So Where Was it Really?

I guess my bag did have a vacation of its own. I've removed and examined the baggage tags. Here's where it's been:

Dallas to Houston and Houston to Heathrow - August 27
Heathrow to Manchester - August 31
Cleared security in Manchester - September 9 (Really??)
Heathrow to Zurich - September 10
(I have no idea how or when it got from Zurich to Rome - there are no stickers - maybe it went by courier or by train.) 
Rome to Heathrow - September 30 
Heathrow to Dallas - October 1
Sent on October 2 to me via Fed Ex 2 day ground and arrived on October 6, which is right since FedEx only counts business days.

There are date stamps and little stickers that indicate that it may not have left Houston on August 27th. I'm not really familiar with all of these stickers and what the numbers mean, but there is one sticker that indicates it probably left Houston on the 28th. Why it sat at Heathrow for 3 days is anyone's guess.

My bag arrived in Manchester the day before I left and since I left first thing in the morning, there is no way they could have delivered it to me. However, if they had sent it immediately to Switzerland instead of keeping it in Manchester until September 9th, I might have received it there. I was in Switzerland from September 7th thru the 12th. Although I have to wonder why it took them five days to contact me after the bag arrived in Zurich. It arrived on the 10th but no one phoned me regarding delivery until the 15th - five days later and three days after I'd left for Italy.

I suppose when they figured that I'd gone home and didn't "need" it that there was just no rush because the bag didn't leave Rome until September 30th. (I left Rome on September 17th and arrived back home in Dallas, via Heathrow, on September 18th. But once the bag got back in the US, it didn't take long at all. It arrived in Dallas on October 1 and was shipped back to me on October 2.

I noted that it was NEVER in Paris, even though this was a popular BA response. Really, there's only so much you can blame on the French. And with all the stickers and barcodes, it is amazing that BA was never really able to tell me EXACTLY where it was.

The Apple logo decal was still in tact. The name tag with my name, address, and phone number was still in tact. Every single sticker says RUSH and EXPEDITE on it. I can only conclude that those folks in Europe have no idea what RUSH or EXPEDITE mean. (I can forgive the Italians for not knowing English words - but what's up with the British and the Swiss?) Thank goodness here in the USA, we know what good customer service is! May it ever be so.