CLOSE-UP : Bagging Out

You’re in Los Angeles on business; your appointment is early tomorrow morning. You’re wearing shorts--your suit, pumps and notes are all in your bags--and you’ve been waiting by the baggage carousel now for half an hour. The last person you recognize from your flight got his bags 10 minutes ago. Is that what’s winding your cerebral mainspring, pal?

Well, step right up to the baggage service counter. If you’re flying Delta, you’ll meet David Morinello, the soft-spoken agent who chases down customers’ bags, wooden legs and even false teeth. Morinello, who plays with his computer at night to overcome the stress of the day, says the worst part of his job is that most bags are easy to find. “People check in late and the bag doesn’t make the plane, or the connection is too close. It usually shows up on the next flight,” he says.

What Morinello likes is a challenge. “If you’re going to lose a bag, lose it good.” He especially likes bags that get lost coming out of Azerbaijan. “There are so many connections to get to the United States, the bags often get behind the passenger. And through Frankfurt, an unattended bag has to spend 48 hours in a bombproof room.”

Julie Vasquez, baggage claims rep at Continental, rearranges her furniture for therapy. Her favorite lost cause is people who lose their bags coming out of Newark. She immediately asks them if they had given their luggage to the curbside attendant. “If they say yes, then my next question is, ‘How much did you tip them?’ If they didn’t tip them at least $5, they aren’t going to see their luggage for a week.”

Agents say customers shouldn’t get too pushy. Says one: “We have an expression when a customer gives us a hard time: ‘Bombay it.’ That means we send their bag to India. And if it goes there, you ain’t never gonna see it again.”