O'Hare International Airport

• We landed at Chicago and had to wait for nearly a half an hour before departing. There were no gates available for us to off load. We close to missing our connecting flight to Cleveland. We had to run to another terminal to make our connecting flight on American Eagle. We made it in time, but the luggage didn't. As we pushed back from the gate, I could see my luggage sitting on the tarmac waiting to be loaded! We touched down at Cleveland at 10:15 p.m. on August 4, 2001. During the night I made three trips to Cleveland Hopkins to see if our luggage had arrived from Chicago. I wasn't sleepy. I was still on Australian time. It seems losing luggage nowadays is quite common among the airlines. I was astounded at how nonchalant they were about the whole thing. Qantas takes pride in securing your luggage on your flight and if they or another airline misplace or delay, they make every effort to locate it and apologize with toiletries, underwear and an apology card!

As we pushed back from the gate, I could see my luggage sitting on the tarmac waiting to be loaded!