In Albany, our flight was very, very late leaving. The desk personnel somehow thought I would still make my connection in Newark, but he told me he backed me up on a flight leaving at 1:45 if I missed the 12:00. I, of course, missed the connection in Newark, and when I checked in with the desk personnel, she was puzzled to find that the Albany moron had booked me on a 1:45 flight THE NEXT DAY. Consequently, I was last on the list of standby passengers for the 1:45. To my surprise and great delight, I did make it on to that flight to Houston which would give me plenty of time to get to my connection to Queretaro. HOWEVER, as I was about to step from the jet way into the plane, they informed me that there was no more room in overhead compartments. In fact, they were bringing off bags of people who were already on board. And they said they needed to close the doors of the plane in 1 minute. So I had 30 seconds to decide if I entrust my bag to the baggage people or decline to get on the plane and thus miss my connection to Queretaro. At the time, the first option seemed to make the most sense. I asked that it be just checked to Houston where I would pick it up and take it with me to my next flight. Since this was a large jet, they don't just do gate checks like the small planes, they send the bag with regular checked baggage.
So I went to baggage and was there at the chute when bags from my flight began to emerge, and I waited and waited...... and waited and waited. No bag. Went to report lost bag and they were as puzzled as I how my bag could have been lost between 1 stop and another. A lovely young man, a Mexican born in Mexico City named Marcello, was very, very nice and assured me they would find it and to think positively. When I finally decided I needed to get to my plane whether or not I had my bag in my possession (originally I declared to them "I'm not leaving until I have that bag!!"), he escorted me back through security, on to a shuttle to a different terminal, and reminded me how important it would be to think positively.
I did arrive in Queretaro at their brand new arrival zone where things could not have gone more smoothly. All 3 of my checked bags arrived unscathed and intact, and Silviah was there to meet me. I told them there about my camera bag ( I had hoped that it might show up there after all) , and the young man helping me expressed his surprise that they had given me no paperwork or a reference number. I was surprised at myself that I had asked for that --- but I remembered that I had been in a somewhat altered state at the time. He looked it up on the computer, found the information and gave me reference #s and telephone #s etc.
To spare you the details of my ongoing anxiety, I'll get to the happy ending. I had actually finally come to realize that everything could be replaced (except the wedding pictures I had just taken) because I had insurance. It was a sort of Buddhist decision to let go of attachment. By yesterday afternoon, the airline confirmed that they had found my bag in New Orleans (?????) and that it would be on the flight to Queretaro that evening. Sure enough, at about 9:45 pm a very nice airport official delivered by bag to mi casa at 98b Pino Suarez. Everything was in perfect shape, nothing missing or broken. Hooray for Lowepro.
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