Well I finally made it to Colombia. Most of yesterday was spent panicking that I would actually made it here. Everything started off as well as a morning can start when you wake up at 4:30 to get a cab to the airport. I was flying through Philadelphia on my way to Miami to meet my group flight to Bogotá. I was supposed to have about an hour wait in Philly and a 3 hour wait in Miami which is more than managable. Except the Philadelphia airport was only operating one runway and we were stuck in a holding pattern for 45 minutes. By the time my flight landed I took off running (with my really heavy back pack and two awkward tote bags, I'm sure I looked like the picture of grace). I made it to the gate for my flight to Miami to find out that the doors had closed four minutes earlier and there was nothing they could do.
I was able to get on an American Airlines flight three hours later but that would put me landing in Miami at 3:35 and my flight to Bogotá was supposed to leave at 4. That's cutting it close if you just have to get from gate to gate. But of course I wasn't going to have things that easily. Because US Airways (the operator of my domestic flights) and LAN (the operator of my international flight) were not partners I was unable in Boston to check my baggage trough to Colombia which meant when I got to Miami I was going to have to pick up my luggage and re-check it with LAN.
Since it didn't look likely that I was ever going to make my original flight I began trying to plan for the inevitable disaster that I would be stuck in Miami with out a way to get to Colombia. After several phone calls to my mom, WorldTeach, the travel agent who booked our group flight, US Airways, American Airlines and LAN my chances of getting to Colombia looked bad. And possibly expensive.
After sprinting across the Miami airport and finding the LAN counter I was told that my flight had been delayed until 5pm. All I needed to do was to find my luggage, check it, get through security, find the gate and pray that they hadn't closed the doors. It was 4:35. After talking to several airline representatives it soon became clear that American thought that US Airways had my bags and US Airways through American had my bags. Then it was 4:45. I decided that my bags could spend a night in Miami and I took off sprinting for the International security line. Which had about 150 waiting in it.after begging the security guard to let me go through and asking people in line if they would let me go ahead of them I was able to get to the front of the queue. I was waiting for my bags to come off the scanner and I looked at my watch. It was 4:54. Time to start running again. I called my mom and told her I was going to get on my flight and that I would send her pictures of my checked bag receipts. I was hoping that she's pretty good with airlines. Hopefully she can help me get my bags sent to Colombia. I made it to the gate at 5:01. Thankfully they were waiting an extra five minutes for the one passenger who had checked in but was still a no show, me.
Feeling sweaty, hot and disgusting I took my seat and tried to catch my breath. I made it. Now I'm here at a hostel in Bogotá and we are beginning our teacher training today. My luggage is somewhere in Miami and I'm hoping that between LAN and American they can find a way to get it to me in the next couple days.
Lessons learned:
- When I fly to a Spanish speaking country I should always allow myself extra time. Thankfully yesterday didn't end like my 50 hour trip to Spain when I was 16 but for a while it had all of the right opportunities to be worse
- Don't wear sandals when you fly and have to make a connecting flight. My birkenstocks are wonderful but due to their buckles and the fact that they are sandals they don't make for a quick option at security or a good running shoe.
- Sometimes the people at airlines can be great. The LAN woman who was helping me in Miami as I was trying to find my luggage was awesome. It's mostly due to her that made it here on time
- When you pack a bag as a carry on and put your extra change of clothes and necessities in case you checked bag gets lost you probably should also check that bag.
No comments:
Post a Comment