Friday, March 21, 2008

Most Likely to Lose Your Baggage

I was always fly light and if I need to wear a suit, I wear it on the plane. It is because of the fear that they will lose my luggage and my vacation/business will be impaired. So on I go with my laptop and my backpack that carries my deodorant, tooth brush, socks, one pair of jeans, undershirts and boxer shorts. Never can have too little of those.

But The Economist has polled to find out which European airlines are most prone to lose luggage.


I'll still continue to do it my way. Saves a lot of time just going to the car rental and not have to queue in front of the baggage claim.

4 comments:

moneythoughts said...

Hi Captain Capitalism,

I was checking out people that are interested in economics and came across your blog. Interesting. I think you are probably a little younger than me, I'm 65 and from another part of the planet.

I write and paint. Take a look at my blog, you might find it of interest.

Fred

Anonymous said...

Go the car counter ...then go over to see the baggage carousel to see if your stuff made it.

Anonymous said...

You clearly don't fly around Europe much! Here we're proud to have the most retarded "security measures" making even the shortest flights absolute hell. Until January this year the UK government only allowed one bag for hand luggage. Yes, that seems like an appropriate subject for the government to legislate on, doesn't it.

Women could take a handbag and a carry-on bag onto the plane, only if they could fit their handbag inside the carry-on when passing through security. That's so illogical that I've been tempted to try some sort of Russian Doll (bag in a bag in a bag) trick to see if I can get away with it.

But it doesn't stop there. You can only take liquids (which oddly includes "creams, pastes and gels", so someone must have missed high school science class) through the security checkpoint if they are in individual containers of less than 100ml each. All of these containers must then fit in a transparent, resealable bag that is no more than 20x20cm large.

Ask yourself this: what exactly is this security measure protecting us against? A 20x20 bag can probably fit at least 4 100ml containers, and I'm pretty sure 400ml of liquid explosive would cause some serious damage to an aircraft.

Oh, and there's more. It's now impossible to drop passengers off at UK airports. Before all of this nonsense you used to be able to drive past the front of the terminal, drop someone off and drive off again. Now everyone is directed to car parks approximately 14 nautical miles from the terminal.

Why should Captain Capitalism care? Because it's all a scam. The airport operators have realised they can make serious money from "anti-terrorism measures". Those plastic bags that you have to put your liquids in? You can buy them for £1 each at the security checkpoint.

What about dropping someone at the airport? It used to be free - drive in, drop off, drive out. Now you are forced (yes, forced, there are police at every airport making you do this) to go into a specially designated car park. And guess what - there's now a £1 charge to get out again. It used to be free to drop someone off, now you pay for the privilege.

So Mr Capitalism, how about a blog entry that looks at how companies and governments are making money through "anti-terrorism" measures that provide no effective increase in security? Nobody questions these measures because the big T word is used. I can list a whole bunch right now.

Anonymous said...

If it were up to me, I wouldn't check anything at all. The problem is that I can't take any make-up on board (the three things is my 1 plastic bag are hand sanitizer, toothpaste, and shampoo.) So I have to go throught the whole hassle of checking it. Who new you could make bombs out of lipstick?