Article excerpted as follows;

Millennium Bug swallows thousands of bags

By John Schmeltzer Tribune Staff Writer July 08, 1999

On the same day that the Air Transport Association of America announced North American airlines had completed 95 percent of the work needed to prepare their computer systems for the year 2000, Air France demonstrated the kind of thing the industry has been up against.

Aaron Rapoport of Chicago says his nephew, Yair Oppenheimer, found out the hard way about the so-called Y2K bug, which can make computers malfunction because they can't recognize dates in the new century. Oppenheimer's bags were among more than 4,000 pieces of luggage left stranded at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport last week after Air France, which this spring agreed to a broad alliance with Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, unsuccessfully attempted to upgrade its baggage computer system to correct the bug.

Oppenheimer was on a two-continent trip to visit his grandparents in France and the U.S. when the upgraded computers disrupted Air France's baggage operations. His luggage was lost Wednesday; he didn't receive it until late Friday--after the airline mistakenly attempted to deliver luggage to him that belonged to someone else named Oppenheimer.

The airline blamed a Swiss company handling the Y2K work for the computer problems, but delayed luggage was a headache for Air France even before the computer upgrade. In June, Charles de Gaulle ground crews staged a 48-hour strike to protest a lack of staff to sort luggage bound for other destinations.

-- Slammer (Slammer@Slamma.Ramma), July 09, 1999

Answers

Now, just imagine this happening all at once at all places in all industries ...

Oh, you can't imagine such a thing? Don't worry, it only means that you are a polly, and you Don't Get It. But you will, count on it.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), July 09, 1999.

Going on strike is the national passion in France. They enjoy it even better than their food, better than their wine, better than being rude to foreigners. Anyone traveling to France must keep their schedule flexible & allow for at least a few hours' delay somewhere due to some strike or other. An extra day or two is not unreasonable. A very expensive European country with some odd 3rd-world quirks.

They lost his luggage on Wendesday & he got it back on Friday? That was FAST. Bet they were rude to him! Vive la france.

-- been (there@done.that), July 10, 1999.