Tord
02-23-2006, 10:12 AM
Destination: Los Roques. Trip planned since 9 months back, every single detail in control.
Off I went as planned, meeting four other co-travellers at Copenhagen airport. Checked in with plenty of time to catch the flight.
The flight Copenhagen - Frankfurt departed on time and even landed ahead of time. Good start. Even better news was when we found out that the transfer distance betwene gates at the airport was only a matter of minutes (those of you who have experience from long transfer distance across terminal boundaries at Frankfurt know what I mean). Meaning there was almost 1.30 hours for us to board the Caracas flight and for the airport to load the luggage.
The flight Caracas departed right on time. So far, so good.
About halfway across the Atlantic: The cabin supervisor approached me. "Sir, there is a problem with your luggage. It is not on this flight but Frankfurt have confirmed that three pieces of luggage will be sent with next flight." Three pieces? Huh? We had checked in five pieces... Hmmm... were these pieces onboard? "Please contact the Lufthansa counter at Caracas for further information".
Arrival mid afternoon at Caracas international airport, passport control and baggage claim. Out of fieve pieces of luggage -- none arrived. Nada. Nietski.
Locate Lufthansa. "In the main hall". Pass the customs control (without luggage ;). At Lufthansa customer service counter: "Sorry I cannot help you. Please talk to the manager. To do that you need to go back inside the arrival hall" (which we had just left). Had some hard time explaining to the customs officer why we had to walk back against the stream and the one-way doors.
Talk to a busy and stressed manager, in the middle of the process checking in an overbooked Airbus 340. After a while he agreed to have a look in his computer. According to the system, five (!) pieces of luggage had been loaded onboard a Condor aircraft (charter subsidiary of Lufthansa) with destination Isla Margarita (500 km away from Caracas). Hmmm... Also there was information that the luggage should be reloaded onboard a domestic Conviasa flight, expected arrival at 9.30 PM tonight. A light of hope...
We decided based on this information that we should activate ourselves and try to get hold of the luggage ourselves, tonight. Transfer to hotel, check-in, dinner and then time to go to the domestic airport. We managed to find a helpful taxi driver with enough understanding of English. The said driver helped us to carry our message to the airport staff and after a long discussion we were allowed inside the heart of the building, to locate the Conviasa office in the basement. We barely managed to get hold of the staff, which already were on their way to meet the aircraft. They could not let us in inside the arrival hall, but they would look for our luggage. Guess what: no luggage. This was the last flight arriving today, airport was closing so there was nothing else to do than to go back to the hotel after generously compensating the taxi driver for taking his time and supporting us.
4 AM: wake up call, coffee and back to domestic airport to check in on the early flight to Los Roques. Arrival at Los Roques, check in at posada. Locate a phone booth, to call Caracas/Lufthansa. Phone answering machine, Lufthansa is unmanned until 1 PM (that's when they open the check-in counter for the return flight to Frankfurt). Wait all morning. New phone call. Lufthansa don't know what we are talking about, so we give them the baggage tag numbers, and agree to call them later. New call early evening, Lufthansa have not located our luggage. At this stage it occurred to us that we never formally claimed the luggage in Caracas... Lufthansa promise to do what they can and ask us to call next day again.
Next day. We wait until 1 PM, new phone call. We now learn that the baggage had actually arrived to Caracas but had been sent to the hotel in Caracas (that we left more than 24 hours ago) and then sent back to the airport again. Unbelievable, we had all written on the personal tags not only the address and departure date from the Caracas hotel, but also the address to the final destination. We asked Lufthansa to send the luggage with first possible LTA flight. "Manana". What do you mean with "manana"? "manana manana". (Hopefully that means "tomorrow early" ?).
Next day. First flight is scheduled arrival 7 AM. If the bags are on the flight, we stand a good chance having time to catch a boat and go fishing. Flight arrives 7.20, but - no luggage. The LTA airline local representative has no information. Wait until 1 PM, call Lufthansa... Apparently Manana manana means "tomorrow + 1". Hopefully tomorrow.
Next day. LTA local representative lets us know the first flight today is scheduled arrival at 11 AM. Flight arrives together with ... guess what ... not five, but three pieces of luggage. I am one of the three lucky ones. Too late to catch a boat and go fishing on the islands. So we help the two unlucky guys calling Lufthansa again. Lufthansa let us know that 2 pieces of unidentified luggage had sent back to ... guess where ... yes, Isla Margarita. Ask them to send them to Los Roques after we provide a description of how the luggage looks like.
Next day. Call Lufthansa. They had received two pieces of luggage in Caracas but they did not know what to do with it, so it was put aside. Send it to Los Roques please. Manana? NOT MANANA, ASAP.
Next day. The two pieces of luggage arrive, 5 or 6 days delayed depending on how you look at things.
