Cadets Always Win

I'm fond of the saying "Cadets Always Win." Why? Because they do. If there's one thing I think I've learned at West Point it's to be resourceful, to use what you have to get what you want (that sounded a lot better in my head I promise).

Today, I flew back to New York from San Francisco. An otherwise okay flight, though I didn't fall asleep as easily as I normally did. We were late about an hour as well, but it wasn't like I was in any rush or anything. I left the terminal, confident in the good things the year would bring. As I awaited for the bus back to school, I encountered a friend of mine and we started talking about how excited we were for the new school year, especially 100th Night (a formal event for the seniors at my school: more on that another time). He informed me that he recently got a nice suit to wear to the event.

DAMN!

At that moment, I just realized that I had left my suit and my new pair of shoes in a garment bag that was still inside the plane. As I boarded the bus, I started looking for the contact information for American Airlines and started thinking how best to resolve this. I called American Airlines Baggage Service and they advised me that since I was still at the airport, my best bet was to try and find it at the lost and found at the terminal myself, since me waiting and filing a report could result in my bag never being found. I was hesitant to do this at first because I was afraid I'd have to find another way back aside from the bus, but luckily later buses were scheduled to arrive.

So I hopped off the bus, told the bus supervisor to expect me later as I had a missing bag to find, and then bolted back to Terminal 8 to check in with American Airlines Lost and Found. My garment bag hadn't turned up yet, and since the buses weren't due to arrive at the airport for some time, I decided to just hang out at the Lost and Found.  At first, there were no other customers in there, and so I got to know the agents pretty well as we just talked about how it was working at the airport, especially in customer service. They live tough lives and I totally respect them for all the crap they have to go through.

Soon, more customers came in looking for their bags. Many Brazilians were there as well, as a lot of them had to be diverted to Miami for some reason, and as a result, lost a few of their bags along the way. There was also an elderly man who only spoke Spanish who was trying to negotiate with the agents on how to handle his damaged bag-- he wanted them to pay $200 on the spot, but the agent could only offer a future reimbursement.

While people watching was great and all, I was pretty anxious to recover my lost bag. I checked hourly to no avail, when finally at around 1230, my bag finally showed up (I landed at 845). I was so happy and I'm sure the agent could tell in my voice.

I then walked with a little skip to my step triumphantly back to the buses, which conveniently arrived at an earlier time (I was under the impression they would come back at 3, but another bus came in at 1. Lucky me).

Cadets always win.

Well, except for the time I lost my passport. I just found it and had already canceled it and applied for a new one. Oh well-- I'm still going to Sicily for free (more on that at another time).

Yes. Cadets always win.