Richard Turen
It was to be a simple connection: Flying from our lovely, efficient, Southwest Florida Airport in Fort Myers to Dallas, then connecting to Tokyo.
Southwest Florida is the second-busiest single runway airport in the nation and growing quickly. We know what we are doing down here, and we operate with renowned Florida efficiencies. It is an "international" airport in the sense that residents of Frankfurt can fly down here direct on Discover Airlines and we can, of course, return the favor. Flights to London and Paris will have to wait.
This was the second of our annual Vacations with Clients. We would be meeting 53 clients from all over the country in Tokyo for a few days before boarding the Regent Explorer for a 10-night cruise circling Japan.
Check-in was a breeze, for the first minute and a half. The priority line was empty, and my American app said we would reach Dallas on time.
But something was amiss at check-in -- a small hiccup. There were several airline employees who seemed confused. My bags were sitting on the scales, but there was no movement.
It turns out that Hurricane Milton had left one final mark on Southwest Florida: American's entire computer system was down. Nothing was working. What to do?
As we stood at the counter, it was soon determined that all tickets and baggage receipts would have to be hand-written along with baggage tags. This took awhile, but we finally walked away with an on-time departure, and our AirTags happily shouting out that each of our suitcases was parked just below our feet as our aircraft reached cruising altitude.
After landing at DFW, we walked just a few miles over to the Japan Airlines check-in. The unusually efficient team was concerned that our bags were not being sent over by American. Our AirTags confirmed this. A JAL supervisor walked all the way back with us to speak to American personally. As we spoke, we could see our bags in storage. This would be easy.
It wasn't. American refused to give us our bags or turn them over to JAL, because "our regulations require that your baggage tags be printed, not hand-written." American supervisory staff would not overrule this mandate. They were not accepting our baggage tags as authentic even though it was American that had hand-written them and attached them to our luggage in Fort Myers.
Our plane took off. We took off. Our bags remained in Dallas.
Despite this, we enjoyed one of the two or three best flights of my life. Business class consisted of private compartments with truly comfortable seating and flat-bed options.
The food could be Japanese or carefully crafted "international." The TVs had huge, 24-inch screens. Service was always extraordinary.
Arrival was equally impressive. A supervisor for JAL in Tokyo met us and assured us that JAL "will not rest" until they got American to deliver our luggage. It was not a problem created by JAL, but they decided to own it. I will not forget that.
Three days later, on the night before we were to board our ship, our luggage was delivered.
Now, after five decades of travel, we can formally identify with just what the implications are when your luggage does not immediately join you on vacation.