In a day and age of idiot-proof and strongly secured information systems, the airline electronic booking system is a delightful anachronism of trust and efficiency. Where else, for example, can you view and modify (!) passenger data on another company's flights with little more than a text terminal and some basic login creds?
Oh, and the magstripe-printed paper boarding passes? How quaint!
The point is that the airlines have a system that's both uncommonly open and powerful. Most of the time this works out great because well-trained agents can book harrowed travellers on whichever flight will make them shut up the quickest. And in the airline industry, that's really all that's important.
Every once in a while, however, it doesn't work out so well. When Layla and I went to check in late last night, for example, the computer informed us that Layla already had two bags checked in under her name.
Most unfortunately, the American Airlines desk agent (with a name badge offering no more than "K.K.") was unable to tell us from where these bags had come and by whom they had been checked in—despite an audit trail left by the computer system.
The agent at the gate (who was much more agreeable) later informed us that this sort of thing happens fairly regularly when an agent checks in a large group of people and one passenger's last name is similar to another's that day.
So Layla's bags were instead checked in under my ticket (to avoid the hassle of avoiding the $80 surcharge for shipping extra baggage) and someone has unfortunately had their bags shipped to Orlando instead of wherever they were headed. Oops.
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