The Case of the Missing Pack’n Play

I went skiing with a group of friends in Denver last week. One of them brought her baby and the pack’n play. Somewhere between the luggage claim and the cabin, the pack’n play went missing, but we decided to make do with extra pillows and a sectioned off area of their bedroom. Wasn’t going to let that ruin a good weekend and it wasn’t worth our time to call the airport, given that if found, we would just pick it up on the way home.

On the way back, we stopped by the rental car counter to see if it was left on the rental car shuttle. No luck. Time was looking ok, so we went to the missing luggage counter at the airport. 30 minutes later, we emerged with the pack’n play! Apparently, we picked it up off the conveyor belt, but left it on the arrivals floor when the group was using the restroom before mobilizing to the shuttle stop.

By then, we were cutting it short with 40 minutes to scheduled departure time. I used the restroom, then Pre-check’d my way to the gate. I thought my friends would pull the baby card, but they ended up in the general line. Despite my attempts to hold their space, the plane took off without them. Thankfully, the gate agent was kind enough to accommodate them on a later flight, albeit 8 hours later.

Lesson learned:

  1. Get TSA Pre-check (or Global Entry).
  2. Leverage the baby card for as long as you can.
  3. Re-evaluate your available time after every un-expected turn.

My friends are now scheduled for their Global Entry interview.

And they lived happily ever after…

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