Greetings from Panama -- Where You Still Get Service with a Smile

I'm writing this blog article from the 7th floor of the Sheraton Panama Hotel & Convention Center, where my colleagues and I are on location for the Sovereign Society's Total Wealth Symposium. I look forward to meeting many of our members tomorrow and getting the chance to chat with them up close and personal.

A full week of events, conferences and presentations lies ahead -- and I can't wait to get started. At least it's got to be all downhill for me from here, after a tough first day getting here.

I flew in from Miami on a non-stop flight which was relatively uneventful, save for the tortuous process of getting through TSA's (Transportation Safety Administration) latest gauntlet of pre-flight check-in procedures. The people that I was traveling with and I were subjected to the latest and greatest stat-of-the-art scanning technology from GE -- we were basically singled out as guinea pigs.

The process of getting through the security screening using this new technology took -- by my calculation -- about twice as long as the old pat-down method using trusty metal detectors. And that's including the extra time required to get a private strip-search!

Then upon arriving in Panama City I found than my luggage didn't arrive with me. So with nothing but the shirt on my back -- literally -- I endeavored to contact American Airlines to ascertain the likelihood of recovering my suits, and ties. Now, I realize that American, like many US airlines, has struggled through bankruptcy, but even so I was shocked at the lack of response to my plight.

I made three separate phone calls trying to track down my errant bag. The first to American's Miami desk... where I received a recording that prompted me to leave a message -- and maybe they would call back.

My second call was to American's baggage claim headquarters in Dallas -- where I was sure I would get answers. But all I got was the run-around. It seems that American's computer systems aren't state-of-the-art after all... because they couldn't find any record of my properly checked baggage.

Finally, in desperation I called an American official at the airport in Panama... where I actually obtained the most satisfaction -- service with a smile in fact.

The pleasant person on duty ... actually a live person, not a recording, was happy to give me the unvarnished truth. She had no idea where my luggage was, but suggested that this sort of thing happens frequently with flights from Miami -- and suggested it should arrive on a later flight ... no worries.

The moral of this story: Don't let anyone tell you that the great American service-sector economy is state of the art... I got better, more genuinely truthful answers from the people in Panama than I received from either Miami or Dallas.

And when it comes to traveling to emerging markets… one of the biggest problems you may face is dealing with good old American bureaucracy. Several American flights later... I'm still waiting with nothing but the original shirt on my back.