MUPGT False Alarm - But We Are Put On Notice

 Because of the high price of airfare this year, when we made our reservations to fly to Sicily I was forced to do the trick of booking the international leg starting from a hub city (Chicago), and a separate ticket to get to the Hub. I had done this like six months ago. In between there had been multiple changes in the airline schedule getting to and from Chicago. I even had to change airlines and rebook to accommodate these changes. But at least, I was on one airline (United) even if it was two separate flights and I had to collect luggage, recheck luggage and go through security again in Chicago.

Our flight was from Albuquerque to Denver, changing planes in Denver, going on to Chicago. The airline apps now have a feature where you can track your luggage. Doing so while in the plane waiting to take off, I could see that one of our bags was not supposed to be loaded on the plane. I kept waiting for it to show up. Finally, as we were pushing back from the gate, I asked a flight attendant "How accurate are these apps?" "Oh, very was the reply." "Well", I said to myself, "if that's the case, I'm screwed. I can here the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel snickering in the distance. If I arrive in Chicago, the luggage isn't there, how are they going to send it on when the next flight is booked on a different ticket?

Then we stop taxiing and come back to the gate. They say that the weight and balance on the plane is wrong and they have to correct it before they take off. I've never seen anything like that on a big plane like we were flying (a Boeing 777).

Well, there is nothing we can do about it, so it is off to Chicago we go. Of course, our bags were there just fine. Wife is convinced they went back to the gate in Denver because they realized they had missed a bunch of bags. Whatever, we are in Chicago and headed to Munich next.