Those who know me well know that I occasionally make mistakes when I travel. In the past year on different occasions I've booked a ticket to the wrong city (and not noticed it until after I've checked my bag), missed a connecting flight, and gotten confused about scheduling and missed an outbound flight. And every time it manages to work out fine. I must have an angel on my shoulder.
Yesterday on my Southwest Airlines flight home from Salt Lake City (SLC) I had a connecting flight in Chicago. When the plane landed in Chicago, a flight attendant said over the intercom "Would Angelica Harris please catch us on your way out? Angelica Harris, please see us."
As I deplaned, I asked if she meant Andrea Harris. Yes. She pointed me to a lady in the jetway. The lady explained that I had left my purse at the gate in SLC, and that I needed to check in at my departing gate to get it back. (Wow.)
At the departing gate, a Southwest representative put me in touch with baggage claim in SLC. Liz in SLC confirmed that all of my cash and cards were still in the purse (whew!) and asked me to set up a FedEx account so she could mail my purse. I had Liz read me the info off my credit card, called FedEx to set up the account, and called Liz back. My purse is on its way home now.
Here's the very lucky part - my car keys, cell phone, and lip gloss were in my computer bag, which was with me.
My ticket to get out of the parking lot was in my purse. I always write down where I park on the ticket (uh oh). If you've never parked in the economy lot at Dulles, it's huge and all the bus stops look the same. Especially at night. Luckily the shuttle bus driver was very patient, the people on the shuttle were rooting for me, and I found my car without too much trouble (amen for the panic button on my keyfob). I got in my car and headed to the exit. It took some eyelash batting and about 20 minutes, but they finally bought my story and let me exit the parking lot.
Thank you, Southwest! Thank you, guys at the Dulles economy parking lot! Thank you, angel (or should I call you Angelica?)!
