If You Don’t Have It, You Can’t Miss It?

February 6, 2019

IF YOU DON’T HAVE IT, YOU CAN’T MISS IT – RIGHT?

Well, when it comes to missing luggage I’d say that’s wrong.  If you don’t have it, it can cause all manner of inconveniences in a strange destination.  So I’m not sure if this is normal or not, but I’ve lost my luggage three times on trips and it’s made me reassess my travel needs.

The first two luggage mishaps were in Australia, flying between Brisbane and Canberra.  It’s a one flight trip so I’m not sure where the system fell over but it did. Happy to say that Qantas were lovely and they gave me pyjamas that were ultra comfortable and I wore them for ages.  It’s just that they had a huge red Q on the front of the top and the pants and I used to joke that I was a ‘Prisoner of Qantas’. Actually, my luggage was, at least for 24-48 hours. But it did prepare me for lost luggage at the start of our trip to Turkey a few years ago.

After a long flight we finally arrived in Istanbul and quickly retrieved one bag and then waited, and waited some more, for the other bag to arrive.  And yes, you guessed it, the bag that did arrive contained our really good clothes for other functions. Paperwork, forms, an hour or so later we left the airport.  But, in our backpacks were a change of clothes each, chargers and travel documents. We could wash each night and still have clean clothes. But, no swimsuits! As a curvier lady this isn’t an item you can buy just anywhere, quickly! Lesson learned. We just needed a few essential toiletries which we found not too far from the hotel and gave us the chance to salivate at the local bakery – the mounds of Turkish delight were amazing, not to mention the other pastries.  

The following day we met up with our tour group and I decided to make light of it, after else what could I do! We climbed on the tour bus and I announced that we would be wearing these clothes until our suitcase came back from its unscheduled holiday. I did ask if the missing luggage was going anywhere better! It arrived 5 days later after following us around Turkey.  My tour mates then wanted a fashion parade!

So here are my top tips for making it through when your luggage gets misplaced:

  1. Your carryon should have everything you need to survive RIGHT NOW.  In mine is my CPAP (breathing machine), computer and chargers (I travel for my business), passport & travel docs, medication & underwear, a spare outfit and my swimmers. My swimmers are shorts and a swim shirt so they form an extra outfit too – bonus!
  2. Have your valuable stuff with you in the carry-on.  Other stuff can be replaced and make sure you’ve got travel insurance.  IMHO – if you can’t afford travel insurance you probably can’t afford the trip.
  3. Keep a positive attitude and don’t let it ruin your holiday.
  4. You can travel with less than what you think.
  5. See if the airline will give you a travel pack to tide you over.  You might get really comfy pyjamas out of it!

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