davethegrinch.net

Dave Says:
Every great explorer must face adversity and then rise triumphantly from it. For our intrepid explorers adversity came in the form of major airline carriers from around the world. Alaska, it appears, is unable to estimate flying times from Seattle to LA. Qantas is unable to ascertain if a passenger should or should not be on a flight. Baggage handlers at LAX are unable to read baggage tags (something, it must be said, should be a requirement of the job.)

Let us elaborate. Due to mechanical failure at SeaTac, Alaska announced that Auckland bound passengers would miss their connection in LA and sent everyone to customer service. Once at the desk our favorite travelers found out they weren’t actually on the same reservation as each other and Dave (me) could not be guaranteed a reservation on the next Auckland bound flight, the next day. Just when things were looking grim, Alaska decided they could fix the plane and get everyone to LA in time to make the connection. Oh, but wait, with only an hour between arrival and departure Dave (me again) would have to collect his baggage and re-check-in with Qantas in a different terminal whilst Sarah could go as a transfer passenger.

We skip ahead two hours to LA. Picture the scene. Warm breezes, blue skies, palm trees and Dave running like fury from baggage claim to checkin, to security and concourse whilst Sarah was told with no sympathy whatsoever that my (I apologize for the mixed pronouns – it seemed like a good idea at the time) seat would be sold to the next head of cattle in ten minutes if I didn’t show up. I know you’re all on the edges of your collective seats here but rest assured I made the flight. But wait, there’s more!!

At the embarkation point, where they scan one’s boarding pass, Sarah was informed that she had been “off-loaded”. This means they thought she wouldn’t make the connection from Seattle so they sold her seat to someone else. Never mind, they found her a seat and they found her another one and they said that it was (and I quote) “iffy” that her bags would make it.

Fast forward twelve hours. We arrived in Auckland and wait in baggage claim for our luggage. We wait and wait and wait and my bag appears (I’m Dave but I guess you already got that) and then we wait and wait and Sarah’s bag just doesn’t show. Off to customer service we go and they tell us it’s in Melbourne (but it will be here at 1am the coming morning).

Anyway, it’s a long story, as you’ve found out, but we’re here and in one piece although we nearly weren’t and our luggage is still to sample the joys of Auckland International Airport.

And that, my friends, is how Capt. Scott almost made it the south pole (except he died!!).

Sarah Says:
No need to panic as we did arrive safely and have already made some new friends in our lovely hostel. However, we’ve just endured the absolute worst – make that hellacious – journey of my entire life. I stink, I’ve got no bag and some chick named Alicia at LAX gate 122 is going to get a real juicy letter in her Qantas employee file from me. Love to you all! We’ll send pictures once we’re feeling normal!
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2005 at 10:16 am and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.