Thanksgiving part 1

Yesterday we flew from Houston to BWI to begin the Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Our Continental flight left at 7:25 AM and so we were up at 4AM to get ourselves out the door by 4:30AM. I was concerned about parking but when we got to my preferred floor 7 of the Terminal E parking garage, it was almost empty! Getting through security was quick, we had 2 people in front of us. We spent an hour in the President's Club getting coffee and reading the paper. There was a nice surprise waiting for us at the gate, because when I went up to counter and asked about a possible companion upgrade I found they had already upgraded us. So we had first class seats and very nice service. And yet another breakfast! We arrived in Baltimore on time and got the rental car quickly (another free upgrade too). I don't know if leaving early was the key, but we had absolutely no trouble with our inbound travel. A big relief.

DH seems to have stood the trip well, no distress on the flight. I am so grateful for that. And today he is cheerful and ate a good breakfast of waffles and jam and coffee. Hopefully the healing process is well on its way.

When bad things happen to good (new) bags

I am a fan of Ebags products, and have purchased several of their items including the Ebags Professional 22". A great bag with a couple flaws - balance is compromised when it is fully loaded to the point of tipping over. Ebags had no problem with shipping me a new bag after my first Pro 22 was replaced under warranty because the zipper heads were completely torn off when checked from BWI to IAH in January.

To prevent the zipper heads from being torn off of my new bag (they are kinda big and heavy) I removed them all and instead put red ties (see pictures) which I got at REI. I was very hopeful that this replacement bag would last for many years to come. But it was not to be.

Once again traveling from BWI to IAH, I checked my bag. It was the second bag off the plane, and at first I didn't notice anything wrong - just a bit scuffed. But the handle was a bit hard to extend... and then I noticed a rip in the back... then a hole in the side... then I realized that my bag had been really damaged.

I nervously signed in at the Continental Baggage Services, and waited to see how this would be handled. It was late, I was tired, and in no mood to be disappointed. Thankfully there was no need for any assertive behavior. Within 20 minutes I was greeted by a cheerful woman whose response to my statement "this doesn't look like normal wear and tear to me" was a simple "I agree". She immediately offered to replace my bag, and brought out two different suitcases. I chose the second one, a Delsey Helium Lite 25" expandable. Reasonably comparable to mine, although larger and not quite as solidly built. And she let me keep my destroyed bag (which was good, since there was no way I could unzip it completely). Remarkably, there was absolutely no damage to the contents.

So now we have a new, larger suitcase and a very nice customer service experience too.