Toon Timbermont

Welcome to the 21st century!

Today started with a Belgian employee of the German Lufthansa refusing my trolley as hand luggage for one of the most absurd reasons I ever heard. “It is more than 8 kg”. As if a kg in the luggage compartment weighs less than in the cabin… or as if I would be refused on the plain if I weighted some kg more… But the rules remained the rules and the employee stuck to the 8kg limit. My luggage disappeared on the transportation band.

Halfway the day, my connection to Batumi, Georgia was at risk. I got a personal assistant from Turkish Airlines running me through the Ataturk Airport to make sure that I did not miss the connection. I did not. My luggage was another story … On top of not allowing a small trolley as hand luggage, the employee had not put the final destination on the luggage ticket. Causing the luggage to be stuck in Istanbul. Here again Turkish Airlines has put their people at work to get it delivered in Batumi (hopefully tomorrow).

3 hours later I arrived in Batumi. When the organising team heard that my luggage got lost, they took me stante pede to a nearby shop where I found exactly what I was looking for to get through the next couple of days. Problem solved with a smile because “we want you to feel welcome in Georgia”.

My personal conclusions of this travel day are twofold:

• I have some work in optimizing my international travel routine to make absolutely sure I can travel hand luggage only
• [I know I should not generalize but …] I am more and more convinced that it is high time for the “old” western countries (and their workforce) to wake up in the 21st century. We are more & more looking like the old men and women that stick to how things are done things because that’s how they’re done. In the meantime a large part of the world is taking another approach, which might (soon prove to) be the better one!