And what a finish.
Started off quite....frustrating, but knowing that others were more affected than me, changed my perspective from frustrated to, eh, whatever. Another new adventure for me.
Of course I'm talking about the airport chaos during the holiday season.
My problems started on Friday night, when I realized I couldn't check in online and for some reason the online system don't recognize my reservation info. I had also not received my usual email from the airline inviting me to check in online. At that moment I was unaware of any issues at the airports, because silly me was only focused on Arlanda, which is quite capable of handling snow. So obviously I started to panic that something happened to my booking.
Used the last of my airtime to call Air France in Sweden only to get the voice message that they are only open from x to y and y was round about two hours earlier. Same for the South African office.
Thank goodness for Skype!! Was able to call the toll-free Air France number in the USA, which kept me on hold for about 20 minutes (awful music....all of our operators are busy...repeat) when I hung up and tried another number. With great relief I reached a human operator and she was very friendly and helpful and explained that my booking seems fine and that I can't check in online, because it is not yet 24h before boarding. Then I explained that it is almost 18h before boarding, because I am in Sweden, not the US, and called them because all other branches in the surrounding time zones were already closed. She then directed me to their online help line. Yes, you guessed it. After ANOTHER 20+ minutes on hold listening to that same stupid song over and over a techie finally answered and after listening to my sob story couldn't tell me why I can't check in online, but that my booking was fine and I should have no problem at the airport.
Well, there goes the easy way of obtaining a seat with some extra legroom by pre-selecting it while checking in online....so I decided I'd better get to the airport earlier the next day and try my luck there.
After a half hour bus drive and a two hour train ride I arrived at Arlanda Airport five hours before my flight. All the self help check in machines for Air France are closed and there are a row of about 30 people in front of me at the check in with only 2 counters manned. Almost 20 minutes later, there were 29 people in front of me and probably 50 behind me. Progress was realllly slow. After an hour and a bit I finally reach second in line, only to watch the empty first class/frequent flyer row suddenly sprout a row of privileged flyers and with their own special counter unmanned because the lady is walking around trying to calm people, they just cut in front of us economic losers. I must admit that I felt a small haha when they were told that the flight to Amsterdam was cancelled and that they have to report to the ticket counter for rebooking. The ticket counter line was longer than the check in line. With no special row for them. I felt an even better haha when they told me that my flight would be delayed by one hour, but I should still be able to make my connection in Paris within the 20 minutes available after landing. And my haha feeling just grew even more when I received a seat with extra leg room for free! So, with bag checked and boarding pass printed I headed to the gate to wait for my flight to paris to take off. And wait. And wait.
The 1 hour delay turned into 3 hours. Haha bubble burst. Connection missed.
Not really knowing what I was going to do, I boarded and flew to Paris.
Just before we got of the plane at Charles de Gaulle, one air hostess comes up to me and asks if I'm the passenger with the connection to Johannesburg.
Yes?!
If I hurry, I can still make the flight. It was delayed as well.
This was my first "visit" to Charles de Gaulle, so I had no idea where to go, but luckily the information boards were quite helpful, and with a sprint that I still can't believe didn't result in any airport security chasing me, I set off for the departure gate. Ran up and down escalators, just missed the train between the terminals, waited the excruciatingly long 3 minutes for the next one while panting loudly (one of my motto's is not to run unless chased...so I am NOT used to it...).
Sped up the final stairs to the security checkpoint only to find it closed. I shouted at a guy walking around behind it, but he just waved his hand with a "we're closed" and walked away. I don't know if I could have made it or not if they were open...but I didn't.
Sweating like a pig after running for what seemed a lot longer than the probably 10 to 15 minutes it took to get there, I turned around and headed back to the other terminal where I hoped someone could help me.
By the time I got to an Air France help desk, it was almost 2 a.m. on Sunday. The nearby hotels were fully booked. The other hotels weren't reachable or recommended as the snow might prevent people from getting back to the airport. So they handed out blue camping mattresses with an inflatable pillow and blanket, a tooth brush and a pair of (much needed) socks and a ticket (again with the extra leg room...I wasn't too tired to forget about that!) for a flight to Johannesburg at 23:20 on Sunday night, depending on the weather.
So I bought myself a coke zero (they didn't even have REAL COKE!!!!) and like so many others scratched out a pozzie of my own for the night.
After sleeping and waking repeatedly for about three hours (keeping my shoes near my head didn't even help me sleep), the airport started to get busy and noisy and I was too tired to try and sleep any more. So I packed up my stuff and set off for the terminal wondering how I was going to keep myself busy for 15 hours. And I have to say, I am not a fan of Charles de Gaulle airport. They have no decent restaurants. Just these cafe's or counters that sell sandwiches and croissants (which was great for breakfast, especially the chocolate filled ones), but what I needed to lift my mood was a nice steak or a rack of ribs or even a burger. No such luck.
Luckily they did have several free-to-play playstation points, but I could only play so much of the demo games focused on fun for the whole family (no blood and gore and real fun in other words...). They also had a couple of seats where two or three could watch a movie, so I watched "Men who stare at goats", which was very weird but really enjoyable, and out of boredom "bounty hunter", which was funnier than I expected. I wasn't bored enough to watch the Jeniffer Lopez flick and luckily the Guns of Navarone disc had been ejected by someone so I couldn't watch it.
So between marching up and down, trying to catch a nap on the floor around the corner from the smoking room, watching the movies, playing games and reading with my new favourite possession, time passed. The airport was closed for much of it, but by the afternoon they had cleared the runways and were starting to send people on their merry way until it was finally my turn to board the A380.
The plane was half empty. In my row of 4 seats I sat in the middle left, and a girl of probably 15 sat next to me. Hopefully because she wanted to sit close to her family, she moved and left me with four seats to myself. After a quick dinner after 1 a.m. monday morning, I threw my legs over the console between the aisle seat and mine, lifted the small arm rest between the two centre seats, constructed some kind of comfortable headrest with my jacket and complimentary inflatable pillow from the previous night and spent almost 8 hours sleeping blissfully. I wish every flight could be as good as that one, except without all the hassle preceding it.
Until finally, just after noon, I emerged into the wonderful warmth of the South African sun to spend the next two weeks with my family and friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment