Bad Travel Karma

The journey began on Wednesday, July 23rd at 11:30 AM when my brother, Paul, picked me up to take me to the airport in Cincinnati. It was a beautiful sunny day and the conversation was good, when 32 miles out of Cincy the car began to rumble and shake. A pull-over and inspection revealed a flat tire, but not to worry, we had allowed plenty of time. As Paul and I were studying the owners manual to figure out how to retrieve the spare from the under carriage, a Good Samaritan pulled over to offer assistance. Well, an entrepreneuial Good Samaritan who made it known he expected payment, but on the positive side, left the payment amount up to us. $25 later were were on our way. Paul commented that he usually had bad travel karma and hoped it would not rub off on me. Little did I know the ominous foreboding of that statement.
Paul dropped me off at the airport where I met up with the rest of the group, 12 in all. We checked in at the Northwest counter, and after a harrying process through security, made it to the gate. We were all starting to relax, when the gate attendant approached us and asked if we were the group traveling to Johannesburg. We confirmed her assumption and she shook her head and said,"I was afraid so." The flight from Cincy that was to take us to Detroit for a connection to Amsterdam and then on to Johannesburg, was delayed for about 2 1/2 hours, which would get us to Detroit about 1 hour too late to connect on through. The next hour was spent watching Laura, the gate agent we came to know and not necessarily love, peck feverishly at her keyboard only to sigh and shake her head slowly from side to side.
Plan 1 was for 9 of us to fly to Paris and then on to Johannesburg, with a 10 hour layover in Paris. 10 hours seemed plenty time for a metro ride to downtown Paris for an afternoon of exploring, so this was actually met with a level of enthusiasm and excitement. The remaining 3 of us, of which I was a member, would fly directly to Amsterdam, then on to Frankfurt Germany and on to Johannesburg. Both groups would arrive in Johannesburg on Friday morning within a couple of hours of each other. So Northwest sent us off to Delta with what we considered a less than desirable, but workable plan.
At the Delta gate, Karma raised her nasty head again. No problem for 7 of the nine to go to Paris, but according to Delta, Northwest had failed to do something that would allow the other 2 to get on the Paris flight. With boarding time drawing nigh, Janice and the 2 outcasts went running back to Northwest, which was a concourse and tram ride away, to urge Northwest to do whatever it was Delta wanted them to do to allow them to board. While this was happening, the Delta flight to Paris was boarding, and boarding, and boarded... except for our 9 members. The gate crew began to push for our 7 who were approved to board. Just as time was running out, Janice and the other 2 came running back from Northwest who assured them all was well. The 7 who were approved boarded and the Delta personnel began typing feverishly on their keyboards. Our hearts sank as we saw the all too familiar grimace and head shaking from the ticket agent. And as the doors closed and 7 of our group headed off to Paris, 5 of us stared blankly at one another wondering what to do next. Delta explained that regardless of Northwest may have said, someone neglected to push the button which would make it all well and good. Knowing we would not split our group any thinner, the now 5 of us headed back to Northwest as we heard the last call for the boarding for the flight that was to have taken 3 of us to Amsterdam.
Back at Northwest, our patience was wearing thin. But eventually we had a plan.
Plan 2 (or 3 or 4) Northwest would put the 5 of us up in a hotel and tomorrow, Thursday, we would take an early Delta flight to Atlanta, and then a direct flight on to Johannesburg. Not a great plan, but a plan. And Northwest was proud that they had retrieved our luggage on the flight and our personal bags would be waiting for us at baggage claim. They even gave us food vouchers for the hotel. So we wearily trudged to baggage claim, looking forward to getting a few hours sleep and starting all over tomorrow. Surely nothing else could go wrong today.
And then.... Karma. When we arrived at baggage claim there were 22 bags waiting for us. Every bag for every one of the 12 of us, 7 of which were on their way to Paris, was waiting in baggage claim, with the exception of 2 bags, one of mine and one on Janice's, which we found out were on their way to Amsterdam, a destination that none of us were going to. Northwest baggage claim people assured us that our bags would be waiting for us in Johannesburg, took the extra bags and promised that they would be sent on to Africa, and apologized profusely, which at this point held little weight. So at the end of the day, I had been in the airport for 10 hours, had been booked on 3 different flights and lost my luggage when I hadn't even been anywhere.
Tomorrow would have to be a better day. Well, you would have thought, but more on that later.