lost.baggage

My brother flew in to boston from austin saturday. He didn't take a direct flight, but flew through dallas and as luck would have it, they lost his luggage along the way. Poor kid. The four of us spent the day together walking around newbury, and he was a little nippy since he only had a light "coat", and the wind was whipping through downtown. After lunch, he called the lost baggage number to see if anything had been found, and after speaking to a rep (since the automated system consistently tells you it hasn't been located) learned that it was on its way to acton. Good news! He'd be able to wear his nice clothes to church at 6. After some more poking, we headed home around 4, only to arrive to find that nothing had been delivered. After another call (and staying on hold for 40 mins) he was told that it had been picked up, but could be delivered anywhere between 3 and 9pm. Luckily, he had bought a button-down and a casual blazer on our shopping excursion, so he wore those with his jeans to church. Upon arriving home to no bag, he called the info line again, (and stayed on hold for another 40 mins or so) and was told that it had been picked up by the delivery company at 8pm. What? He asked for the delivery company's contact info, but they wouldn't give it out, so the woman called the company herself, and connected them 3-way. Apparently they were short drivers, so while they had the bag, it wasn't going to be delivered until tomorrow. *b* wasn't happy about this- especially since all his christmas gifts were in there waiting to be wrapped. He said as much, and the guy told him he had a driver coming in who could take it out, but that it wouldn't show up in acton until 12 or 1am. *b* ensured the guy this was fine, and the guy said the driver would call *b's* cell when he was on his way. We'll see what happens.

*Update (9:47am, 12/25/06)*: By 12:45am, no bag, no call, so *b* phoned the info line again (and stayed on hold for 25 mins) only to end up unable to contact the delivery company. After swearing to kill several people and their families, he cut his losses and went to bed. Hopefully it will show up today, but who knows at this rate. The ridiculous thing is that if they hadn't told him the bag had already been picked up when he called after lunch, (which it hadn't been) we could have swung by there on our way home. We were downtown already, and could have made it there in 15 mins or so. Hopefully he'll get some money for the stuff he had to buy in the meantime.

*Update 2 (2:58pm, 12/26/06)*: He called the airlines again on christmas morning, and talked to a much less understanding lady. He explained the situation- how he had been told it would arrive by 1am, and it never came- and she snapped back at him, "What's done it done. The drivers are having their christmas dinner, and it will get there when it gets there." Obviously she wasn't happy to be working on christmas (who would be?) but seriously...the amount of crap that he had to put up with throughout the whole ordeal should have gained him some apologies, however insincere. The suitcase arrived around 4pm, with all the presents in tow. Part of my mom's present was broken, but some super glue took care of that.