Grounded: Stuck in the Good Old U. S. of A.
For those of you who have been following along with my escapades through this blog, at Edufire or through Twitter, you know I’ve been planning this trip to Japan since my first voyage last year, but more seriously since December 2008. There’ve been some ups and downs but I rejoiced like a child at Christmas when things finalized and all became reality.
Unfortunately, it seems some force of the Universe had different plans and 4 days into the trip saw nothing but a plague of mishaps. Since this blog (as my son reminded me) is not meant to whine, vent, rant or rave, but is a place to lay out my mistakes so that others can learn from them, I’ll go ahead and bare my soul so that you may become wise to the best way to travel to Japan.
Let’s start with the domestic side of things and how I got “grounded” in the good old U.S. of A …
Saturday, August 1 dawned bright and clear in the Florida panhandle as the kid and I headed from home to one of our local airports. Being as it was very early in the morning we made good time and managed to arrive at the airport a little over an hour before our plane was to depart. I’d used Airtran’s online check-in the night before so all was set and our timing was perfect. We boarded the plane quickly, efficiently, and with minimal problems thanks to dilligent Airtran gate staff. Much to our amazement, the flight took off on time and landed in Atlanta a few minutes early. We claimed our bags in record time and rushed to the Delta/NWA gates to check in. This is where the horror began.
REWIND…
Friday afternoon saw our clinic with minimal patients and myself with absolutely no clients to see for my program. With free time on my hands I logged into the Northwest Airlines website armed with my itinerary and ticket number. Clicking on the “check-in” link, I was shunted to a webpage where I meticulously entered all requested information including my name, address, phone, and passport number, and upon completion was told my son and I had been checked in. At the prompt to print our boarding passes the computer spit out an error message … “unable to check you in, please see a gate agent”. Now, even though I wasn’t that busy, I was still at work and had to make like I was actually doing something productive for the great state of Florida so I decided I would try again later, from home.
Which I did. To no avail. Later that evening, from our desktop PC I tried again to check in online, only to receive the same error message. Despising the next step, I picked up the phone and placed a call to NWA’s customer service. After holding for an indeterminable amount of time and having to shout my answers to the automated customer service rep, I finally spoke to a human being. Unfortunately, the humanoid told me I was trying to check in on the Delta Airlines website for a NWA flight. Huh??? Lo and behold, the human was correct. I hung up, pulled my chair up to my computer and tried again.
Imagine my surprise (and horror) when the same thing happened. This time, however, I kept an eye on each step and actually watched with my own two eyes (four, counting my glasses) as I was passed from the NWA website to the Delta site in order to check in. No wonder!!! Who could forget that Delta and NWA had merged?!?!? Continued calls to either airline’s customer service centers, however, netted no resolution and with a tired mind, I decided I would just check in at the airport.
Once we arrived at the Atlanta Hartsfield International airport we rushed to the Delta counter to check in. Here, we were told to check in using the kiosks, which we tried and received another “FAIL”. From there, we were asked to stand in an even longer line under a sign that read “Kiosk Check-In Help”. We counted 2-3 agents behind the desk and upwards of 40 people in line. You do the math.
After having stood in line for 2 hours and missing our flight while we did, we finally managed to speak with a gate agent who had either woke up on the wrong side of the bed or needed a refresher course in customer service. Instead of assisting us in our plight, he instead placed the blame squarely on our shoulders for basically not being at the airport as early as 6am in order to check in for our 2:20 flight. I reminded him that ALL the websites I visited (Delta, NWA, and Priceline through whom I purchased the ticket) said to be in line 2 hours before flight time and that we had, indeed, done just that. Mr. Gate Agent (actually named Elrico H. by the looks of his name tag) placed a call, indicated dishonestly to the person on the other end that we had “just gotten into line” then turned to me and said there was nothing Delta could do … take up my issues with Priceline.
The next few hours were spent making numerous calls to Priceline who stuck by their guns in the “sorry ma’am, there’s nothing we can do about it” department and speaking with several different Delta employees. On the verge of despair but more angry than anything, I was asked by Priceline to go ask Delta one more time about fixing the problem. Deciding one more time couldn’t possibly hurt anything, I rounded the corner into another area of Delta’s airport space and was astounded to see the “International Check-In” sign. We’d been standing in the wrong line all along and though we’d specifically stated we were on an international flight to Tokyo, Japan fom the very beginning we were still directed to the domestic side of the house!
Tears of anger and frustration began to flow and if at that very moment every Delta and NWA flight had fallen out of the sky, I would not have cared. Tears, however, seem to put airline employees on alert, as an attendant rushed to my aid at the sight of the water washing away the remainder of my makeup. Luckily, this lovely woman understood what I was saying through my choking and sputtering, and placed me in line to speak with Yolanda at Delta’s International Check-In counter. By the time Ms. Yolanda and I spoke, I’d calmed down and she’d hooked us up with a hotel for the night, food vouchers to get us through the evening and next morning, and overnight supplies to use to freshen us up as we prepared to board the next day’s plane to Tokyo. Inside 15 minutes, Ms. Yolanda had set things to right, all the while apologizing profusely on behalf of Delta Airlines.
Sunday, August 2 we arose bright and early and headed to the airport via hotel shuttle. Bypassing the check-in counters and baggage regristration areas, we walked through security, boarded our plane according to our newly issued tickets and arrived without further incident in Tokyo 14 hours later.
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Mistake #1: We had personal plans that would have placed us in Atlanta on the day of our departure so I originally bought tickets from Atlanta to Japan. Unfortunately, those plans fell through and in hindsight, should never have been made. ALWAYS PURCHASE TICKETS IN A DIRECT ROUTE, NEVER USE “PASS THROUGH” TICKETS”.
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Mistake #2: Had I paid better attention to our surroundings, I probably would have realized I’d been directed to the wrong check-in line. DON’T BE AFRAID TO QUESTION AIRPORT PERSONNEL, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST FEELING YOU HAVE BEEN MISDIRECTED.
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Mistake #3: This one was unavoidable for us as we tried to check in online and was not permitted to do so. However, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, CHECK IN ONLINE TO AVOID UNNECESSARY WAIT TIMES.
So there you have it. You would think a seasoned traveler such as myself (ha ha) would have not made such errors, but we’re all human, right. Next time — and believe me, I’m already planning a next time — we’ll all know better, right? Right!!!
Happy Traveling. Hope you learned a thing or two.
Read about more “Japan” mishaps here…
