Humour me and take yourself back to that moment when you are waiting patiently at the baggage reclaim carousel and the belt stops moving and you realise that today is just not your lucky day. Your bag has not made the same journey as you and you are miles away from home without any clothes, and more importantly, without any tennis kit, including racquets. What a nightmare! The stress this causes is off the scale. It is bad enough when it is you, or when it is your player and you are with them, but so incredibly hard when it is your player and they are alone in a country they don’t know, they don’t speak the local language and they are distraught. As a parent, you just want to go and fetch them; bring them home; and give them the biggest hug you can, to take all the stress away.
Lost luggage is becoming an increasingly common occurrence unfortunately. The first time it happened to me (and my player) was when we travelled via a familiar British airline to Philadelphia, USA. All seemed to be fine until, whilst waiting to pass through US Immigration, the mobile phone of literally everyone in the line ‘pinged’ in harmony. We were all being advised that we were now safely in the USA but that all of our bags were still in a pile at London Heathrow. What a disaster! We had no clothes, no racquets, no kit, no toiletries – absolutely nothing apart from what we were wearing and the bits and bobs we had taken to pass the time away on the flight. Fat lot of use any of that stuff was to us!
Feeling totally deflated we left the airport and headed to the club where the tournament was being held and just when we thought the situation could not possibly get any worse we were advised that the club would not make any allowances for the lost kit i.e no delayed first match, and advised us that all match kit had to be completely white (a la Wimbledon) so we headed off to Dick’s (no joke) Sporting Goods in search of everything white. It is not easy to find all white kit anywhere at the best of times and this was no exception. On top of that we had to find shoes (white of course), racquets, and all the essentials (underwear, toiletries etc) with no idea as to whether or not we would get any form of compensation for the expenses we incurred.
Needless to say the tournament did not go well and we headed home three days later – and eventually our bags were delivered to our house but not before the stress of the whole experience had reached record levels and our desire to visit Philadelphia again had been totally destroyed.
The second bag loss saga also happened in the US. We were booked on a flight to Buenos Aires from New York – a somewhat roundabout trip to avoid Hurricane Irma that was destroying parts of Florida (our original destination) at the time. We landed in Buenos Aires but to my dismay my bag was no where to be seen. Delivered at bag drop at exactly the same time as my players’ bag, my item had managed to take a flight to Canada and was found circling a baggage reclaim belt in Toronto airport. Unbelievably however, the bag was placed on the next flight to Buenos Aires and I was reunited with it the next day. Incredible but so much unnecessary stress!
Another ‘bag loss’ time was on a flight from London to Leipzig via Dusseldorf. All the passengers managed to make the two flights but once again, some of the bags got ‘forgotten’ in Dusseldorf – just how does this happen? Is it the laziness of baggage handlers or a flawed system whereby the bags are not counted off and back onto planes? Once again, new clothes had to be bought; shoes and racquets had to be borrowed but the bags did eventually show up three days later and in time for the latter stages of the tournament. The bad thing on this occasion however, was that the airline (Eurowings) would only honour a 70% refund for the (essential) goods we had to purchase – what the hell is that all about – how can an airline simply think that we only need 70% of the clothes and toiletries that we usually have?
Almost as bad as lost luggage, is luggage that has clearly been interfered with by airport staff. My player was travelling not so long ago from one tournament to another within Israel. On arrival at the second location it was obvious that her bag has been completely ransacked – not a simple security check but a real case of complete upheaval. I get the random security checks that need to be done but close inspection of underwear and other personal items is surely not necessary?
The most recent and on-going baggage tale I will recount happened only recently. My player travelled to Belgrade, Serbia. Her bag however, did not arrive. She reported this to lost luggage on arrival but upon close inspection of her baggage receipt it was clear that no tracking was possible as the printer had been misaligned when printing the receipt and the number on her ticket was unreadable. Lots of panic calls home followed and on the assumption that this particular bag would never be traced, I decided to pack up an emergency bag – as a carry on – filled with spare kit and a couple of non customised racquets – and head out on a rescue mission – just hoping that I could get racquets through security in my hand luggage! Not my intended plan for the week but needs must when your player is in ‘trouble’ and they need kit fast. By the end of the week, my player was still without her bag – in fact there has been zero communication from Air Serbia as to where the bag actually is, despite numerous e mails sent to their lost luggage address. Against all odds (with no kit), she managed to make the final and tried hard to remain focused on the job in hand which is actually incredibly difficult when you do not have all your usual possessions with you. Hard too as a parent as my role during this impromptu trip, was not only as a parent and supporter but also a ‘sourcer’ of new/replacement kit, travel claim co-ordinator, logistics manager, and chief communicator between airlines and airports in the vain attempt to find the lost item and arrange its’ safe return (if ever found) to base in the UK.
Let’s just hope the bag and my player are reunited very soon. It is not until you detail out the contents of a pro sports persons bag that you can appreciate the financial and personal value of the kit that they need to carry out their daily job. I just wish that the airlines could appreciate this more and take more care of peoples possessions, especially when their livelihood depends on them having the contents of their bag!
So I guess the moral of this story is multifold. In the first instance, pack as much kit (shoes, racquets, clothes etc) as you can in your hand luggage. Clearly label and tag your Hold bag and make sure it gets onto the conveyor belt before you leave check in. Make a detailed list of all items in the bag you are entrusting to the baggage handlers. Place a tracking device in your luggage in the vain attempt that at least you can track your bag even if the airline is incapable of doing this. Have a plan as to what you are going to do if your bag does disappear into the black hole of lost luggage and have adequate travel insurance to cover any claim. And finally, be very grateful each time your bag does appear on that carousel in your destination airport and you can breathe a huge sigh of relief that your player has her kit and can go about her job in the usual fashion.
******************************************************
If you have enjoyed this blog, please follow, share and read more at http://www.realitytennis.WordPress.com and subscribe to receive e mail notification of upcoming blogs as they are released. Follow also at:
Twitter: @realitytennis
Instagram: realitytennis
If you have similar stories to share, please feel free to e mail the author at: sallyappleton64@gmail.com
Reality Tennis 