ISE Travel Blog

Here's a Helpful Travel Tip!

 

I just returned from a 2-week program in Europe. On my departing flight, we had an hour and a half mechanical delay, causing my 2+ hour layover in Philly to be reduced to about 20 minutes, with me running almost a mile through the airport to catch my connection. As you might have guessed, I made the flight…but my luggage didn't. Arriving in Paris Sunday morning, my first warm-up of my rusty French was navigating the lost luggage counter at Charles de Gaulle. Sure enough, my suitcase was still in Philadelphia. I had planned on a 36-hour stop-over in Paris before taking the train to Koblenz, Germany, but at the lost baggage counter, the woman advised me that they wouldn't have time to deliver my bag to me in Paris before I needed to leave for my train, “we’ll just have it flown directly to Frankfort, where they’ll transfer it to your hotel,” she said, “it’ll get there before you do!” Sure…
 
Fast forward to 3 days later. I still don’t have any luggage. It’s February in Europe. I’m cold as I had packed my coat in my suitcase. However, luckily, I had followed the number 1 rule of checking bags.

• ALWAYS make sure you have your essentials in your carry-on bag!
• A change of clothes (unfortunately, I had only packed one change, not planning on being without luggage for 4 days!)
• All necessary medicines (for me, this means asthma & allergy medications, plus a small sampling of OTC medications – ibuprofen, Sudafed, cough drops, etc.)
• Toiletries – toothbrush, toothpaste, contact lens solution, prescription glasses, deodorant. I knew I would get soap, shampoo and lotion at the hotel, so I didn’t worry about these in my carry-on.
• A charger and a plug converter for my essential electronics (cell phone, iPad)

 
Having these items turned having delayed luggage from a disaster into an inconvenience. Had my luggage turned up on Monday, as advised, I wouldn't have had any issues at all. And, honestly, not having to deal with a big suitcase on the Paris metro was great! However, I had business meetings on Wednesday, and it was REALLY COLD in Germany, so I did end up purchasing a business outfit and a coat (on clearance for 20€ at H&M!). Since my luggage was delayed over 24 hours, US Airways assured me that I could be reimbursed for purchasing some essentials.
 
My suitcase finally made an appearance on Wednesday evening around 6 p.m. I’d been without it since I checked in for my flight at 8 a.m. the previous Saturday. Whenever possible, I travel with ONLY A CARRY-ON (even to Europe, if I’m going for pleasure), but for my work trip, I needed business clothes and other items that pushed me over into a regular sized suitcase.
 
In retrospect, I do wish I’d put just one more pair of underwear in my back pack! But other than that, I was just inconvenienced. I still had a great time in Paris; the Sunday weather was gorgeous, luckily since I just had a hoodie. And now I have a really good story to tell to back up my travel tip!