Getting to China Tests My Patience

Thursday, April 28, 2011

One week after the end of final exams of vet school year 2, and it was time to leave for China! I was pretty excited about my flight itinerary. Most of my friends had planned their trips to fly to Beijing from somewhere on the west coast. West coast city à Beijing = 12 hour flight. But first you have to get to the west coast! I get antsy and achy on any flight of more than a few hours, so I didn’t want to arrive in California or Washington already sick of air travel and dreading getting on another plane. I was thrilled to see flights directly from the east coast to Beijing that were only 1.5 hours longer than the west coast flights! So my itinerary was a 2 hour flight from Charlotte to JFK in New York on US Air, a layover of a several hours, then 13.5 hours to Beijing on Air China. I was to arrive in Beijing around 6pm local time on Friday, April 29^th. Megan and Ashley were both flying out of Seattle and would arrive in Beijing later that evening.

The weather had other plans for me. Horrible weather and killer tornadoes had been tracking along the Midwest and Deep South for several days and the storm system finally made it to the east coast on the day of my flight. My flight to JFK was delayed, delayed again, and then cancelled, since JFK is the worst airport ever and had no room to take our flight at this point. I accepted pretty quickly that I was not going to China that day. I was going to miss my flight from New York, and there was no way I could get to any other city in the US in time to depart that day. 

So I joined the throngs of people in line to rebook. I lucked out with the nicest US Air lady ever. Her name was Novlette. I really should write a letter to US Air commending and thanking her. She quickly figured out a new itinerary for me. I would leave Charlotte early the next morning, and then take a United flight from Chicago to Beijing. I would still get to Beijing a day late, but I would arrive closer to noon than 6pm. Novlette then called Air China to tell them I would be missing my flight, and to please un-check me in and release the booking so she could re-book my new flight. Air China said no. Understandably, they wanted to keep the money from my booking and wanted to book me on their flight the next night, so I would be arriving in Beijing a full 24 hours late. I was a little miffed that they didn’t want to cooperate in getting me to my destination as quickly as possible, but I did understand it from their perspective.

So fine, Novlette hangs up and proceeds to book me on an early morning flight to JFK (leaving lots of time for more delays before my evening flight out of NYC) and the Air China flight the following night. Except she can’t, because I wasn’t yet un-checked in for my first Air China flight. So she calls Air China back, and after an insane amount of time and exasperation, she determines that it is Air China’s policy to not change a booking until the first flight has actually been missed. Even though we both stood there at the counter, telling them I would not, under any circumstances, be on their flight out of New York in a couple of hours, they would not budge. We were supposed to call back in several hours, once the flight had officially been missed and in the air for 1 hour, and then I could be re-booked for the next day. By this time, I had already been at the counter with Novlette for over an hour. The atmosphere around the counter was more than a little unpleasant. It was hot, and the long line of stranded passengers was getting unruly. One woman kept trying to cut to the front of the line (not sure why she made repeated attempts, like she wouldn’t be recognized and stopped again) and the crowd was shouting and pushing. I had already texted Megan and Ashley about the change of plans and called my parents to come back to the airport to get me. I was not looking forward to hanging out for 3 more hours until we could call back. And then, wonderful Novlette told me to go home. She would call Air China at the designated time and then call me at home to let me know I had been officially rebooked. It made me a little nervous to walk away from the counter without everything being settled, but I trusted Novlette. My dad picked me up, I bought a bottle of wine on the way home, and then several hours later, wonderful Novlette called me to let me know everything had been taken care of. She was jealous of my wine.

Friday, April 29, 2011

I will never get through blogging my whole trip if I continue to write as much as I did for Day 1.

Flight to JFK delayed one hour to fix a broken door. Thank goodness for the long layover.

I hate JFK. Give me Atlanta or O’Hare any day over this.

Screaming baby in the waiting area for our flight. Baby screams and screams and screams. Please let baby be on a different flight.

Request an aisle seat and get it. Boarding flight, I see I’m in a bulkhead row. More legroom, but I kind of like having my bag of stuff right by my feet. Oh well. As my row comes in to view, I see screaming baby and exasperated mother are in the middle seat next to me. Ear plugs in. Take a Klonapin.

Baby screams for first couple hours of flight. Mother can easily get up with baby without me having to get up because she is a tiny Chinese lady and there is extra legroom in the bulkhead. Baby gets passed around by stewardesses and other passengers. Baby hates everyone and still screams.

Mother asks me to switch seats with her so she can get up more easily with the baby, even though she could already get up easily with the baby. How can I refuse? I’ve always wanted to be in the middle seat for a 13.5 hour flight.

Stewardess comes and installs a bassinet in my lap. Officially, it’s attached to the bulkhead. But since I am now in the middle seat, it’s also in my lap. There goes the extra legroom and ease of getting up from the bulkhead.

Screaming baby spends the rest of the flight screaming, with a small nap here and there to break up the monotony. Baby doesn’t use the bassinet in my lap but rather sleeps in sleeping mom’s arms. Looks kind of like a dangerous you-might-drop-your-baby situation, but I don’t want to disturb the peace.

Need to pee, but can’t get up b/c screaming baby and mother are finally asleep. And there’s a freaking bassinet in my lap. Fall asleep thinking about DVTs.

As the landing gear comes down, mother fumbles for an air bag and pukes on landing.

Worst flight ever.

Arrive at hostel. Rouse napping Megan and Ashley. Take me for my first Chinese beer. NOW.