Well I finally made it, more than 24 hours after I expected to arrive. Everything went smoothly at first. I made the 1 am train, then the 3 am bus (the bus station was deserted until 15 minutes before the bus arrived then a flood of taxis came from out of nowhere and dropped a crowd of people off that were heading to the airport). I got the the airport in Hamburg, checked in, got my boarding pass, went through security, bought some bottled water for the trip, went to my gate, they started boarding, I got my seating ticket, got on the bus to the plane and headed across the tarmac. The bus stopped just outside the plane but didn't open its doors. We waited. Eventually they made an announcement that the "cabin wasn't clean" yet and that they needed some more time. We waited. Then they said there was a "technical difficulty" and we went back to the gate and walked back in off the bus. We waited there for half an hour then they made an announcement that the replacement part was coming on a plane from Amsterdam and that we would have to go out and collect our checked bags and go to the KLM airport office to reschedule. I went down to baggage and waited for my bag to appear. Other people collected theirs and went out to get in line. I waited, and waited, finally there were only two other people waiting with me, then it was down to me waiting by myself, finally my bag appeared with the extendable handle newly broken off, and I went up to get in last in line for rescheduling. The line moved very slowly and I was in it until noon. I overheard the people in front of me and the person two people in front got the last seat out that day. When I got up there they said the best they could do was route me to JFK in New York then on a flight from there to Atlanta the next morning. They told me to talk to the KLM office there when I arrived to get them to arrange a place for me to spend the night (they assured me that KLM would pay for the hotel room, no problem). I had to throw away the bottle I had bough inside the airport to go back through security. I got another bottle of water on the inside then they had an additional security screening just before the gate so I had to throw it away. On the other side was a coke machine which I refused to buy anything from on matter of principle. So in the afternoon I flew from Hamburg to Amsterdam, then got on the flight to New York. The flight was delayed for a long time before departure because two people that checked in bags didn't show up for the flight so they had to unpack all the bags, get theirs out, then repack everything. When we arrived in New York it was close to midnight and blowing snow outside. I went to the KLM office and there was no one there. I asked a security guard that worked there and she said they had all left for the day. I went down to the information office and had them page someone that worked for KLM. I waited there for an hour and they paged them 5 times. No one showed up. Finally they called and talked to someone on the phone and said they would be right down. No one showed up. For those that have heard about my experience in the Addis Ababa airport with Emirates Air last November, this should sound familiar. I waited 30 minutes and they called again and no one was there, evidently they had left for the night as well. Another guy that was also on the flight from Amsterdam was in the same position as me, he was heading to Patagonia, so we agreed to split a room for the night and try to get our money back from KLM in the morning. We took a shuttle to the Ramada Inn near the airport and were able to get a discount "stranded passenger" rate. When we got up to the room I was out and went straight to sleep. In the morning we went back to the KLM office and again, no one was there. I talked to people from Northwest (that works with KLM) and they said they wouldn't be there until 2:30 in the afternoon, because that was when the flights arrived from Europe and I would have to wait until then to get help from them--there was nothing they could do. (I'm sure that some of these people also worked for KLM and just changed uniforms when their shift came on, that's what the Ethiopian Air people did with Emirates Air in Addis, but what could I say?) My flight was leaving in an hour with Delta so I had to go to make that connection. I went to the Delta terminal, got in line, waited my turn, talked to a ticket agent and they looked at the ticket KLM had written for me the day before in Hamburg. They said something about how I probably couldn't get on the flight (was it full?) and told me to get back in line and talk to another agent! Then she left the desk. I couldn't believe this, but I knew not to make trouble at a US airport so I got back in line and waited. I got to another agent and at first she said that I couldn't use the ticket because it was only good for one day and I should have left yesterday, I asked how this was possible because I arrived at almost midnight the night before. Then she switched gears and said that I could only take carry on bags. I held up my large moving suitcase and said "you want me to carry this on?" and she said that I couldn't get on the flight and that I had to talk to KLM. So what else could I do. I walked off to kill some time until 2:30 when they came to the KLM office. In the next terminal there was an Air France desk so I asked next door when the people from Air France would arrive. (Air France partners with KLM.) They said they should be at the desk. I explained no one was there. ... same old story. I called V to explain that I wouldn't be arriving on the rescheduled flight, was waiting for someone from Air France or KLM to show up and went to a dining area that overlooked the Air France ticketing area so I could keep an eye out. I had just got some food and sat down to eat when they paged me over the intercom by name to go to the Air France desk. I asked a woman that was sitting next to me to please watch my stuff and ran down there. No one was there. I even went down another level to the baggage check and no one was there. I went to the neighboring ticket booth and they said they should be there because they just paged some one. I explained that was me. ... I waited as long as I dared then had to go back to my food and luggage. Fortunately the woman was still there and my bags had not been destroyed while I was gone. I sat down to finally eat a much needed meal. Later I went back to Air France and waited ... finally a woman appeared that was setting up the desks. I asked if she worked for Air France, yes. I explained I had been paged and need to get a new ticket for Delta. She went back into a door and two other women popped out. I explained that I needed the ticket and that I had been paged and waiting. They explained that they couldn't see me because they were back in the office (then why had they bothered to page me?). They paged me because V had called to arrange another ticket with Delta. Then I needed to convince them that yes indeed the Delta agent had refused my ticket. Finally they wrote out another ticket to arrive at 3:30 in Atlanta (At this point, if I had just waited in Hamburg and went out the next day I would have arrived in Atlanta faster then coming through NY). I called V to tell her so she could pick me up and went back to the Delta terminal. This time they accepted me and let me check my bag (wonder of wonders!), and I went to the gate 2 1/2 hours early to camp out until boarding. The rest of the trip back went smoothly. The kids were happy to see me and came running out of nowhere and V had my new glasses for me.
Whew ...
Now it's time for me to get back to work.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
What an ordeal, glad you finally made it!
Post a Comment