'm just not taking that chance again. I don't need someone's else's liquid soaking my clothes. And we all know about those folks who feel the need to pack all those liquids when heading to WDW...anything to save a few bucks on water in WDW. Too bad if it breaks and soaks everyone else's luggage. So, now, I pack in ziploc baggies for the most part. Sometimes I just pack the who deal in a large trash bag and then tie it off before closing the piece of luggage.

THANK YOU for that large trash bag idea! I was reading this thread and thinking I had learned a lot today.

I'm happy that the airlines keep their employees safe from the lightening. I'd feel horrible if someone died for me to have dry luggage.

Wrapping everything in plastic bags seems to be a great idea that I never considered. I was really dreading having to do that until you gave me the idea for the large trash bag. I am going to try that on our next trip in August for our DCL ALaska cruise. I'm not sure if the large bag will be more or less convenient than individual bags but I'm going to try it.

We don't travel to WDW in summer months but I can see how wet luggage on the way TO a vacation could be a horrible start.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

It is several hundred pages long. DH can read it online, but it would cost a fortune in ink and paper to reprint it.

I don't see why my suggestion was so funny. You don't need to reprint the whole thing, just the pages for special features or whatever your husband can't remember how to do.

I still don't understand all the fuss about luggage getting wet. It happens all the time. Do you want to pay an additional ticket fee for an airline to buy special covered luggage trams (if they even exist)?

Solution - don't check luggage or protect valuable items in ziploc bags, as has already been suggested.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

You're lucky they didn't tack on another service fee for washing your bags for you!

No kidding! They actually look pretty filthy since the dirt stuck to the wet surface.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, they could try spraying all the carts with Camp Dry - inside and out - because while they're generally covered, it's just canvas. But that doesn't help any luggage sitting on the belt going in or out of the plane.

And I don't have a printer. I just save files like that and reference them. For small amounts, I'd just save that part of the .PDF as a document on my iPod.