My transit story

My video and stills camcorder decide to go awol on me, so I can't upload any pictures for the moment. So here's my transit story.

What was supposed to be a 3 hour transit at Narita Airport in Japan for our connecting flight back to Dallas, Fortworth became a 3 day transit instead.

We boarded JAL from Changi Airport at 6.35 am and by the time we were reaching Narita, we were told that the airport was congested because of flight delays etc. That particular Saturday, according to news we heard later, was one of the worst snow fall day in Narita, whereby the airport personnel were not equipped to handle the deicing and so on. So we circled the sky for about an hour. When the aircraft was finally given the green light to land, there was no parking space. Initially we were so excited seeing snow fall and the airport blanketed in white. But after sitting in the airplane for two more hours without a parking space and our bodies and butt were already aching from the long flight, we panicked knowing that we might miss our connecting flight to Dallas. Then again, we prayed, if there were a lot of delays, probably the flight to Dallas would be delayed as well. We knew that we were not the only one on connecting flights so that was sort of a relief in that sense.

Three hours later, we ran out of the airplane and were making our biggest strides ever. Our American Airline connecting flight was departing at 7.30 pm delayed by 10 minutes so here we are queuing for our boarding pass at only 7.20 pm. We caught our breath and when we saw the flight time changed to 8.30pm, we were a little relief. At least we had time to go to the restroom and freshened up a little.

8.30 pm came and nothing happens. All the passengeres were lingering restlessly, and finally an announcement came that says the American Airline flight to Dallas was cancelled, and all the passengers were required to queue again at the counter to get their next ticket or boarding passes for whatever flights available for the next day.

We were all so exhausted and hungry. While Tahir went to queue, Afzal and me find a seating spot for ourselves. Then we heard that all the other flights were cancelled too. The boarding area were crowded with passengers. BUT what was so irritating was Singapore Airlines had constant announcements asking their passengers to get snacks, refreshments (hot and cold beverage), even phonecards and later sleeping bags. American Airline (AA) did not make any announcement and did not offer anything and Tahir was still queuing until he ached and asked me to take his place for a while. Three hours later, closed to midnight, he finally got a pass for the next day's flight at 10.30 am. I just could not understand why it took so long for American Airline to process that while I'm assuming that SIA just took the same lot of passengers from the same delayed flight to the next day without having to queue again.

Then it really irks me that AA did not offer sleeping bags much less accomodation. Almost every other passenger had a sleeping bag with food. Those who doesn't, at least have blankets with food from Cathay Pacific. What is AA doing? Nothing!

I even went up to Singapore Airlines counter and offered to pay for the cup noodles but they would not let me. At least they took care of their passengers' interest first. So my son slept on the hard cold seats. We did not even have jackets with us because we thought that by the time we reached Mobile, we will be able to withstand the cold and jumped into our car and headed home. A kind passenger seating opposite us offered a Cathay Pacific blanket so I covered my son with that. Tahir slept sitting down, while I had an extra seat to put my legs up and slept in an almost foetal position.

We couldn't sleep properly though, and we could hear some snores from the warm bagged up passengers. When Afzal woke up wet from his pee, I changed him to the extra clothings that I brought only for him. So we waited again. When morning came, Singapore Airlines again made an announcement asking their passengers to get breakfast from them plus hot beverages, an amenity bag and what not. We were waiting for at least something from AA but they did not bother. All there gave was just a tray of orange and apple juices and even then, we had to figure it out ourselves. I think AA was too ashamed to even announce that, which definitely pales in comparison to what SIA gave their passengers.

I took a long walk with Afzal to find some edible proper food somewhere, and we end up on a long queue just to pay for chocolate flavoured Poka biscuits and Pringles. All the time I was cursing AA in my head for their lack of customer service, then another kind passenger gave me a US$10 voucher that I could use to pay for the food and this time the voucher was from Northwest Airline. I thanked the Vietnamese guy but it made me want to curse AA again. Can't they even think of something to make their passenger feel a little better?

By 9.30 am, SIA had their passengers boarded and left. 10.30 am came and then we were told the flight was delayed to 12 noon. I don't know what to feel anymore.

12 noon came and we were waiting to board the flight. We were the first in line because we had a child with us, BUT we were not allowed to enter because our tickets were not valid. Huh??? We did not have boarding passes. Tahir sweared that those were the only tickets given to him and the AA personnel at the counter told him those were all he needed to board the airplane.I was pissed with my own husband then when we had to wait by the side and let the other passengers enter one by one leaving us stranded there but then there were other angry passengers too who could not board the plane. There were also passengers who were already in the airplane but were offloaded because AA overbooked the seats. I went to the departing counter myself and raised my voice, "My husband queued three hours last night and you gave us this, and you told us that was all we needed!" And all AA could say was "We're sorry, there was no excuse on our part for that mistake." Argghhhh!!!!!! They made the mistake and we had to pay for it.

