what's your worst traveling story?

[thyme_daniels]

I haven't had any horror stories myself, but my dad, who has been fencing for about 30 years now, told me one particularly interesting story. They had all checked their equipment and at baggage claim, his friend's equipment came out in pieces. no bag, just weapons and equipment going around on the conveyor belt, some of it at least. The rest was lost and he had to purchase all new equipment.
That was several years ago. Just thought I would share an anecdote. Anyone else have any similar experiences? (hopefully not)

[whtouche]

I haven't done much traveling for fencing yet, but at the past NAC in san jose, I arrived in the san jose airport, waited at the baggage claim, everyone else came and left with their stuff...mine wasn't there.
Luckily one of the people who worked in the baggage claim office was very nice and helped me figure out what had become of them, calling the airport where I made a connecting flight we found out my bags didn't make it on the connecting flight for whatever reason.
They put them on the next flight, and offered me a 50 dollar travel voucher if I wanted to stay in the airport 2 hours and wait for my bags, or I could just go back to the hotel and have them delivered. I asked nicely if they could be delivered and if I could still get the voucher, they conceded so I feel pretty good about the situation. Minor inconvenience.

The real annoying part came later when I got my bags up to my hotel room, opened one of them and the tripod for my camcorder (which I thankfully brought in my carry-on bag) seems to have been stolen. As such I was unable to tape any of my fencing or any fencing at all that weekend, which bothered and still bothers me quite a bit.

[Tireur]

the only scare I ever had, was once my bag didn't come out on the conveyer. When I inquired, they already had my bag, it had come on an earlier flight.

[Sabresque]

I got in trouble with security for my mask when traveling a couple weeks ago. They said it was a "wide, blunt, protective object" and that those weren't allowed on board, and I told them if they could make sure that my mask wouldn't get bent in during the flight, I would make sure I didn't take it as a carry on, and until then I would continue doing so, lol. the one time I put my mask in my fencing bag, it came back squished in (FIE very expensive), and I had to buy a new one. I can't get a hard cased bag because they don't fit in taxi trunks very well many of the places I travel. Anyways, I convinced him to let me go with it. Haven't had any problems before or since.

I've heard some horror stories, like this guy that I heard of who flew to Greenville North Carolina, instead of Greenville South Carolina, had to drive down and missed his event. Some friend told me that story, it sounds awful.

[afc fencer]

Well the worst for me was on a trip to poland. My flight to paris was delayed an hour because someones seatbelt was broken. So we missed are connecting flight to Warsaw. We had to spend 4 hours in the paris airport, it was awful. Then when we finally got to Warsaw we had missed our train. We spent another three hours in the Warsaw trainstation. It wasnt that bad because there were alot of cool shops. But while we were walking a homeless guy starts to yell at us.(I was with two guys from my club and a girl from another club in atl) He yelled "No mongals with white girls! No mongals!" He followed us for a while but we lost him pretty quickly. We sat down to grab a bite to eat at mcdonalds and then we notice that hes staring at us from outside. He than began to pound on the window. I guess he got bored cause then he walked away, but man that was scary.
The train was really crowded and we had a hard time finding a place to sit. The hallway was narrow so we had a hard time handing our bags. We got into town around 1 or 2 in the morning.

[Tireur]

I've heard some horror stories, like this guy that I heard of who flew to Greenville North Carolina, instead of Greenville South Carolina, had to drive down and missed his event.

A quick look at his ticket would have taken care of that.

[DHCJr]

Originally posted by Sabresque
I got in trouble with security for my mask when traveling a couple weeks ago. They said it was a "wide, blunt, protective object" and that those weren't allowed on board, and I told them if they could make sure that my mask wouldn't get bent in during the flight, I would make sure I didn't take it as a carry on, and until then I would continue doing so, lol. the one time I put my mask in my fencing bag, it came back squished in (FIE very expensive), and I had to buy a new one.

At Summer Nationals in Salt Lake City a number of years ago a fencer had just got off the plane and was watching them unload the luggage. The driver of the luggage truck drove off in a hurry right in front of a 747. He swerved and lost a few bags. One was a very recognizable fencing bag, that was run over by that very same 747. The fencer had never been able to afford FIE equipment. The airline offered to replace the equipment. The fencer decided the airline could afford FIE equipment.

We put that mask up in the Armory and had a sign, 'Failed Mask' and left the fencers wondering if we would crush their mask.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

Hey if an ariline destoyed my stuff they would be purchasing FIE for me too.

[Zelda]

Its not particularly fenicng related but its a horror travel story. Couple of years ago I flew to Johannesburg to see family. MY bags decieded a holiday in honolulu was more interesting. It took 3 days to get them back.

[LastCandyCorn]

when i was 12 I went on a trip to Australia and I had to bring a present for my homestay family, so I bought them a vase type of thing that had my town's name on it and PA. I put my bag on the conveyor belt in australia and i went to get it and they pulled me over to the side and started asking me all these questions and asked me what the round thing I had in my bag was (i'm gunna go with they thought it was a bomb) and being the stupid 12 year old i was i said i forgot what it was. and they opened up my suitcase and started rummaging i saw the bag it was wrapped in and said "OH! i remember what that is, it's a present for my homestay family." The guards shook their heads and let me go. not exactly a fencing traveling story but a traveling story nonetheless