United Airlines Ineptitude, Cont.

I am a very nice lady. I will often apologize out of sheer reflex when I have done nothing wrong. Right up until I have been pushed over the edge.

After my bag was not delivered to my house at 11pm as promised last night, I checked the United Airlines bagtrack website and found the following super-helpful display. Yay technology.

Needless to say “N/A” is not an acceptable answer to my bag’s whereabouts, so I called United and spent a good 15+ minutes on the phone with them. Turns out, they can’t even confirm the bag is in Austin now – they think the barcode may have been ripped off. So, they asked for descriptions of a few unique items in contents. I suggested that identifying it by the bright yellow leather luggage tag might be easier, but I played along. Here’s what I gave them:

• Reproduction “RUN-DMC” vintage tee shirt, with label from Anonymous tees on Venice Beach
• Brown “Sports Racers” tee shirt (so that I would have been able to identify other Ze Frank fans at SXSW)
• Limited Edition Ed Hardy low top Converse sneakers

None of the above is technically valuable, but as I was detailing my requested “unique items”, I started getting angrier and angrier. I love that stuff and, because I work in a business formal office, this was my shot of enjoying wearing it in someplace other than my living room.

What I should have done is invited my colleague who made it to Austin to pick up the bag and take photos of a couple of the “unique items” in various places in Austin – Flat Stanley style. If I couldn’t go, at least my sneaks could have made it to Guero’s, the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, and a few parties. Alas, next time.