The airline personnel took the stranded passengers back to the AA counter to queue again for another flight out. This time around I made sure I was at the counter so that I can say a piece of my mind, knowing that hubby wouldn't rattle and nag at them as much as I would. There were other flights in the afternoon but to Chicago and San Francisco or somewhere else but we had to be on standby because the flights, according to them, were all fully booked. I told them "we were not going to be on standby. You better give us confirmed seats." Confirmed seats would have to be for the next day at 7.30pm. Well, I am not staying another night at this airport! (and I rattled about how they did not even bother to give us sleeping bags and food and expect us to stay at the airport again. We have not even showered and everything...blah, blah, blah) But the people at the counter were Japanese and they were polite despite my ramblings and anger so they put us up at a hotel. We had to clear immigration but without our luggage because the luggages were on holding somewhere and it would be a hassle. So we left the airport, no luggage, waiting for the shuttle bus in the freezing cold to bring us to the hotel. At least I felt a little bit better, because I sorely need to shower and a comfortable place to rest. We did not have extra clothings (at least I have extra undies) so we slept in the sleeping robe provided while I made Afzal slept only in his brief, and cover him with the blanket. He was so malu at first. Well, we told him we got to survive. At least he has an extra set of clothings that I washed and dried.

Since we had some time that Monday morning, we took a bus from the hotel to the nearest shopping centre and was there for three hours before we went back to the hotel at 2pm. We bought jackets for ourselves. Once we were back at the hotel, we showered but had to put on our since Saturday clothes and left the hotel for the airport at 4 pm rather early, because we just cannot wait to go home. Tahir missed his work and Afzal already missed school.

But when we reached the airport, we were told that the 7.30 pm flight will be delayed till the next day at 11.00 am. My goodness? Are we going to be stranded here forever? What the (whatever) is AA doing? They blamed it on the airport for the deicing was taking longer than expected, blah, blah, blah. I think it is all bull. If SIA flight could leave at 9.30 am why couldn't AA? Because AA just did not try hard enough. This time Tahir lost his patience. They cannot even transfer us to a different airline because according to them, every flights were all fully-booked. Though we complained because of their lack of customer service, she just nodded and I felt that it was pointless arguing. All they could do was to put us back to the hotel. We would have worn the same clothes for another day, and would AA compensate for all these - the fact that we had to buy new jackets, a top, the meals that were not provided etc etc ....

We met some other passengers that were pissed too but they felt sorrier for us because we had been delayed for three nights.

So finally the next day, we boarded the 11 am flight to Dallas Fortworth tapi apakan daya, sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga. Bila kita sampai Dallas, kita kena check out the luggage through customs and checked in again. But of course, luggage were missing.

Itu satu hal. Paspot saya dan suami tidak ada hal tapi entahlah kenapa, paspot anak buat hal. Padahal bukan kali pertama keluar masuk US. Dah masuk tiga kali dah. Pegawai imigresen kata "case of mistaken identity". Kena masuk bilik supaya pegawai lain boleh check lebih terperinci lagi. Nak mistaken identity dengan siapa? Kalau termistake dengan nama terrorist pun, pleaselah, tak tengokke budak tu belum masuk 6 tahun lagi.

Jadi terpaksalah tunggu. Darah nak menyirap pun dah tak boleh. Flight ke Mobile lagi sejam, dan kita seharusnya check-in setengah jam lagi. Setengah jam kemudian baru dapat paspot, terlari-lari dari satu terminal ke satu terminal, sampai kat boarding gate tercungap-cungap, nasib baik tak tertinggal kapalterbang kali ini. Kalau tertinggal, I would be lost for words.

Dah ditimpa tangga, tergolek-golek pulak. Sampai Mobile, kita kena lapor tentang luggage yang hilang, tapi rupa-rupanya luggage sudah sampai sehari sebelum tetapi di dalam kondisi yang tak menyenangkan. Garis dan ada koyak sedikit. Malas nak cakap. Nak ambil kereta sewa terus balik rumah, tidur sudah. Tetapi apabila sampai di tempat kaunter kereta sewa, kami diberitahu kereta sewa tidak ada sebab reservasi kami 21 hb dan kereta sewa tersebut dah keluar sebab kita tak confirm. Kita sampai 24 hb. Jadi kita terpaksa tunggu beberapa hari untuk kereta tersebut. Tak tahu nak marah siapa. Suami ke? Sebab taknak talipon tukar reservasi. Alahai.

Jadi, tunggulah teksi yang macam buah tak jatuh kat situ. Bila teksi datang, pulang rumah, muka ronyok dan hati bonyok, terus mandi, unpack sikit dan tidur...lepas tu anak pun start demam.