Arrival and Day 1
It has to be every traveller’s nightmare!
Dread turned to disbelief and then rapidly to dismay as the luggage carousel stopped without any sign of my suitcase! Fourteen hours after a 2:00 a.m. start, I had finally reached Tunis. All I wanted was to get to my hotel, meet my colleague, plan the week ahead, have dinner and get a good night’s sleep. Now I faced dealing with this. With a heavy heart I headed to the lost baggage desk.
Faced with three lines, I naturally chose the shortest. Big mistake! Over an hour later, having watched people being served who had either arrived after me or, even more annoyingly, simply ignored the lines, my turn finally arrived. With my lack of French (or Arabic) and his limited English, the clerk and I somehow managed the formalities although by that time I was the last passenger there! Anyway I duly received a claim form and was told to come back tomorrow. I tried to explain that this was “im-poss-eeble” and that I expected more, but to no avail. I was simply directed to the Air France “office” upstairs.
Here I found a lady who spoke English. The relief this prompted soon dissipated as I tried to explain my predicament! I was curtly told that this was only a ticket office and that I had to sort it out with baggage claims. Sensing one of those service loops, I explained that I had already done that and been referred there. Sticking firmly to her guns she told me that lost luggage was not an Air France issue; this was only a ticket office and that I would have to sort things out “with Tunis.” I argued that it was very much an Air France issue as my luggage could only have got mislaid in transit in Paris and they were responsible, but my words fell on totally deaf ears. Recognising futility when confronted with it, I left “Ms Jobsworth” and, feeling somewhat naked, baglessly took a taxi to my hotel.
Fully expecting my suitcase to arrive on the later (midnight!) flight I checked in and asked the hotel to please follow up on my behalf and hopefully arrange its delivery so I could carry on normally the next morning. Then I proceeded as originally planned before retiring, this time really naked, for the night.
Next morning, early, I went down to find out how things had developed. Unfortunately there was no news whatsoever! I learned that the baggage department had been closed and would only open at 09:00. As I would be conducting training all week, I gave the hotel a contact number where they could reach me and, dressed in clothes I was now wearing for a second day, headed off, fully expecting everything to have been sorted by my return.
Once again my optimism was misplaced. Having received no good news during the day I returned to the hotel to learn that there was no sign of my suitcase! Dismay turned to despair as I was now obliged to buy fresh clothes so I would not overpower delegates with my odour rather than my ardour. So, following directions from the ever-helpful hotel staff, my colleague and I set off!
Even at this stage I was so optimistic that I only purchased clothes for 2 days, fully expecting to be reunited with my luggage soon. Little did I guess what was in store!