Baggage

A portable handheld luggage scale can be a valuable tool for making sure your bag meets airline weight restrictions, both outbound and on your return. Most handheld scales work on an old-fashioned hook-and-counterweight system, which demands near- contortionist capabilities as you try to lift an unwieldy bag while reading the weight indicated by the little needle. Thank goodness for the Balanzza Digital Luggage Scale , which beeps when it has registered the weight, then keeps that number displayed on the big LED read-out.

I comment on a couple of points George Wilson made in his column on the Carnegie Foundation's recent report on public school teachers. I certainly agree that it would be a good thing for teachers to be in charge of the schools and for "principals and their bureaucratic baggage" to go. Currently, however, there exist in the schools two levels of bureaucratic baggage - a top level of the aformentioned principals and vice principals and a second level...

OOPS. Baggage handling drew a higher percentage of complaints at Piedmont Airlines (8.92 per 1,000 passengers) than at any other domestic airline, according to May figures just released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. TWA was next worst (7.67 per 1,000 passengers), while Eastern Airlines reported the smallest percentage of baggage complaints, only 2.67 per 1,000. But Eastern also got more than twice as many general consumer complaints as its nearest competitor, according to June figures from the department - 13.10, compared with 6.02 for second-worst Pan Am. Piedmont, soon to disappear into the USAir system, also reported the worst on-time percentage of domestic airlines serving Philadelphia International Airport in May. Only 71.2 percent of the airline's 633 planes landed within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival.

A fire ignited by a spark from a workman's torch heavily damaged a baggage claim area at Philadelphia International Airport this morning, inconveniencing hundreds of travelers. No damage to baggage was reported, and there were no injuries resulting from the 5 a.m. blaze that destroyed a conveyer belt in the baggage area at Terminal B, said Fire Lt. Jack Christmas. The fire, controlled at 6:15 a.m., was confined to the belt and the area that surrounds it. However, the fire made it more difficult than usual for passengers arriving on USAir, TWA and Midwest Express airlines to reclaim their luggage, airport officials said.

A baby seat, a tuba case, and about three dozen suitcases were all that remained yesterday from the Christmas baggage backup at US Airways terminals at Philadelphia International Airport as travelers moved through with relative ease. The holdups were fairly typical - at security checkpoints and parking garages - but not by the baggage carousels. "We've had no trouble. It's just been a beautiful flight. My husband's bag was the first one off" the chute, said Ree Walker of Malvern, who was returning from a family vacation in Orlando, Fla. She did recall what it was like when they left on Christmas morning.

NEW YORK - You've paid $15, $20, even $35 to check your bag on a flight. Then the airline loses it, but you don't get your money back. The government wants to change that, tackling two of the biggest complaints about air travel - poor service and the explosion of fees. Major airlines, which collect $3.3 billion in bag fees each year, are opposed. Under current rules, if luggage is never found or is damaged, passengers can ask for a fee refund as part of their lost-property claim.

An American Airlines baggage-crew chief faces two theft charges after being arrested at Philadelphia International Airport, according to Philadelphia police. Christopher Shaw, 37, of Reading, was taken into custody around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, said Officer Christine O'Brien, a police spokeswoman. A Pennsylvania woman noticed four new articles of clothing missing from her luggage after returning home March 17 on American Flight 892 from Dallas. The price tags, totaling $550, were still on the items, which were purchased at Galleria Nordstrom in Dallas, police said.

Passengers aboard a US Airways flight bound for Bermuda were delayed for more than 6 hours at Philadelphia International Airport "due to a security concern," said a spokesman for US Airways. According to the FBI, a crew of three baggage handlers was dispatched to load luggage onto Flight 1070. When they arrived at the aircraft, they found a fourth man already there in uniform. They did not recognize him. When they asked the fourth man why he was there, he clambered onto a baggage cart and drove it away.

Joe Franzini loads strangers' luggage for a living, a job he's done for 26 years for an airline he says he loves. So the notion that his coworkers in baggage handling intentionally damaged US Airways and hurt its passengers over Christmas, when thousands of travelers and their bags were stranded in Philadelphia, is like a slap in the face. "We've got such good guys there," said the 44-year-old father of two from Boothwyn, Delaware County. "We're family men. We have children in school.

The major U.S. airlines improved their on-time arrival and baggage-handling records last year, according to figures provided by the airlines and compiled by the Transportation Department. On average, 22.3 percent of flights operated by the 10 largest airlines arrived late in 1997, compared with 25.5 percent the year before. Flights are considered late if they arrive 15 minutes or more beyond scheduled arrival times. Nationwide last year, Southwest Airlines had the best arrival record, with 18.1 percent of its flights late, followed closely by TWA, 19.8 percent late, and US Airways, 19.9 percent late.

