Home at last!

I made it home yesterday very early in the morning. Overall it was a very good trip both in terms of outcomes but also in terms of logistics. I had a few very positive things happen on the way home too.

Upon arriving at the airport to check in I feared that one of my two bags was slightly over the 50 pound weight limit. When I set the heavier of my two bags on the scale, to my horror it read 70.0 pounds. I had significantly underestimated the weight of that bag. My plan was to shift any excess weight to the other bag or to my carry on, but there was no way I could shift 20 pounds.

I then placed the second bag on the scale. 50.0 pounds. Dead on the limit. While that is somewhat amazing that it was exactly on, that made my situation worse. No room to shift anything to that bag from the first one. I knew I was in trouble since I had phoned earlier and been told the cost for an international bag between 50 and 70 pounds was $129. I was not sure what I was going to do.

About that time the ticket agent came over and saw the weight of the bags, and asked if I could move anything to my carry on bag. “Not 20 pounds’ worth of stuff” I told her. “That will cost you an extra $25 for that added weight then” she told me. Before the words were out of her mouth I handed her my credit card. That was $25 well spent in my mind to make sure all of the stuff with me could go safely and not have to wait for a later trip.

While waiting at the gate before departure they announced they were looking for volunteers to be changed to a later flight. They were oversold in economy class, which is the perfect scenario for a frequent flier like me to get upgraded. Could it be? Nope, in the end they apparently found enough volunteers. No upgrade. Drat!!

Then, while changing planes in Amsterdam, I had another unexpected bonus. While scanning my boarding pass the machine beeped back at the agent. She looked down and then told me my seat had been changed. Instead of 11D, I was now in 2F. Yahoo!!! Business class on my last flight home. And that too, in Amsterdam where I long ago gave up on asking for upgrades since they NEVER do that there. I of course maintained complete composure, acting like it was expected or even happens all the time.

Upon arrival into my final city, I was the second person from my flight to clear immigration. Another advantage of the ‘good seats’ – very short lines for immigration, which can take a while. I headed downstairs to wait for my luggage.

As soon as bags started coming out on the belt I noticed a high number of them with chalk ‘X’s on them. That means additional Customs scrutiny. Not good. Please don’t let there be an ‘X’ on my bags. I fully expected there would be though since my one bag contained something that would surely look very odd on an x-ray scanner – a KitchenAid mixer. That was to be my big surprise for my wife. Hopefully it would not cause too much grief to get it into the country.

My bags finally appeared. One with no markings and the other with ‘RS’ written in chalk on three sides. No idea what ‘RS’ means, so I confidently headed towards the exit. Anything other than confidence will surely get you flagged for more scrutiny.

The agent noticed the ‘RS’ on the side and told me I needed to have the bag rescanned. Ah, that is what ‘RS’ means. File that away for future reference. I headed towards the scanning machine, placed my bag through and knew full well what they were going to ask about. They pointed on their screen, asking what the large dark object was. I explained as best I could, was looked over once or twice in a cursory glance, and then given the go ahead. Whew! That was easy.

I headed out the door and got into the taxi to go home. Home at last.