Captians log: 16th February, 2006
In category General on 16 Feb 2006 @ 09:36 pm
Everything started indicatively of my day when I was stopped by security at Lansing airport and patted down for no apparent reason, (the metal detector didn't beep or anything). Following that they ran 'further tests' on my laptop which involved swabbing it, opening it and generally making sure that it was indeed a real laptop. I asked what was going on and if I could expect the royal treatment at every airport today to which they replied, "most places". There must have been a specific threat made about today or something for security to be this thorough. My flight departed on time at 6am and arrived without incident at O'Hare, Chicago also at 6am.
I had a 2 hour stop in Chicago with nothing to do, (I didn't even have to go through security again because it was a connecting flight in the same terminal. So I leisurely wandered the airport buying more magazines and some trinkets before getting McDonalds for breakfast. I filled in my 2 hours eating my breakfast and reading Time and whatever the name of the last muscle car magazine I bought. The surprise was that my flight was actually on time, (apparently unheard of in Chicago), and we were in the air with a few minutes to spare. I tried to get some sleep after having been up since 4am and when I woke up less than an hour later the pilot was telling us that there was a strong headwind and the flight was going to take 45 minutes longer than initially anticipated.
I was already short on time to get through L.A. and after that delay I was down to an hour between when I got on the domestic flight and had to be on the international flight. We landed in terminal 6 of LAX where they informed us that our luggage was landing in terminal 7. I ran to the baggage claim, (it was a few hundred metres from one terminal to the next), where I waited and waited for my suitcase. By 11:30am I was running screaming, (luckily not in a way that got me shot), the full length of LAX with my luggage trailing hopelessly behind me while I tried desperately to make an 11:50am flight. When I got to JAL check-in I was out of breath so I just pushedmy way to the front of the line and I ended up being there on time as the flight was delayed. The revised departure time was 12:25pm and it was only 11:45am and all I had to do was go through security. I had it made right? That's what I thought until I saw the line. That is to say I saw the start of the line and even after setting off to find the end it still streched off into the distance. I talked to the woman checking tickets at the front of the line, explaining that I was about to miss my flight because my plane was delayed. All she had to say was, "Go to the back of the line. You should have been here 3 hours early. They all say their flight was delayed" so she was obviously just as happy to make me miss my plane. I almost pointed out that it would have taken longer than 3 hours to stand in line anyway but I decided to save my breath. So I just started to panic, realising that my luggage was going to make it safely back to Brisbane on time while I was going to be stranded in LAX indefinitely. Then I surprised myself and asked a traveller near the front of the line if I could cut in front of her for $20. She let me take that place but refused to take my money so we donated it to charity instead. Thanks to her I made my flight, (only just). Thank you so much!!
The 11.5 hour flight in cattle class was unbearable and I was squashed between 2 people and unable to move for the whole flight (as I got there so late I couldn't get a better seat). I watched 3 relatively crappy movies and listened to all the classical music that could be got out of the MAGIC-II system, also finishing my book The Unbearable Lightness of Being. My flight from Tokyo is about to start boarding so I had better get going but before I do. Should I re-enable the kiosk that I had to 'fix' because it ate my change?
Oh. I also spent almost all of the Yen I had with me on stuff for people, the most notable item being a bottle of 8-year Wild Turkey burbon for Chris (and I). See you all in 8.5 hours or something and I hope you all had good holidays too.
Maz
I had a 2 hour stop in Chicago with nothing to do, (I didn't even have to go through security again because it was a connecting flight in the same terminal. So I leisurely wandered the airport buying more magazines and some trinkets before getting McDonalds for breakfast. I filled in my 2 hours eating my breakfast and reading Time and whatever the name of the last muscle car magazine I bought. The surprise was that my flight was actually on time, (apparently unheard of in Chicago), and we were in the air with a few minutes to spare. I tried to get some sleep after having been up since 4am and when I woke up less than an hour later the pilot was telling us that there was a strong headwind and the flight was going to take 45 minutes longer than initially anticipated.
I was already short on time to get through L.A. and after that delay I was down to an hour between when I got on the domestic flight and had to be on the international flight. We landed in terminal 6 of LAX where they informed us that our luggage was landing in terminal 7. I ran to the baggage claim, (it was a few hundred metres from one terminal to the next), where I waited and waited for my suitcase. By 11:30am I was running screaming, (luckily not in a way that got me shot), the full length of LAX with my luggage trailing hopelessly behind me while I tried desperately to make an 11:50am flight. When I got to JAL check-in I was out of breath so I just pushedmy way to the front of the line and I ended up being there on time as the flight was delayed. The revised departure time was 12:25pm and it was only 11:45am and all I had to do was go through security. I had it made right? That's what I thought until I saw the line. That is to say I saw the start of the line and even after setting off to find the end it still streched off into the distance. I talked to the woman checking tickets at the front of the line, explaining that I was about to miss my flight because my plane was delayed. All she had to say was, "Go to the back of the line. You should have been here 3 hours early. They all say their flight was delayed" so she was obviously just as happy to make me miss my plane. I almost pointed out that it would have taken longer than 3 hours to stand in line anyway but I decided to save my breath. So I just started to panic, realising that my luggage was going to make it safely back to Brisbane on time while I was going to be stranded in LAX indefinitely. Then I surprised myself and asked a traveller near the front of the line if I could cut in front of her for $20. She let me take that place but refused to take my money so we donated it to charity instead. Thanks to her I made my flight, (only just). Thank you so much!!
The 11.5 hour flight in cattle class was unbearable and I was squashed between 2 people and unable to move for the whole flight (as I got there so late I couldn't get a better seat). I watched 3 relatively crappy movies and listened to all the classical music that could be got out of the MAGIC-II system, also finishing my book The Unbearable Lightness of Being. My flight from Tokyo is about to start boarding so I had better get going but before I do. Should I re-enable the kiosk that I had to 'fix' because it ate my change?
Oh. I also spent almost all of the Yen I had with me on stuff for people, the most notable item being a bottle of 8-year Wild Turkey burbon for Chris (and I). See you all in 8.5 hours or something and I hope you all had good holidays too.
Maz
# Comment by Maz on 17 Feb 2006 @ 08:55 pm