Trouble in Shanghai

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I’m flying to Shanghai today. I needed to take a good look at the conservation townhouse we bought and see what needs to be fixed up, so I’m spending a long weekend there. I haven’t been up to Shanghai for about a year and a half, so I’m pretty excited about the trip.

My Dragonair flight was delayed by about 40 minutes thanks to rain in Shanghai (or some such crap), but was otherwise uneventful until we landed in Shanghai. As had been reported by friends, “health inspectors” wearing coveralls and N95 masks came on board to take everyone’s temperature. We all had to stay in our seats until everyone was cleared of possible H1N1 infection, and breathed a collective sigh of relief when we learned that we didn’t need to be quarantined.

I got to the baggage claim carousel, and was almost gonna grab a Rimowa bag until I realized it wasn’t mine. It looked kinda similar but the models are noticeably different. I waited patiently for my suitcase to appear, while the lookalike piece kept going around the carousel without being claimed. Finally, when almost everyone had gone, I came to the conclusion that my luggage had probably been picked up by the owner of the Rimowa that is still on the carousel. The guy probably thought he was the only one who was running around with a Rimowa of that size, and completely ignored the fact that my piece had a noticeable (or so I thought) black tag in addition to being short a handle by design.

I approached the counter and told the staff on duty that my bag was missing. I also brought them the orphaned Rimowa and told them my suspicions. They checked and informed me that no bag was left behind in Hong Kong, which meant that my bag probably did get on the plane to Shanghai. The staff contacted CX/Dragonair, and a call made to the passenger’s Taiwanese mobile number went nowhere (duh…). Paging for the passenger inside the terminal achieved nothing. There was nothing I could do but fill out a form with my contact number and address, and wait for the airport to call…

So now the two of us are left stranded with nothing but our respective carry-on bags, which in my case was my notebook bag containing my notebook computer and very little else. I didn’t even have a charger for my Blackberry phone. And we were to stay at the empty conservation house, which had very little in the way of amenities. Even the bath towels we had brought along for our stay were now missing… 

Fortunately our friend Winnie came to pick us up at the airport, and promptly arranged to send over a few towels, toothbrushes as well as a few other essentials. This would tide us over until tomorrow morning…