Aaaaannnnd off I go! I set off on my series of connecting flights this morning around 1:30, where I boarded a plane to Chicago that was a quick one hour flight. To be honest, I haven't flown much in my life, but I've found that I actually kinda really enjoy it! The whole process (the checking bags, the TSA check, the flight gates, the boarding, the taking off, etc.) is a logistical process that I think is really cool. Think about it...there are so many goddamn moving pieces when it comes to arranging flights and getting people on board and checked and making sure all of their bags are with them and checked through to each of their destinations. The companies that manage air travel have an extremely complicated logistical task that would put any single event planner or logistics coordinator to shame ten fold. It is very impressive!
I say this also because today, I very much got to witness this logistical machine breakdown as I traveled (at least for me and several other unfortunates anyway). When I landed in Chicago, it was fairly easy to find my gate, so I ate some food and played the waiting game while listening to my audiobook. I had arrived around 3:00pm and the flight wasn't boarding until 4:15pm so I had some time to kill. I actually had far more time than even that though because the moment we were supposed to be boarding they informed us that the plane was having some mechanical issues and that we would be delayed on our boarding. K, right? No. Big. Deal.
Except it was. Apparently, whatever the issue was, they couldn't use the plane and after an extra hour or so of waiting they switched all the passengers to another plane at another gate. Cue more waiting. sure enough, about another hour and a half later, we started boarding that plane. Finally. Buuuuut just to top it off before we left we were delayed on the runway for another 30 minutes. Darn.
It was partially through the waiting when I realized that I was going to be cutting it close between landing in Las Angeles and boarding my next flight to Auckland. "I'm sure it'll be fine," I lied to myself, "I should make it onto the flight". Perhaps what I was really saying was that I hoped I'd make it onto the flight...mostly because I didn't really know the procedure for missing your connecting flight because of a delay.
But hope didn't make me land any sooner unfortunately and three and a half hours later, I landing in California at 8:45...about 15 minutes after my flight had taken off. SO. I went to the customer service desk for United and they rescheduled me for another Air New Zealand flight that was leaving soon. The lady handed me my receipt of transfer (or something, i'm still not sure what it was) and sent me off saying, "you might have to run".
I jogged. Some of the way. Mostly because when I first set out I thought it would be as quick as finding my gate in Chicago. Down this way, up this way, through the hall, you're there kind of thing. As I jogged though, I looked down at a piece of paper she gave me that had directions printed on it. On the bottom, it said simply, "walking from United to the international terminal takes 30 minutes, so plan accordingly" or something like that. I resolved to mostly speed walk because I'm not that athletic.
When I finally got to the Air New Zealand "new" flight I had been "put" on, they seemed extremely confused at the whole situation. As it turns out, they weren't exactly informed on our (there were several other passengers who were with me connecting to the same flight that had gotten rebooked) predicament. The flight was closed. They didn't even have our bags. So, in short, we weren't getting on the plane. For the second time tonight, we had missed our flight (In a sense).
They directed us to go back to United Airlines customer service so we did. "We" being myself and two other passengers - Eric and Mary - that I tagged along with. Eric was in his 30s and was catching a flight to FIJI. Mary was an older woman who was actually stopping in Auckland. We kind of stuck together because we all didn't know what to do so as long as we didn't know what to do together, we'd be more fine or something. We bonded because we shared a group narrative (there's a communication theory attached to that idea but I'm blanking on the name).
Anyway, we made it back to united customer service (which again was a 30 minute walk) and started trying to figure things out. Essentially, it boiled down to the fact that there were no other flights that we could get on until the next day at 8:55pm. Delayyyyyed byyy a dayyyy. Eric did not take it very well and was very much arguing with one of the service reps. and she was getting really heated too so it was getting pretty intense but the woman who was dealing with figuring out mine (there were only two of them) was pretty calm. She was tired though, and figuring out what to do with me was quite the task.
In the end, I wound up with a free night stay in a hotel (I had resolved to sleeping in the Airport if I was going to have to pay a dime), $30 worth of food vouchers, free taxi ride to and from the airport, and a flight scheduled to take me to Auckland (followed by Brisbane) tomorrow night! All said and done? I'm a little bitter, pretty tired, a little sad, partially worried, but mostly happy to have an adventure to start my travel! That being said, I've assembled a short pros and cons list of my current situation.
Con: won't make to Brisbane on time to catch the bus
Pro: Got to stay in a snazzy hotel in Los Angeles with a killer view and a really cool lamp
Con: forgot to listen to my mom and pack a change of clothes in my carry-on.
Pro: The hotel has free wifi I can use to download more books and a shower. I count those as wins.
Con: had delayed flights
Pro: got through almost two whole audiobooks! (The Martian by Andy Weir is so hilarious!)
Con: hotel is under construction and the front door was a little confusing
Pro: breakfast is served inside of a giant tent tomorrow!
PS: Getting in contact with the study abroad office so they know that I'll be arriving late..is the first thing on my to-do list
tl:dr - The airlines kind of messed up and I'm arriving in Brisbane a day later..but I got a free stay in a nice hotel and free food so there's that.
EDIT: I got the date wrong in the Title. Silly me. That's what I get for blogging at 1am.
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