Arlanda Airport is (according to my experience and everyone I know…) the worst airport in the world on luggage handling. Usually you have to wait almost 1 hour to get your bag from the moment they start unloading the plane and now I am not just that unlucky person who always gets their bag last. No, everyone is waiting for a long time. They do give you plenty of time to think about how difficult it can be to transport bags the few hundred meters from the aircraft to the conveyor belt. I am an engineer and do not consider myself the most stupid person in the world, but I can not figure it out.
When I arrived from Switzerland a few weeks ago I had a surprising experience. I got my bag within 10 minutes from when I arrived at the belt! My heart was filled with hope and I thought that finally they had changed the routines and from now on it would be like a dream to come back home.
This morning I came back from Chicago. I was in a little bit of a hurry because I had to make it to a meeting in the office. But light at heart I thought that today I would be out of here in no time. I came to the conveyor belt and at the display it said that the luggage would arrive within 6 min. Perfect, I thought. After about 10 minutes they opened the door in the wall and sent out 5 bags. I am sure these were only dummy bags that disguised staff went out to pick up only to keep people happy for another few minutes. The door in the wall was closed again. This is mentally very frustrating. After 15 minutes or so they opened the door again and out came a few bags. Do not think this was all of them, no, again they closed the door. After a few of these turns and 30 minutes later I finally got my bag and I was not the last one!
Since I travel quite a lot I have to learn how to handle this without going completely crazy. Instead of being very stressed and angry I think of stories about what the staff is actually doing behind that wall. How they are coming up with ways to trick us instead of actually getting the bags. It is now a joke for me and my friend and it makes us laugh instead.