With all my travels, it never occurred to me that stuff like this can ever happen to someone like me. I check in really early, always at least 2 hours in advance. During my business trip to Shanghai, China, I did not only made a web check-in, I was in the airport for more than 3 hours in advance. You might say I was quite an early bird, and also because leaving on a Sunday, I figured, it is best to have a hassle-free trip before the entire business engagement begins. It is for an entire week and I was preparing myself for the grind by having a laid back flight. I was wrong.
I waited and waited at the conveyor. Just when everybody has taken their bags, and all that are left behind are bags that are not in any way the same as my black american tourister luggage (no not even the color), I quickly went to the luggage information counter. The lady told me to write everything down in the paper report then she told me that I will be notified at my hotel. She told me to proceed to my hotel and they will arrange for delivery.
My hotel is 90 minutes away form the airport. I quickly connected with my sister from Manila and asked her if she can arrange with PAL from Manila to locate my bag. As I did not connect my mobile phone to roaming, I quickly realized that I can connect with my sister through viber and whatsapp, but no google (all sorts of google) and no facebook. Instagram is possible though, but quite limiting to talk by way of pics :-P
So to cut it short, my sister finds out that PAL sent my luggage to Riyadh. Somehow they threw it in the conveyor going to Riyadh while I was checked in for the flight to Shanghai. Wow.
The following day, PAL Riyadh forgot to place my luggage for the flight back to Manila. Then the next day, it does arrive in Manila, but only to have missed another day because every wednesdays, there is no flight from Manila to Shanghai. Thursday my luggage arrives to Shanghai Airport. And it stays there for an entire day because PAL Manila thinks they have already done their part (what?)... Okay so my hotel (oh don't get me wrong, the hotel I stayed in was awesome and really really offers tremendous service! Shout out to you Crowne Plaza Shanghai Xiayang Lake -- your staff and the hotel are really awesome!!!!!) is 90 minutes away from Pudong Shanghai Airport, and as PAL Shanghai said they will send it to my hotel, why did they not even bother to tell me that hey you need to go get it yourself? Okay so Friday, PAL Shanghai tells me they are arranging for my luggage to be sent to my hotel. Saturday 3AM my luggage is sent to my room. I requested the front desk to wake me up in case my one and only little luggage arrives.
For all this, PAL decides to give me PhP12,000. Actually they were thinking of handing me only USD100. I mean what? This lady manager of the baggage department says they are only following Philippine laws by handing me at most PhP12,000. I mean, fine, follow the laws, but do you really need to be inefficient that it took Sunday to Saturday to send me my luggage? And so no one takes ownership for this mistake? I mean... imagine how cool was it that it was a business trip, I entered our Shanghai office on a Monday wearing my chuck taylors. Hahahaha thanks Philippine Airlines. Thank you so much.
