Monday, December 22, 2008

As I learn and see those visiting from other countries, I am able to communicate either in Spanish or English so feel free to use whatever is easier for you. The year 2008 has been most busy when it comes to travel and photography. I traveled in the USA to the states of Florida, South Carolina, New York, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and internationally to Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Estonia, Finland and Mongolia and soon to Spain. I flew more than 60,000 miles and was assaulted and robbed in St. Petersburg, Russia and falsely arrested in Guatemala. But the most painful and abusive encounter was suffered from Delta Airlines in my last flight home from Mongolia in October. An authoritative, arrogant airline attendant refused me to bring aboard my camera bag. I have previously traveled in this type of plane (Embraer) with Delta five times this year and was never denied to bring it aboard. I pointed this out to no avail; as a result my $2500 camera was damaged and of course Delta is not accountable. I wrote a complaint and their response as always that they apologize for the incident and pointed out that the reason why it was not allowed aboard was because of the weight. This bag met Delta's specified dimension an was never weighted. Regardless, whether this bag went in the passenger's compartment of the baggage bin, the weight to the plane would have been the same. The government rules protect the airlines and no legal recourse is readily available. The only practical alternative is to fly Delta as the last alternative.

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