Next day + 2. Our fishing week has come to end, time to leave Los Roques. Now, guess what. We check in at Los Roques, destination Isla Margarita for continued transfer to Caracas (it's a Sunday and there are no early direct LTA flights to Caracas). The LTA flight is a smallish aircraft (much smaller that the one that carried us the on the way out). Luggage is loaded except three pieces of luggage -- the aircraft is simply too small. Ironically, of those three pieces, three are the latest arrived luggage. "This happens frequently because people bring so big luggage. We will send it with the next flight, scheduled departure in half an hour (wow!)." One possible problem is, we have an intercontinental flight to catch 6 hours later, and transfer schedule on Isla Margarita is somewhat tight so there is no room for more misunderstandings. But there is no option than to board fly, with or without luggage.
We arrive at Isla Margarita. We have contracted a guide to assist with practical issues such as speeding up the checking procedure. She meets up as agreed and we explain that we are waiting for two pieces luggages, expected on the next flight. "There are no more flights today" she explains.
Woot?
What LTA forgot to mention is that the next flight was a Conviasa flight. And, believe it or not, the luggage was onboard...
Aftermath/conclusion
To put things in perspective, on such a trip to remote tropical waters you have to bring gear that is absolutely necessary - "need". I mean:
- one rod
- one reel + line
- one leader + tippet
- a minimum of flies (say 10)
- foot gear
- one long sleeved shirt
- trousers (need or nice)
- polarizing glasses
The rest is, strictly speaking, "nice".
Los Roques e.g. offers no possibilities to purchase any useful equipment. We knew this so we brought enough spare gear to be prepared to help each other in case some piece of luggage was e.g. stolen.
Those of us with "normal clothes sizes" (M-L-XL) managed to find the odd plastic sandals, swimming shorts and T shirts in the souvenir shop. Those with size >= XL had a tough time. One guy with XXL size even had to borrow/buy used personal items from the local people. Some deliberately had to sacrifice travel clothes and shoes to provide any form of protection against coral/sun. From other helpful anglers we managed to borrow the odd rod/reel/line and managed to rig a few, if far from perfect, yet acceptable sets.
The locals were helpful and the LTA staff did a good job supporting us actively. I don't know what Lufthansa were doing.
This less pleasant experience has made me reconsider what to carry as hand luggage. Next time I will carry a minimum set as described above, and recommend others to do so. Having this or nothing upon arrival makes a big, big difference.
Imagine if the final destination was located on Arctic latitude, say a remote salmon river in Kola/Russia? I don't want to even think about it....
Off I went as planned, meeting four other co-travellers at Copenhagen airport. Checked in with plenty of time to catch the flight.
The flight Copenhagen - Frankfurt departed on time and even landed ahead of time. Good start. Even better news was when we found out that the transfer distance betwene gates at the airport was only a matter of minutes (those of you who have experience from long transfer distance across terminal boundaries at Frankfurt know what I mean). Meaning there was almost 1.30 hours for us to board the Caracas flight and for the airport to load the luggage.
The flight Caracas departed right on time. So far, so good.
About halfway across the Atlantic: The cabin supervisor approached me. "Sir, there is a problem with your luggage. It is not on this flight but Frankfurt have confirmed that three pieces of luggage will be sent with next flight." Three pieces? Huh? We had checked in five pieces... Hmmm... were these pieces onboard? "Please contact the Lufthansa counter at Caracas for further information".
Arrival mid afternoon at Caracas international airport, passport control and baggage claim. Out of fieve pieces of luggage -- none arrived. Nada. Nietski.
Locate Lufthansa. "In the main hall". Pass the customs control (without luggage ;). At Lufthansa customer service counter: "Sorry I cannot help you. Please talk to the manager. To do that you need to go back inside the arrival hall" (which we had just left). Had some hard time explaining to the customs officer why we had to walk back against the stream and the one-way doors.
Talk to a busy and stressed manager, in the middle of the process checking in an overbooked Airbus 340. After a while he agreed to have a look in his computer. According to the system, five (!) pieces of luggage had been loaded onboard a Condor aircraft (charter subsidiary of Lufthansa) with destination Isla Margarita (500 km away from Caracas). Hmmm... Also there was information that the luggage should be reloaded onboard a domestic Conviasa flight, expected arrival at 9.30 PM tonight. A light of hope...
We decided based on this information that we should activate ourselves and try to get hold of the luggage ourselves, tonight. Transfer to hotel, check-in, dinner and then time to go to the domestic airport. We managed to find a helpful taxi driver with enough understanding of English. The said driver helped us to carry our message to the airport staff and after a long discussion we were allowed inside the heart of the building, to locate the Conviasa office in the basement. We barely managed to get hold of the staff, which already were on their way to meet the aircraft. They could not let us in inside the arrival hall, but they would look for our luggage. Guess what: no luggage. This was the last flight arriving today, airport was closing so there was nothing else to do than to go back to the hotel after generously compensating the taxi driver for taking his time and supporting us.
