the return trip.
my flight back to costa rica last sunday was supposed to leave boston around 5:45pm and arrive in san jose around 11:30pm. i arrived at the airport in plenty of time, checked my bag, bought some more magazines (i brought back about 7 trashy celebrity magazines, like people, ok!, etc. - english mags are expensive here), and eventually made my way to the gate. i sat down with my book to wait for boarding to start.
as that time approached there was an announcement that there was going to be about a 30 minute delay due to some air traffic control issues in atlanta (my stopover destination). so i was a little worried at this point - my layover was only an hour and fifteen minutes - but i was pretty sure i could still make it. well. it turned out to be a little more than 30 minutes delay. by the time we actually took off we were an hour behind schedule.
so i try to enjoy my flight. but all that first class stuff on the way to boston kind of spoiled me... i was in the window seat (which i prefer), but the guy sitting in the middle has got all these business papers out and his laptop... he was certainly taking up more than his fair share of the space. plus there wasn't enough room for me to cross and uncross my legs easily. but i managed.
so as we arrive in the atlanta area we are told that due to air traffic control issues we are going to have to do the whole holding pattern, circling around thing for a while. people with connections are starting to get nervous, including me. but they make an announcement that since our delay is because of air traffic control issues that it's likely that connecting flights will be delayed as well. so i was kind of holding on to that hope, since i was supposed to be at work at noon on monday.
we finally touch down and of course it takes forever to get off the plane - even with people who didn't have connections staying in their seats. i rush up the ramp, and start scanning the connections board. and my flight is marked "departed". super. (i actually found out later that my flight had left a few minutes early - air traffic control.... right....). so i had kind of been expecting this... since when we actually landed was after the scheduled take off time for my connection.
so i'm off to the re-booking desk. of course there's a huge line because nearly everyone with a connection on our flight missed their connections. so at the back of the line there's this little machine that you scan your boarding pass and they can tell you if you've been re-booked on the next flight or whatever. and also it prints out any hotel vouchers that might exist. well, i got no info about my flight, but if i wanted to stay at the westin that night they had negotiated the low, low, special deal price of just $90. $90????!!!!! the woman mentioned that there was a huge info boards of hotels that were cheaper and closer to the airport just outside of security.
so i bypass the line (which is barely moving) and use one of the customer service phones. i probably waited nearly as long on hold as i would have in the line, but whatever. i eventually speak to an agent who tells me that the next flight to san jose doesn't leave until 10am and arrives in CR at noon. which is when i'm supposed to be at work. super. well, obviously that's not going to work out. but the good news was that since my checked bag and i both missed our connection, the bag would hang around at the airport until the next flight to its destination - which i would also be on. and the guy got me a business class seat. which was pretty exciting.
so with only a couple of things in my carry on bag i head out to the main terminal. after staring at the hotel board for a while and making a couple of calls to check on prices (it was one of those phones where you enter the number from the board and it just dials the hotel automatically) i decided to head for super 8, which had a free shuttle and internet. so i'm collected by the shuttle and whisked off to my hotel.
unfortunately the hotel isn't really near any thing that allows me to get food or anything else. but there are a couple of menus in the lobby and i end up ordering some pizza and chatting with some other random guests for a while. when my pizza arrived i went up to my room, crawled in bed, put a dvd in my new laptop (have i mentioned this? - so exciting, i love it.), and ate. before too much sleep it was time for me to head back to the airport. i had some free continental breakfast and we were off.
when i entered the terminal i was a little taken aback by the length of the lines... but being booked in business class (and seat 1A - which means that business class is the best class on this flight) i start looking for the first/business class short line - i know that i shouldn't be waiting in the lines with the "commoners" :P but even that line was outrageous. and then i realize that there's a whole other section of desks for international trips. so i start to wait in that line... because i really just wanted to speak to someone and make sure my bag was on this flight too. but then i went for the kiosks. i swiped my old boarding pass and lo and behold all my new flight info came up and that i already had 1 bag checked. awesome.
so without further ado, i make my way through security (there's actually a special, shorter security line for first and business class) get to my gate in plenty of time. i wait and read. and then we board. i'm offered a mimosa straight off the bat (ah... business class...). of course there was a little delay, mostly due to so many people having missed flights the day before, there was some confusion about luggage. but we eventually took off.
so i arrived in san jose around 12:45 - 13 hours later than i had planned on. i headed home and got a little nap in before trucking into school to see what was up. i did a couple of placement exams and then went back home, still exhausted.
so yeah. that was my nightmare travel story... now that i've got that out of my system i promise not to be so whiney on my next post...
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