Getting Home

I should have known that when we got to CDG and discovered that Lufthansa was firing their entire ground staff and that it was their last day of work that there could be problems. But we checked our bags and started the Paris - Munich - Chicago - New Orleans marathon.

We got stopped by bad weather in Chicago. Our flight to the Big Easy was cancelled and they could not offload baggage because of lightening around the airport. So we, and several hundreds of our travelling friends, waited in the baggage claim area to get out stuff and clear customs. Finally, after about 2 hours they started to offload bags. And so we waited and waited only to find that our bags were not on the plane. I suspect that a baggage handler in Paris decided he didn't want to work any more and left our stuff off the cart. Cleared customs without bags and went to the baggage claim guy only to be told that we had to file the claim at our final destination. He would not even tappy tap on his computer to see if knew where they were. It's a good thing that my wife did not have any sharp objects in her hands at that time.

Thank you Lufthansa and United Airlines.

The next day we hit more flight delays but were able to get to Houston and find standby seats to avoid a 5 hour wait for our scheduled, but delayed, flight.

So today I get an email from United Airlines wanting to give me an apology and something for the trouble with our Chicago - New Orleans flight. All I want is my baggage.