David Politis

My travels took me to the San Francisco Bay Area today (12/29/06), where my wife and I flew into Oakland International Airport (OAK) on Delta (Flt. #3957) via its partner relationship with SkyWest.

The flight from Salt Lake to Oakland was fine, but the baggage situation once we got on the ground was not.

After 20 minutes of waiting while passengers from two other flights received their luggage and seeing no sign whatsoever of our bags, I began to look for a solution.

The Delta representative at the lost luggage counter used her walkie-talkie to call an unknown associate to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing baggage.

His response was that they “didn’t have enough rampers” to take care of our bags since they were loading an outbound flight first, so our bags would have to wait.

So I asked the “lost luggage” woman if there was a “red coat” around, a long-used term at Delta meant to refer to an on-the-ground Delta supervisor. Surely, I thought there had to be a supervisor on-site.

We don’t have red coats any more, came the rather huffy reply. Okay, how ’bout a supervisor? Can I speak to a supervisor?

No, there is no supervisor here, she said. You’ll just have to wait.

By now it had been 25 minutes, so I thought I’d go over to the Delta ticket counter. Once there I found a solitary, harried ticket agent trying to solve problems for outbound passengers. Hmmmm, I thought, maybe I’ll try something else.

I walked back over to where my wife was sitting to give her an update, then proceeded to try calling Delta on the SkyMiles 1-800 number. All lines were busy.

Next I got directory assistance on the line to get the main number for SkyWest, thinking surely they’d want to know about this bungled baggage operation in Oakland. By now, however, it was after 5:30 p.m. back in St. George, Utah (headquarters for SkyWest), and naturally (you guessed it), everyone had gone home from SkyWest already. I left a pointed message on the voice mail system.

With the baggage claim monster sitting idle and 50 Delta/SkyWest passengers/customers growing more upset by the minute, I decided to walk back to the Delta ticket counter once again. This time there were no customers in sight.

Great, maybe now I’ll get this issue taken care of; but no, it was not meant to be. Turns out the agent was the only Delta person working the counter that day as the supervisor had been called out of town for a family emergency. (Like what, a trip to Mazatlan, I wondered sarcastically to myself?)

The ticket agent was very sympathetic and offered to let me yell at her, but I declined, saying that it wasn’t her fault there weren’t enough rampers. I just wanted my stupid luggage.

I finally decided to make one last effort to reach someone who might be able to help me, so I picked up one of the Delta Direct phones adjacent to the ticket counter. Maybe this way, I thought, I can talk to a real person who might have the ability to get some extra bodies out onto the ramp to get our luggage inside the terminal.

Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. (Turns out Delta Direct is only for making flight arrangements.)

I did speak to a “live” person via Delta Direct, however, and she helpfully gave me a 1-800 number to call regarding baggage issues. Turns out, though, all I got was a series of recordings to help me find my lost bags. AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH.

They’re not lost, doggone it, my mind screamed as I walked back toward the baggage claim! My bags are somewhere between the belly of Delta Flight #3957 and Baggage Claim #2 inside of Terminal Two at Oakland International Airport!

I felt like I was trapped in an old Star Trek episode and my luggage was trapped somewhere between the transporter on the planet’s surface and the transporter platform on the Starship Enterprise.

As I walked away from the ticket counter and the the baggage claim came into view, I realized something had changed. The conveyor belt was moving, and, and, yes, there were bags on it.

Two minutes later, with two bags in tow, I walked over to my wife.

Total time from arrival at our gate to bags landing on the baggage claim conveyor belt? Forty-five minutes. UGH!

Now . . . I get the fact that it was a Friday afternoon, the Friday of New Year’s Eve weekend. And I accept at face value the statement by the Delta representative at the ticket counter that her supervisor been called out of town on a family emergency.

I even understand that Oakland is not a big destination for Delta/SkyWest. (Soutwest Airlines has a dominant position at OAK, however.)

Nevertheless, 45 minutes to get luggage delivered from a plane to Baggage Claim on day when the airport was mostly deserted is unacceptable.

Not enough “rampers!” Are you kidding me?

Delta and SkyWest get a BIG, BIG “Thumbs down” from me for this luggage fiasco.

Every Holiday Season, we try and get away to catch a new flick on Christmas Day.

This year was no exception, although (in truth) we actually caught three new movies over the weekend, each of which I can recommend.

The first one we saw was “The Pursuit of Happyness,” starring Will Smith. This is a sobering yet very good movie that I can highly recommend. I’d give it a 4 out of 5, and the only reason I don’t give it a higher rating is that it’s a bit slow at times. Otherwise, I liked it a lot.

The second movie we saw was “Night at the Museum,” starring Ben Stiller. What a fun movie. Kids of all ages will like this silly fantasy. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5.

The last movie of the weekend (seen by 5 out of 7 members of the Politis family) — wife Allisha begged off as she hates most sports movies, while daughter Melea was with her fiance – was “We Are Marshall,” starring Matthew McConaughey.

Call it a movie trifecta, but we won again with this moving look at the events leading up to, surrounding and following the devastating plane crash in 1970 that took the lives of 75 players, coaches, administrators and supporters of the Marshall University football team. This one gets my highest rating for the weekend — a 4.5 out of 5.

Whether you’re a sports fan or not, I think you’ll like “We Are Marshall” and it’s thoughtful take on the “winning is everything” mantra that is found too often outside of professional athletics. Go Thundering Herd!

I love spicy foods — unfortunately, my stomach does not.

Thankfully, I found Pepcid AC chewable, mint-flavored tablets a couple of years ago and they worked. So spicy Mexican, Italian or Thai food didn’t phase me anymore.

However, now I can’t find those chewable little pink tablets anywhere. To its credit, Johnson & Johnson does carry Original Pepcid AC and Maximum Strength Pepcid AC, both of which are not supposed to be chewed, rather swallowed with water. But (for some reason — perhaps more psychological than physical) I feel better faster after chewing up a Pepcid AC tablet than I do when I swallow one.

And as far as the new Pepcid AC Complete chewable pills are concerned, they’re nasty-tasting and leave a dry, chalky residue in my mouth for several minutes after chewing. (Heck, if I wanted a dry, chalky residue in my mouth I would have tried TUMS instead, or eaten chalk. Either would have had the same result!)

So . . . after calling the Johnson & Johnson - MERCK Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co. consumer hotline today (800-755-4008), I learned that the company has killed off the line of Pepcid AC chewable pills. AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

I asked why and was told by “Mary Ellen” that the decision had to do with a lack of shelf space inside the stores. She also admitted that the Pepcid AC Web site was out of date and needed to be fixed to reflect the recent change in the product line.

She took down my info, so hopefully I’ll hear back from some PR person, but I’m not that hopeful.

Too bad. I LOVE Pepcid AC chewable tablets (major THUMBS UP!), while I HATE the chewable Pepcid AC Complete tablets (major THUMBS DOWN!).

Guess I’ll be looking for a new brand. Any suggestions?