Tulsa, OK

O’Hare isn’t a bad airport, just big. After disembarking from the flight from Tulsa, I had to walk nearly half a mile to the gate for my next flight.

They had 2 flights on to Columbus,OH and 1 to Kalamazoo. The first flight left on time, no problem. Then my flight is delayed 30 minutes, I’m still ok so far.

Next, they announce 5 people scheduled on the Kalamazoo flight will have to wait and catch the next flight — the next day — a 24 hour delay, yikes.

My flight? The plane still hasn’t even arrived at O’Hare.
It finally arrives, by our original scheduled departure time . 30 minutes later they announce 2 people will have to wait until the next day to fly on to Columbus. Fortunately, I am not one of them.

Finally, I’m on the plane to Columbus. A short flight and I’m meeting my daughter-in-law in Columbus at long last. We go down to baggage claim, 2 cases are on the carousel, neither of them are mine. We think they haven’t completely unloaded the plane yet. Then the carousel stops,we’re confused and not alone. There are other people from my flight waiting on luggage too.

Then a security person asks us what flight I came in on. I tell him, and he has us follow him to security. I’m really confused now, and a little worried. But sitting right outside of security is my suitcase. It seems my luggage and that of several other passengers came on ahead of us on an earlier flight.

What happened? I thought luggage was not supposed to go on a flight unless the owner of said luggage was on board too. So much for homeland security. They are more worried about a bottle of water, a candy bar, or a baby’s bottle than anything that could be packed in a suitcase.

Next: Getting the car ready to drive home.

O’Hare, flight, delays, lost luggage, airports, homeland security