Lost Luggage

Here is the scenario - you get off your flight, go to baggage pickup, and wait for your luggage to appear in the carousel. And you wait. And you wait some more. Rather than risk missing your bags, you pretty much have to wait until the last bag appears. Then, realizing that your luggage "did not make it", you get in line at the Lost Luggage Office hoping that your bags are still in this galaxy.

Of course the airlines knew long before you landed that your bags "did not make it". They are probably already queued up for the next flight or in fact are already on the next flight. So why make you go through the charade of waiting at the carousel? A little more information in the service supply chain would surely go a long way towards making it more convenient for customers, and mitigating service failures.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a IT guy at a big European airline. He was complaining that his server received so many hits from people who ended up not buying a ticket that he had to upgrade the hardware from time to time. Kind of like Macy's complaining about too much foot traffic.

The airlines have not figured out yet that they are information processing companies with airplanes. Until they do, the airport forecast for today, tomorrow and the indefinite future is for delays.