The Troubles with Travel

My journey was fraught. Boston arrival was good, easy. From there on out it was a veritable nightmare. My first British Airways flight from Boston to London was cancelled after 4 ½ hours sitting on a plane with no WiFi or way to charge up.

Our baggage was removed from the plane and stored somewhere. They kept telling us it will be 5 to 10 minutes more. Don’t worry. And sandwiches are coming while you wait. They started manually moving bags from storage to baggage claim on hand carts after 2 hours waiting. Forty five minutes later, my bag was still AWOL (as were those promised sandwiches). I had to get to my next flight. “Don’t worry. Your bag will follow”, they said.

Dashed to my next flight - a long 20 minute haul - to discover that that flight was delayed so much so that I would miss my next connection.

Ok. Wrangled my next itinerary from Boston to Philadelphia and then to London (overnight flight) and then Rome. Boston to Philly was uneventful. Philly to London was delayed by an hour so other passengers could make their connections. How nice for them. This guaranteed I missed my connection from London to Rome. And I was already missing my train from Rome to Lecce, my final destination. Sigh.

Finally got off the continent on a dreaded overnight flight. In the morning, British Airways put me on the 3:40pm flight to Rome instead of the 12:55pm flight. Why? I do not know. The worst - the plane at 12:55pm had 6 empty seats, and they still wouldn’t allow me to board.

I missed my next train scheduled at 6pm from Rome to Lecce and had to purchase a flight instead from Rome to Bríndisi and a taxi from Bríndisi to Lecce.

By this time, I had had a donut I purchased in Boston, a bagel for dinner, and a nasty small breakfast sandwich on the flight from Philadelphia. It was now Tuesday afternoon. I’m not at my best (note sarcasm here).

All the while I am tracking my bag. If you ever fly and check a bag, get an AirTag! Your bag is never really “lost”, just misplaced. My bag was still in Boston.

A finally got to Rome and filed my lost baggage claim. They got my bag to Rome the next day, and there it found a village of good friends and good community and decided to stay.

Today, I’m on my way to retrieve my wayward bag taking a train from Lecce to Rome, Rome to the airport, and then on to Florence.

In all I missed a hotel night in Rome and 2 trains, experienced four separate itineraries with 9 different flights including one full cancellation and at least three delayed flights forcing missed connections, and a extra full day in traveling. I had no confidence that British Airways would ever get me my bag and I’m tired of doing laundry every day. So here I am enjoying a lovely train ride.

I generally can manage the topsy-turvy of travel. It is the lie after lie after lie that British Airways dished out that made it all so frustrating. As you can see from my earlier post , I tried not to let it stop us from having fun.

My lessons: don’t check a bag, if possible, and avoid British Airways. They just don’t seem to give a crap. Lastly, pack toiletries and a couple days of clothing in my carry-on bag. This last one I did which made the missing bag an annoyance instead of a multi-store, multi-hours search for these essential in Lecce.

On to Florence.Read more