This happened back in the 1970’s. We were living in the Panama Canal Zone, and every two years the government would fly us home to the States, back to the city we had moved from. At some point they started using charter flights to Miami since they were flying so many people back to the States every summer. We flew Braniff to Miami, and had to collect our luggage to pass through customs before getting our Eastern connection to Birmingham.
We were waiting for our luggage to show up on one of the carousels. Luggage arrived at the carousel via a conveyor from a lower level. We saw someone’s sandals and other articles of clothing coming up the ramp. It suddenly dawned on us that the stuff was my mother’s! I don’t remember a lot of details about collecting her clothes and shoes, but the suitcase was basically laid open, unable to close or lock at all.
We went to Braniff and they told us to “file a claim when we got back to Panama.” Were they kidding? It wasn’t their problem right then according to them. We missed our connection thanks to them. Eastern taped the suitcase up so that it made the trip to B’ham. It wasn’t their problem, yet they found the best possible solution and got us to B’ham later that day. Unfortunately, Braniff was one of the main carriers from MIA to Panama, along with PanAm. We even had to fly Braniff for some of our charters.
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I always put one cheap vinyl belt around suitcase to avoid above disaster.
Speaking of carousels, check out this story: Alpharetta man regrets 'boneheaded' baggage carousel ride.