Do not forget your suitcase.
That's right, remember your suitcase. It turns out that remembering your suitcase will ensure that you have everything you need for the trip ahead. Forget it and you will either need to a) go back and get it - time permitting or b) you will have to buy all new stuff once you reach your destination.
I assure you neither of these options are very favorable, particularly standing in long term parking at the airport 90 minutes prior to flight departure.
The morning started off innocently enough. I got up plenty early, was almost completely packed before my two year old awoke. I leisurely showered, ate breakfast, drank coffee and watched morning cartoons while my wife finished up her packing.
As is often the case when going anywhere with a two year old, leisurely inexplicably turns into rushing around. I shouted down the hall to my wife "Are all the bags ready to be packed in the car?" Getting an affirmative from her I began to grab all the luggage that had been staged in our bedroom and lugged it out to the car while she finished getting the boy ready and let the dog outside one last time.
Before heading off to the airport we had to drop off our dog at the kennel, and what should have been about a 30 second drop off turned into a 15 minute ordeal after my wife had some discussion with the kennel staff about how to give our dog her pills. I have no idea what happened, I was too busy writhing with impatience while watching the clock in the car.
A little frustrated, we finally started on our way to the airport. We were about 15 minutes or so behind, but all in all we were ok time wise. We began to formulate our plan for successfully transporting all of our luggage, car seat and kid from the parking lot to the terminal. I said, "we can each take a suitcase and a back pack and one of us takes the car seat and the other takes charge of the kid."
An initial nod of agreement from my wife was followed by a moment of contemplation, then she responded "but there are three suitcases."
I paused. "Of course, one for you, one for me and one for the boy." I took a deep breath and thought to myself, "this is going to be tricky. I just hope we have enough time..."
We arrived at the long term parking lot and found a spot around 11:50 am. Our flight was at 1:20 pm. I got out of the car and opened the hatch and started pulling out our stuff. The words "but there are three suitcases" began echoing through my mind, and very quickly I realized there were only two suitcases. I had packed my wife's and my son's but mine was missing.
We stared confused for a moment at our stuff laying there on the ground, not outwardly letting the panic set in. We reviewed our options:
Do we forget the bag and just go? I can just buy a week's worth of new clothes when we get there.
Do we all go back to the house and retrieve the suitcase?
Do we dare split up? One of us goes back while the others make their way for the flight.
We decided that we would all get back in the car, I would take them up to the terminal, my wife would take the boy, get our bags checked and get through security and I would race home and grab the suitcase. Fortunately when we got to the terminal there was a curbside check in attendant. I said "can you check all our bags?"
He responded "Are you flying American?"
"Yes" I said.
"Then sure."
We unloaded all our stuff, I kissed my wife and said, "I'll see you on the other side."
It's about 15 minutes home so by 12:30pm I was back in long term parking, waiting for the shuttle, my nearly orphaned suitcase in hand. At 12:48 I got up to the desk to check my suitcase. She asked me if the other members of my reservation were with me. I explained they were already through security to which she responded that she was charging me $35 to check this bag. Normally it's $25 for the first bag and $35 for additional bags. A short conversation followed about how the other bags were checked under my name so this bag was coming up with the additional baggage fee. I explained we had 3 (yes 3) suitcases, 3 passengers and a car seat. The car seat is checked at no charge and each bag should have only the $25 fee.
She called over a coworker and asked how to change the fee from $35 to $25. "I'm not sure how to do this in the system," she explained.
I, surprisingly calm, simply said, "I am running very late. If you do not know how to change the fee in the system, I will pay the $35. I just need to go." She processed the payment, handed me my claim ticket and I was off to face security. I have no idea how much I was charged to check that bag and frankly, don't really care.
I ran (literally) to security. I very relieved to see a minimal line. I easily scanned my electronic boarding pass at the first check point and quickly moved on to the next checkpoint. I alerted him that I had my son's liquid medication in my backpack. Of course I had no son with me, so I feared having to explain why he was already through security. "No problem," he said, "pull it out of your bag and show the next agent," and he pointed me off to the far left lane. I pulled out the medication and showed it to the very nice (almost unusually so) TSA agent. He looked at it and because it was only partially filled, it was fine. "In the expedited security line, you don't have to pull out your liquids," he said.
"Expedited security line," I thought to myself, but didn't dare say anything out loud, I walked through the final checkpoint, without having to take off my glasses, belt or shoes and met my family who was waiting for me on the other side just after 1pm. I figure the extra 10 bucks I spent to check my suitcase bought me a pass through expedited security.
On the drive to and from the airport I had some time to reflect how this could have happened and I came to the following conclusion:
1. When I finished packing my suitcase, I laid it down on the floor on the far side of the bed, out of sight. So when I was packing the car, I grabbed the other suitcases and when I double checked that I had everything, it appeared as though everything was packed.
2. The suitcase I normally travel with is the one we used for my son. In fact, the last thing I packed was an empty laundry bag that I shoved in the front pocket of that suitcase which had a couple of his books in it, and I thought to myself, "why did my wife pack our son's books in MY suitcase?!"
These two factors combined with rushing around led to a near disaster. But as it was, we made our flight with time to spare, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday vacation with family and friends.
And for that I am most thankful!
What are your thankful for?
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