Welcome to London! Your bags are in Paris.

The long-awaited and much-touted Shel-and-Rick World Tour Chunk #1 got off to a very inauspicious start, at least for me. I started Friday morning with a 5 a.m. wakeup at home.  Flew San Francisco to Philadelphia, Phillie to Paris and Paris to London, all to use first class and not realizing that this would bring me into Heathrow in about twice the time it would have taken to fly coach directly. 

None of this would be worth mentioning, not even the last leg, where British Airways had us sit on the Paris runway for about two hours because London Heathrow was allegedly fogged in.

There I was tired, but happy at Carousel #2, watching the bags roll down the conveyer belt.  Bag after bag got reunited with its owner, until there I stood along with four other passengers and the belt going round and round with no more luggage to be found.

I was bagless in London. My new, nifty blue Swiss Army rollon lugage with the swivel handle was lost.  I was not alone. I endure a long wait to get to the Lost Baggage Claim Lady who was well-trained in telling screwed passengers like me how sorry she was for my inconvenience.

What she could not tell me is where by bag was, or when or if it could be found. It is now 5:30 the next day and I still have no answers.  I have the BA "Mishandled Hotline" number which has proven to be not-so-hot. I called it twice yesterday an heard the unassuring message that "due to the unusually high volume of calls, we are unable to serve your call," followed not by the usual fin that my call was important and I should please stay on the line, but the advice to call back later followed by a disconnecting dial tone. Then, when I called back later, they were closed for the day further diminishing my  confidence.

The next step is likely to be my bag's arrival in London at about the same time that Rick and I leave for Scotland at 11 a.m. British Airways does not know this yet and I may not be able to reach them before our departure.

The new is not all that bad.  While I took a few hours to catch up on lost sleep, I had Rick Segal, VC go shopping for some backup toiletries and underwear.  Now, how many people in the tech world get to send out a VC to shop for underwear while they nap?  How many would like to? Heh. I thought so.

We also had a fabulous night, imbibing and talking with a group of corporate bloggers and consultants assembled on out behalf by Keith Collins, a blogger I've come to know. Collectively, the group is working the problem of hw to introduce social media into staid and conservative enterprise environments.   Hugh McLeod and his Stormhoek partner Jason Korman also joined our group, where Jason chose a couple of fine vintages that were nothis own, and Hugh, sporting longer hair, was in fine form, drawing his legendary back-of-business-card doodles on the back of attendee cards.

The dinner convinced me that this will be a great trip, even if I turn out to be the worst dressed visitor in the short history of blogging.

Comments

[Net]

Shel, believe me, I really know what you have gone through. Best advice is to alway travel with backup in the carry on (does not work for toiletries though), avoid Heathrow (or take the Eurostar). + a very important advice: take a photo of your bag(s) before you leave - print a few copies and hand them over to the lost luggage agent (for faster identification - works well).

Anyway, as long as you dont have to do meetings dressed in just underwear you should be fine (although it would give a totally new meaning to "Naked conversations";)

Good luck with the trip - I am sure there will be many interesting travel stories.

[Dave]

I'm sure this won't be the last time you hear this, but you may as well resign yourself to going out and buying a couple changes of presentable clothes and something to put them in. A friend of mine tells the story of spending six weeks in Europe with his bags always one stop behind him. He was finally reunited with his luggage when he returned home to Minneapolis.