The Highs and Lows of Travelling - Part II

With an early wake up so I could feast on a free breakfast, I was down at the restaurant by 9am to chomp down some bacon and eggs and many glasses of cold juice. Deciding to head in early to see if they had recovered my bag I jumped on the shuttle a mere 5 hours before I was due to leave to San Francisco.

I decided to head back to the domestic terminal as that's where my bag should have turned up. No longer then 5 minutes in the queque I was told that my bag had been checked through to San Francisco and I had nothing to worry about.

As the T-bus arrived at the international terminal, and Australian (not that we want to claim him) singer Damien Leith departed, I went to check in. As I recieved my ticket, I was questioned about a lack of baggage and informed the counter-chick of how it had been checked through . . . very bad assumption (or belief). As she rang up every different person and every different department she came to the conclusion that it was officially lost somewhere at Sydney - and being a soft-black zipper suitcase (like the 98% of other suitcases in the airport) there was zero to no chance of finding before I departed.

Alas, I headed down to the Qantas baggage claim where I filed a lost report. Being told that I might not recieve it for 24 to 36 or more hours they were going to supply me with some financial help for toiletries and the like. Thinking that 50 odd bucks wouldn't help me to ease my annoyance, it was somewhat helpful. However when she handed the wad of 50's over - well it felt like that anyway - I counted out $350!! Score!! Up 2 buy-ins but down a suitcase - not really a fare deal I suppose, but I gotta live with it. Having about a 5% chance of recieving my suitcase in San Francisco I proceeded to just try and enjoy my flight, watch some movies and be happy that within 24 hours I'll be back on the Strip.

The flight over was pretty standard - watched some movies, played some video games, sleept, ate, slept, watched TV, ate, sleept and then finally arrived in San Francisco after something like 13 hours of flying. As I went through immigration I was unsure if I wanted to see my bag or hope that it was lost so I could claim insurance on everthing that it contained - however I eventually cam to my senses and hoped to see my bag.

As I stood round watching countless of bags go round and round **BANG** I hit my 2-outer when I saw my bag come flying out the shoot. Ah the feeling of satisfaction that I had my suitcase back, was up $350 at Qantas' expense and that I was only an hour away from my final destination.