USAirways, Tomlin said, lost the bag he checked on his direct flight to the NFL meetings in Phoenix from Pittsburgh and gave him the run-around since that occurred Saturday night. Sunday, he was told his bag was in Phoenix and would be delivered to his hotel within four hours. He waited; no bags. He called, again and again.
Monday, Tomlin rode to the airport "to dig it out myself."
"I get over there, and they tell me the bag is not there," Tomlin was saying at breakfast yesterday morning. "I said, 'I've been talking to your call center all weekend, and they said the bag is here.'
"They said, 'I don't care what they told you on the 1-800 number, your bag isn't here.' "
He was offered a $25 voucher on his next flight for his troubles.
"Well, somewhere during the conversation, I see my bag behind her in a pile," Tomlin said. "I said, 'That's my bag!' She said, 'Sir, your bag's not here, the computer says'... I said 'I understand what the computer says, but I'm looking at my bag! It's a black bag, Pittsburgh Steelers. It's my bag.'
"So, I walk around the counter and at that point, she started to get mad. I pulled the tag off and showed her it was my bag. I had to dig it out myself."
Tomlin related that story to a handful of writers gathered around him yesterday as the morning sun popped up in the desert.
