Crap...

[Dax]

So um... on the way back from JOs Delta lost all of my equipment... so this kinda sucks. On a sad scale of 1-10 I'm at a 15... bah... what a bad day. I hope they find it... jeez.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Yeah, its happened to me. Next time, put your uniform, shoes and mask in your carryon, put the tools, weapons and cords in the fencing bag.

[Dax]

WOO! They just called! They found my stuff and are bringing it to my house. Should be here between 12 and 1. Hope its all there. Now I am quite relieved.

[Joe biebel]

Yeah, that kind of sucks, but, what if they had lost your gear on the way to the tournament? Take D+F+P's advice, at least on the way to the tournament. Since the airlines no longer take economic responsility (at least very little) for losing or getting your stuff to you late, this can cause major problems.

The last time my stuff was lost on the way to the meet, they told me that ther was no guarantee my stuff would be found and returned to me in time for the meet. I explained (lied) that this (the airline I was flying) airline was my biggest sponsor my image was used in their print advertising and on some television commercials, and that the "fallout" from their losing my custom made tournamnet gear would be certain to make the news. Fortunately for me, the only phone calls thay made were to find my gear. I had it delivered to my room 6 hours later no worse for the wear. I have no idea if my ruse (lie) made the difference or not.

[Dax]

Well... Delta said that if they didn't find it it was covered up to $2500. But I'd still rather have my stuff than the money to buy new stuff.

[Joe biebel]

Well... Delta said that if they didn't find it it was covered up to $2500. But I'd still rather have my stuff than the money to buy new stuff.

One of the "go-rounds" I had with an airline was regarding late luggage. I went to a World Cup tournament and was fencing the day after I got to Paris. My gear was lost and did not get to me in time, so I had to buy all new.

Uniform, mask gloves, foils body cords, shoes, the whole enchilada. By the start of the second round, an airline employee showed up at the venue with my original gear. They did eventually send me check for the full amount after telling me repeatedly that they were not responsible for the full amount since my gear was returned to me. It's pretty hard to "make out" like that these days. I guess I'm a little surprised that Delta has such a high limit. I wonder if thats standard?

[Dax]

Dunno, but thats what the lady at the counter told me after she said "Damn, we can never lose the cheap stuff... can we?"

[RebelFencer]

Well... Delta said that if they didn't find it it was covered up to $2500. But I'd still rather have my stuff than the money to buy new stuff.

haha, in that case if they never find it, you had a full startex kit, FIE mask, adistars, and 12 bf whites. right?

[Dax]

I got it back an hour or so ago, but in that case I would have had a full custom made LP sydney kit, LP FIE contour fit mask, a pair of adistars and LP blades, 6 BF FIE Whites, Ulhmann weights, shims, a LP test box, and oh the list goes on of what I "had" in there. =P. But in all seriousness, Im just glad to have my stuff back.

[mrbiggs]

haha, in that case if they never find it, you had a full startex kit, FIE mask, adistars, and 12 bf whites. right?

Really! I'd take $2500 to buy new equipment any day!

[Epee Scherma]

I bought my car for less than that much money haha.

I'd take the lost equipment as a sign from god to stop fencing. Spend the 2500 on a shooting range rifle, and invest in a new sport.

[Dax]

Rifle shooting isn't as much fun as fencing. Period.

[KD5MDK]

Oh, it can be a lot of fun. Especially when you start getting into fun stuff like home-assembled ARs and the like.

[Dax]

Well, my dad is into gun collecting, so we have a few ARs, and we do a lot of shooting. Its fun, but fencing blows it out of the water.

[akaiyuki]

Funny how on the front page of the connecticut newspaper one day at JOs there was an article about airlines losing people's luggages. Delta was listed as one of the worse ones... I crossed my fingers and good thing mine got there and back fine...

[twisterfencing]

Funny how on the front page of the connecticut newspaper one day at JOs there was an article about airlines losing people's luggages. Delta was listed as one of the worse ones... I crossed my fingers and good thing mine got there and back fine...

As of March 1st, Delta now has a new policy. All bagage handelers must wear a scanner attached to they're wrist. Each item of luggage they touch is scanned by the wrist scanner and downloaded into a main computer. Per Delta, they now can locate any luggage at anytime, and pinpoint who messed up and put something on the wrong plane with a tough of a mouse.

Per a friend of mine (Delta baggage handler) several folks at Delta have lost they're jobs over this issue. Per friend, "It's gonna get better and quickly".

[_fence(1)]

Do they put RFIDs on all the luggage/bags?

[oiuyt]

Do they put RFIDs on all the luggage/bags?

That would make it easier/more efficient, but certainly isn't necessary for this to work. All the bags have unique barcodes currently. At some point it becomes cost efficient to include an RFID chip in the (disposible) baggage routing tag, but I'd imagine that we're not there yet.

Depends on how much extra time/manpower-time is spent scanning every piece of luggage that one touches vs. the savings from just scanning every piece of luggage that comes within X feet of the handler (which can be roughly used in the same way with sufficiently low value of X) and how cheaply the chips can be made/inserted into the tags when done in massive volume.

-B