Thursday after lunch my parents and inlaws took us to the airport, me, three kids, five suitcases, four carry ons and four personal items. Check in and security was a breeze but when we were walking to the gate and when we arrived at the gate I began to see a pattern. All the flights headed to the North East were delayed...there was weather and rerouting and air traffic control issues. We were supposed to fly US Air to Philadelphia and then Brussels Air to Brussels and then onto Moscow. We had a layover but not a long one in Philadelphia. After watching delays turn into cancellations and realizing we would miss our connecting flight I decided to ask for help at the gate. The gate agents could not help but neither could the operator on the 1-800 number...then a new gate agent arrived and I explained my challenge. A shout out to US Airlines gate agent name Christopher! Finally he got us rebooked the following day on an AA flight from RDU to JFK and then onward on Delta/Aeroflot to Moscow. A huge thanks to my sister D who kept me sane by phone and assured me that the process was going as it should. Since we had to be at the airport at 4 the next morning I thought we should just stay at the hotel at the airport. Guess what? RDU does not have a hotel at the airport. So mom and dad came and got us, fed us supper and put us to bed early so they could repeat the process the next morning. Oh, and in case you are wondering it is bad enough to wait at the airport for six plus hours when you actually fly someplace but when you do not actually leave the ground it is really exhausting! So we were at the airport at 4 am on Friday, check in (our bags were checked straight through to Moscow)and security were smooth, as was our flight to JFK. Once we arrived at JKF we had a bit of a layover before we could check into our flights, we people watched and had a snack. After we checked into our flights it was time to go through security. The TSA agents at JFK could learn few things from the ones at RDU...Firstly, they made us approach the kiosk separately, yelling at me when I approached with the eight year old. Then we get into line and the agent makes a point of telling us to stay with our children. I put C (eight) in front of me and H (15) and S (12) behind me. I stated to the agent that we were together. She then separated C and I from the girls by allowing an agent to cut into line with a woman in a wheelchair. Then the girls approach and she yells at them because they are not with a parent. Then C's suitcase gets pulled for more screening, fine. C and I follow the suitcase, I am still trying to keep the girls in my line of sight...and the agent yells at me that I am leaning over her barrier. (I wasn't) Then she demands that I tell her what is in the suitcase, I answer clothes and toys. She wants to know what dangerous items I've packed, nothing. All this because the tube of tensie die show up as dense on her monitor. All the while my phone is ringing, and I know from the ringtone it is R in Moscow, but I can't answer it. We finally all get through the security line with our shoes back on and our computers back in our bags and I can answer the phone. R is frantic because our travel site keeps telling him our flight has been canceled. I assure him we have boarding passes and I'll see him tomorrow! We wait for a bit, board our flight, eat, sleep, wander the aisles, watch the monitor, peek at the sunset and sunrise and land. I have never waited in passport control as long as we did this trip, who knows why, as when we finally go through it is without a hitch. Until we head down the escalator and see that the baggage carousel is nearly empty, it certainly does not have my five suitcases. The Russian phone I am carrying is not working, R can see us through the window but I can't really tell him what is going on, I can't call his assistant for help because the phone...The lost luggage lady and the customs man were very helpful and kind however and we finally made it through to R! The airline delivered the luggage the next day, somehow or another it had gone by way of LAX...And now jet lag begins, I have read that it takes one day to adjust for every hour difference, seven hours difference now, it may be a long week!
No comments:
Post a Comment