My Beef with Vietnam Airlines

So before we left on our mission trip to Nepal Bonnie and I decided that we should probably get me a hiking backpack because I really didn't have one that would be suitable for our trip. We ended up finding the red Summit bag that you see below. I love it. It is a hybrid top loader and front loader. What that means is that you can lay it flat and pack it like you would a suitcase or you can stand it up and stuff it like a sack. It has a flap that closes over the top with a pocket on top and a cool "hidden" pocket underneath the flap. This is where I put important stuff people shouldn't find. It has other cool pockets and compression straps too. It is everything that I could hope for in a backpack.

When we went on our recent trip to Beijing and Vietnam we took our backpacks because they are so much easier to move around with. When we went from Beijing to Saigon we made an immediate transfer to Vietnam Airlines to fly to Nha Trang. We stayed there a couple days and then flew back to Saigon to wrap up our trip. When we got to our hotel in Saigon I noticed that tons of little white balls were spilling out of the top of my backpack. I quickly concluded that these were coming from the neck pillow I had stuffed in the top. The neck pillow had been ripped open and thousands (maybe millions) of these little white balls where everywhere. I also noticed that the lining of the "hidden "pocket on both top and bottom were ripped as well. I was baffled as to what had happened. I had some USB ipod and camera cables in the hidden pouch so I assumed that those must have ripped everything some how. I was wrong...

It wasn't until I was in the fuzzy stages of waking up the next morning that I realized something was amiss. My cell phone was not in the hidden pocket. Everything started to come together now. The outside of my bag appeared fine. No blemishes or tears whatsoever. That was because somebody (probably a Vietnam Air baggage handler) opened up the top pocket of my bag (seen below) and cut through the lining to remove my cell phone. In the process of doing that they cut through 3 layers of fabric on my bag and the pillow I had stuffed in there. They then zipped the outer pocket back up and everything appeared just as I had left it.

I tried to chat with Vietnam Air about this issue. Pointless. Of course since I had already left the airport they were completely unwilling to accept any liability for the theft, damage, and deception that had occured. Bogus but understandable. I am definitely most bummed that my bad got all cut up. The cell phone was just a plain old phone. I'll get a new one when we get back to Korea in August. But the backpack was like a part of me. I went to Bangkok, Nepal, Beijing, and now Vietnam with that thing. Oh well, maybe some duck tape can act as a battle scar. It all just adds more character right?

The moral of the story? If you pack anything of any value in you checked luggage make sure that it is there before you leave the airport. Or better yet. Don't pack anything of value in your checked luggage.