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Do you ever feel as if your luggage gets the chance to travel to more exotic places than you do? How many times have you gone on a business trip only to stand around waiting at the luggage carousel for what seems like an eternity and your luggage is no where to be found? After everyone else's luggage has been claimed, you check with baggage attendant to see where your possessions are and you are told to have a seat and wait.

As you're waiting, you think about what you should do. Now that your luggage is amongst the missing and you're without your undergarments and toothbrush, so now what? The attendant comes back and informs you that your luggage has received the opportunity to take an excursion to a lovely beach destination instead of accompanying you to your business destination.

While this scenario is frustrating, it's not always this easy to determine which exciting location your possessions have gone, so the first thing you need to do is fill out a lost luggage report. After you fill out the charming green, pink or yellow forms in triplicate, you're inevitably going to be informed that the airline will "be in touch". Chances are you'll be the ones calling them with a heavy heart wondering deep down if you'll ever see your beloved possessions again.

I was fuming the first time this happened to me. It was the spring of 2004 and I was on one of my regular trips down to see my fiance who was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. I had been taking a charter airline who offered great deals from New York to St. Petersburg on a Friday-Sunday flight. At the time I was still somewhat of a novice airline passenger and didn't realize I could bring my small suitcase right on the plane with me. My first mistake was allowing my bag to be checked in at the ticket counter. But who knew . . .

The flight to Florida is smooth and I'm excited to see my love, but its 11:15 pm and we're both tired from a long day's work and travel. We head over to the baggage carousel and we watch the bags circle round and round; my little hunter green suitcase is nowhere to be found.

After filling out numerous incident and loss reports and signing my name multiple times on the dotted line, we head over to a 24 hour discount store so I could pick up a few personal items. The next morning I call the airline and speak to a staff member who hasn't the foggiest idea where my bag is. I call back in the afternoon, a bit more assertive this time, and after many minutes on hold I'm finally

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