Reading Will’s blog piece about lost parcels brought to mind lost luggage. Did you know that 5.6 million bags went missing last year? British Airways came top of the tree losing 2.3% of bags. It was interesting to see that Virgin Atlantic, BMI, Ryanair and Easyjet decided not to release any figures!!

One story I remember is of a lady who was queuing up at check in behind a particularly obnoxious character on his way to Melbourne from London. He was being more and more unreasonable with the check in staff over nothing. Eventually he was checked in. The lady in the queue behind walked up and said how impressed she was with how the check in attendant had kept her cool with this idiot. She said the customer service training must be good. The check in attendant said that what kept her calm in these situations was the knowledge that she was sending his bags to Taipei “by accident”. Apparently Taipei is a hole where many bags disappear into. She assured the lady that hers would be taking the direct route to Melbourne. Take care when you are at the check in desk!!

Another occasion was returning to Southampton from Dublin from a careers fair. The display stands I had checked in didn’t arrive so I was filling in the paperwork so they would be delivered on the next day. Two guys from Dublin had come over to a motorbike festival for the weekend and their rucksacks hadn’t turned up. The girl behind the desk was very apologetic and said not to worry they would be on the next flight tomorrow. The guys were asked where they were staying so she could deliver the bags. They replied we are staying in the tent which is in their rucksack!!! With typical Irish good humour they found the whole event rather amusing and we headed off to have a few consoling beers before they looked for a bed and breakfast to stay in.

Any interesting experiences anyone else has had?

As of today, January 23rd, Americans flying into Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean will need valid passports to reenter the US. This is a big change as U.S. citizens could previously travel to neighboring countries with only a driver’s license or birth certificate.

One unfortunate statistic is that only one forth of Americans hold valid passports, so if you don’t have one already go out and get one! No matter what your nationality is, a passport is crucial to travel abroad, volunteer with us and to become a global citizen. Get one early and travel often!

If you don’t have one and cannot find information about the application process, please do not hesitate to contact us and we can point you in the right direction.