The insult and injury tour living up to its name

So, it’s been a fun* start to the trip so far.
Disclaimer: Fun may be sarcasm, read on to find out how much *fun* it’s been so far.

We’re barely a day in, and we’ve survived an AA ticketing snafu where as part of reissuing both our tickets to apply upgrades – they issued them as paper tickets which prevented Qantas checking us in.

That took several phone calls and about 40min to resolve before they could issue the tickets, topped up by another 10min dealing with Most Significant Carrier (MSC) baggage allowances so Stuart Nolan could check in his six items of luggage (he’s moving to the US, so using 2/3 bags I’m allowed, plus the four he is, to move personal property over there).

With that issue almost resolved and dispensed (I need to check in with AA tomorrow, whilst Stuart has his boarding passes all the way through to Milwaukee) – we then move onto the next saga – which is why mentioning the moving vans worth of luggage Stuart is carrying is important.

So, we get a Wagon at the Taxi Rank, and load up half a moving vans worth of luggage – and the driver takes us from Domestic arrivals around to the Rydges on the international side.

Half way there, Stuart realises his hand luggage hasn’t made it into the car. I dump Stuart on the Rydges driveway to check in, and get the cab driver to race back over to Domestic Arrivals.

Mercifully, the bag was in the same place he left it – except with Qantas Security, Contract Security, and the Taxi rank supervisor pouring over it with a bomb/drug swab – all of whom were in a state of panic and I had to calm them down, explain what had happened, and successfully identified the owner so they’d back off and let me get on my way.

Talk about a fun start to the trip.