MILFORD, Pa. - Liz Forrest hears the questions from fellow Democrats about Allyson Schwartz almost every time the talk turns to the 2014 governor's race. "People always ask, 'Will she play outside Philadelphia? Is she too liberal?' " Forrest said Thursday night during the monthly dinner meeting of the Pike County Democratic Committee. "Who cares? Philadelphia and Pittsburgh produce enough votes to win it. " The most important thing for Democrats is to send Republican Gov. Corbett packing, she said, and Schwartz has the money and political chops to make that happen.

NEWARK, N.J. - Twenty-six baggage screeners at Newark Liberty Airport were fired or suspended recently as part of an investigation into lax security procedures, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday. Three screeners were fired and 23 others were suspended at the conclusion of disciplinary proceedings this week. Seventeen of those suspended had initially been targeted for firing. That brought the total number of firings to four and the total suspensions to 32 since the TSA announced the investigation in October.

Have you ever been on a plane and wondered if your luggage made the flight? Now, US Airways passengers can track their checked bags - in real time - by going to the US Airways website, and typing in bag claim information. US Airways rolled out the service on all flights March 19. It is information the airline already had for internal purposes. Delta Air Lines was the first U.S. carrier to launch real-time baggage tracking. Passengers can go to the Delta website or download a free app to pull up information from the bar code on their bag-claim ticket.

A Kingsessing baggage handler for US Airways was arrested by the FBI Tuesday for the theft of $20,000 in uncirculated hundred dollar bills at Philadelphia International Airport two weeks ago. Alex Price, 25, of the 5500 block of Malcom Street, confessed to the theft after completing a polygraph exam Tuesday. Price then led FBI agents to his two cars, parked near his house, and the FBI recovered the stolen cash from one of the cars. In an affidavit supporting a warrant for Price's arrest, FBI special agent John Deven Sermons gave the following account of events: A shipment of hundred dollar bills - a new design not yet in circulation - containing sixty packages of approximately $3.2 million each was being transported from Dallas to the Federal Reserve in East Rutherford, N.J. Between the landing of US Airways flight 1210 at 10:35 a.m. October 11 at Philadelphia International Airport and the shipment's arrival at East Rutherford, however, one package was opened.

A former baggage handler at Philadelphia International Airport was sentenced to 36 months' probation for smuggling marijuana on flights bound for Bermuda, authorities said. Brian Wade smuggled drugs on US Airways flights for more than 10 years, said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. Wade was paid with cash that was smuggled onto flights from Bermuda to Philadelphia. On Oct. 7, 2010, his smuggling activity was noticed by another employee, and the airport was briefly shut down over fears of terrorism.

Sometimes the stars align, and sometimes they collide. And sometimes they do both at once. We begin when Daughter Francesca and I get invited to speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., about our coming collection of the columns, which is titled Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim . Francesca thought of the title, which is very funny unless you happen to be the emotional baggage. That would be me. I don't mind being her emotional baggage. On the contrary, I like being a big heavy thing she totes around, like a guilt backpack.

THE SIXERS and Andrew Bynum haven't even finished dessert on their first blind date. No matter. Sixers owner Josh Harris is ready to tie the knot. He cannot offer Bynum a max-deal fast enough. "Where do I sign?" Harris chirped. "Show me the contract!" Hold on, honey. Isn't it always better to play hard to get? Just a little bit? After all, Bynum lands in Philadelphia with more baggage than the backlog at US Airways terminals. Josh Harris, venture capitalist, doesn't sweat baggage.

NEW YORK — U.S. airlines' revenue from bag fees fell last year for the first time since they started collecting them, signaling that more passengers are packing light to save cash when they fly. The Transportation Department said Thursday that the 17 largest airlines made $3.36 billion in bag fees last year, down slightly from $3.40 billion in 2010. The total number of passengers last year on those airlines rose by about 2.4 percent. Fees for first and second checked bags began four years ago, when fuel prices soared to all-time highs.

THE FASTEST, niftiest receiver at the Eagles' rookie camp was Demaris Johnson. Johnson, an explosive 5-7, 170, looks like he might be able to run away from anything, and maybe he once thought he could. But there is no running away from security cameras, or from a felony embezzlement charge, the NCAA's all-time all-purpose yards leader (7,796) and kickoff yards leader (3,417) discovered last August, just before his senior season at Tulsa was set to commence. Johnson ended up going undrafted last month.

LIVE BY THE SWORD, die by the sword. Or in the case of state Rep. Babette Josephs, by the (gay) blade. The longtime Philadelphia politician, who had a stranglehold on her legislative seat and was seeking an unprecedented 15th term in office, was beaten by her own political baggage. Babette Josephs has been one of the most outspoken liberals in the city, which takes a lot of doing in a town where liberalism is next to godliness (or un-godliness, courtesy of the ACLU.) She doesn't seem to like conservatives at all, given the fact that one of her campaign scare tactics was to accuse her opponent, Brian Sims, of wanting to "work with Harrisburg Republicans!"