4 AM: wake up call, coffee and back to domestic airport to check in on the early flight to Los Roques. Arrival at Los Roques, check in at posada. Locate a phone booth, to call Caracas/Lufthansa. Phone answering machine, Lufthansa is unmanned until 1 PM (that's when they open the check-in counter for the return flight to Frankfurt). Wait all morning. New phone call. Lufthansa don't know what we are talking about, so we give them the baggage tag numbers, and agree to call them later. New call early evening, Lufthansa have not located our luggage. At this stage it occurred to us that we never formally claimed the luggage in Caracas... Lufthansa promise to do what they can and ask us to call next day again.
Next day. We wait until 1 PM, new phone call. We now learn that the baggage had actually arrived to Caracas but had been sent to the hotel in Caracas (that we left more than 24 hours ago) and then sent back to the airport again. Unbelievable, we had all written on the personal tags not only the address and departure date from the Caracas hotel, but also the address to the final destination. We asked Lufthansa to send the luggage with first possible LTA flight. "Manana". What do you mean with "manana"? "manana manana". (Hopefully that means "tomorrow early" ?).
Next day. First flight is scheduled arrival 7 AM. If the bags are on the flight, we stand a good chance having time to catch a boat and go fishing. Flight arrives 7.20, but - no luggage. The LTA airline local representative has no information. Wait until 1 PM, call Lufthansa... Apparently Manana manana means "tomorrow + 1". Hopefully tomorrow.
Next day. LTA local representative lets us know the first flight today is scheduled arrival at 11 AM. Flight arrives together with ... guess what ... not five, but three pieces of luggage. I am one of the three lucky ones. Too late to catch a boat and go fishing on the islands. So we help the two unlucky guys calling Lufthansa again. Lufthansa let us know that 2 pieces of unidentified luggage had sent back to ... guess where ... yes, Isla Margarita. Ask them to send them to Los Roques after we provide a description of how the luggage looks like.
Next day. Call Lufthansa. They had received two pieces of luggage in Caracas but they did not know what to do with it, so it was put aside. Send it to Los Roques please. Manana? NOT MANANA, ASAP.
Next day. The two pieces of luggage arrive, 5 or 6 days delayed depending on how you look at things.
Next day + 2. Our fishing week has come to end, time to leave Los Roques. Now, guess what. We check in at Los Roques, destination Isla Margarita for continued transfer to Caracas (it's a Sunday and there are no early direct LTA flights to Caracas). The LTA flight is a smallish aircraft (much smaller that the one that carried us the on the way out). Luggage is loaded except three pieces of luggage -- the aircraft is simply too small. Ironically, of those three pieces, three are the latest arrived luggage. "This happens frequently because people bring so big luggage. We will send it with the next flight, scheduled departure in half an hour (wow!)." One possible problem is, we have an intercontinental flight to catch 6 hours later, and transfer schedule on Isla Margarita is somewhat tight so there is no room for more misunderstandings. But there is no option than to board fly, with or without luggage.
We arrive at Isla Margarita. We have contracted a guide to assist with practical issues such as speeding up the checking procedure. She meets up as agreed and we explain that we are waiting for two pieces luggages, expected on the next flight. "There are no more flights today" she explains.
Woot?
What LTA forgot to mention is that the next flight was a Conviasa flight. And, believe it or not, the luggage was onboard...
Aftermath/conclusion
To put things in perspective, on such a trip to remote tropical waters you have to bring gear that is absolutely necessary - "need". I mean:
- one rod
- one reel + line
- one leader + tippet
- a minimum of flies (say 10)
- foot gear
- one long sleeved shirt
- trousers (need or nice)
- polarizing glasses
The rest is, strictly speaking, "nice".
Los Roques e.g. offers no possibilities to purchase any useful equipment. We knew this so we brought enough spare gear to be prepared to help each other in case some piece of luggage was e.g. stolen.
Those of us with "normal clothes sizes" (M-L-XL) managed to find the odd plastic sandals, swimming shorts and T shirts in the souvenir shop. Those with size >= XL had a tough time. One guy with XXL size even had to borrow/buy used personal items from the local people. Some deliberately had to sacrifice travel clothes and shoes to provide any form of protection against coral/sun. From other helpful anglers we managed to borrow the odd rod/reel/line and managed to rig a few, if far from perfect, yet acceptable sets.
The locals were helpful and the LTA staff did a good job supporting us actively. I don't know what Lufthansa were doing.
This less pleasant experience has made me reconsider what to carry as hand luggage. Next time I will carry a minimum set as described above, and recommend others to do so. Having this or nothing upon arrival makes a big, big difference.
Imagine if the final destination was located on Arctic latitude, say a remote salmon river in Kola/Russia? I don't want to even think about it....