Let’s face it, US-based airlines have never been quick in getting the check-in luggages onto the baggage claim carousels. The average time for my check-in bags to show up at the carousel from the moment the plane arrives at the gate, regardless of the airline i travel on, is more than 30 minutes. In this day and age of air travel where passengers are pretty much forced to check in their luggages due to the dwindling number of items allowed in the carry-on bags. You would think that airlines and airports would make an effort to improve the check-in baggage delivery time with the increase in the volume of check-in bags. Nope. Check-in bags are still taking as long as before, if not longer (it took about 45 minutes on one of my recent flights).
Why is it so difficult to have my check-in bags show up the moment i arrive at the baggage claim carousel? I have flown to numerous airports in the U.S. and international cities and the difference in baggage delivery time is like night and day. In the last two years, i flew to China on three occasions. I flew into four different Chinese airports (Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Fuzhou) on three international flights and two domestic flights, and in all of my flights, my check-in bags were already on the carousels when i arrived to pick them up. Has any of my check-in bags ever shown up on the carousels in any US airports the moment i arrive to pick them up in the last ten years of travel, averaging at least 75,000 miles a year? Never. Not even once.
Why do US-based airlines have such a miserable check-in luggage delivery time?
- Inadequate number of baggage handlers per flight. On most of the domestic flights i took, i have not seen more than two baggage handlers per flight unloading the bags. One guy loads the bags onto the conveyor vehicle and the second guy picks them up from the conveyor vehicle into the baggage truck. As airlines keep trying reduce cost by hiring the minimal number of baggage handlers needed per flight, the delivery time of the check-in luggages suffers.
- No designated baggage handlers for each airport. By that, i mean each airline here has its own baggage handlers. Of all the international (non-US) airports that i have been to, most of the baggage (or ground) handlers that i have seen are actually employed by designated ground handling firms, instead of being employed by the airlines. For example, the ground handling services in Singapore’s Changi International Airport are handled by three companies: Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS), Changi International Airport Services (CIAS) and Swissport. I believe having a designated ground handling crew for the whole airport helps set a uniform standard for baggage delivery.
- Poorly designed and antiquated airport baggage claim areas. Some of the domestic airport terminals that i have been to do not even have a centralized display to inform passengers the baggage claim carousels where their check-in bags will show up. One good example of an extremely badly designed baggage claim area is Terminal 2 of the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Terminal 2 baggage claim area serves five airlines (Alaska, Air Canada, Continental, Ted and United) but there are only four baggage claim carousels.
Imagine passengers from four different flights crowding around the baggage claim area at the same time. These four oval carousels are situated in a tiny area about 15 feet apart from each other in a square shape. In the middle of each carousel is a display that is supposed to indicate your flight. I said “supposed to” because half the time i don’t see my Alaska air flight number showing up on any of the four displays. How hard is it to have a centralized display that informs me which carousel my bag will show up on? Why do i have to check each of the four displays to figure out where my bag will end up? On a few occasions, it was announced that bags from my flight would show up on one particular carousel but ended up appearing on another carousel. Of course, i didn’t figure that out until it was too late.
When i arrived at the Shanghai Pudong International airport, on one of the many centralized displays i easily located the baggage claim carousel where my bag showed up, and yes, the moment i arrived at the carousel.
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The storm that brought fresh powder during my 2-day snowboarding trip at Whistler also blanketed Vancouver and Western Washington (from the Canadian border all the way South of Everett) with more than 15 inches of snow. Normally the travel time between Richmond (BC) and Seattle is about 2.5 hours but because of the enormous amount of snow on a big stretch of I-5, it took me more than 5 hours to get home. I was averaging no more than 20 miles an hour on I-5 between the border town of Blaine and exit 232 near Mt Vernon, a distance of about 50 miles. There was no sign of any snow removal equipment on the freeway and that might explain the number of vehicles that i witnessed in the ditches.
Pictures taken with my 1.3 meg pixel camera phone:
Snowing in Vancouver.
Border wait.
Snow covered border signs.
Pictures taken with Janet’s 2.0 meg pixel camera phone:
Snowing in Vancouver.
Snowing in Vancouver.
Melted snow on sunroof.
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Israel’s Peace Now movement released a report showing extensive portion of Israeli settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank are “built on land which the Israeli government recognizes as privately-owned by Palestinians.”
This is front page news on the New York Times, but the title of the article - Israeli Map Says West Bank Posts Sit on Arab Land - is extremely misleading. The use of the term “posts” to describe the Israeli settlements makes the illegal colonies look like some temporary camps in the middle of nowhere. The so-called “posts” are large settlement colonies like Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel, with each having population of 32,000 and 20,000 respectively.
Reuters has a more appropriate title for its article: Israel stole private land for settlements: report.
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I have been waiting very patiently since late April for this moment. It’s that time of the year again. It’s snowboarding time!
The storm that came into this region last weekend dumped a lot of snow in the mountains. In the upcoming week, the weather forecast is calling for more snow. And guess what, i will be spending my Thanksgiving in Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Sweeeeeet!!!
At the end of last season, my Session pants was literally torn into pieces, and since i could not find a decent pair of pants to replace it when all the winter gears were on sale in April, i have to pay premium for a pair of Burton AK Gore-Tex 2L pants. There goes all my Citibank credit card cash rebate for the year.
To get ready for this season, i started running on the treadmill about a month ago. I have never enjoyed running, i think i still don’t, but for the sake of being able to make it through a full day of riding, i am running between 2 to 2.5 miles each time. My goal is to run 3 miles in less than 30 minutes.
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One of the Asses of Evil got fired!!!
St. Halcyon, referring to the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld after the defeat suffered by the Republicans in yesterday’s midterm election.
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