Ah, yes. Many, many, many years ago, long before 9/11, my husband and I flew Seattle-->Vancouver-->Montreal. We had to go through customs and they took our bags and put them in an area where we were supposed to pick them up after. My husband's bag was a black duffle, but clearly marked with a luggage tag. When we got to the other side, mine was there, but his was not.
We flew on to Montreal and constantly checked on our claim, but no one seemed to care. Of course, the more I had insisted that he put his meds in his shoulder bag, the more he resisted, so he didn't have his BP meds. And all he had in his shoulder bag was underwear, socks and a book to read.
I convinced a pharmacist in Montreal to give him enough of his meds (we knew the medication and dosage) to last until we got home. We had a fun time going to the Gap and buying all new clothes for him. After 10 days and purchasing another bag to take his new stuff home in, we flew back home.
His black duffle finally showed up a solid two weeks after we got home and was delivered to our door. Get this. It had gone to China, in someone's hand who was probably shocked when they finally looked at what they had picked up when they got to their destination. The good news is that nothing was stolen. Even his meds were still in the bag.
So when we bought our RS convertible carry-ons, he got an orange one. No more black bags for either of us, even though we never check bags unless we are absolutely forced to do so. And he learned his lesson about where to carry his meds in case we do have to check them.
I trust that after all these years, that serve-yourself bag pickup option with no one official checking anything has changed. Whenever anyone suggests flying through YVR from Seattle to anywhere else, I think about what happened that time, and it makes me reticent to even consider it.
