Monday, October 6, 2008
The big travel day from Frankfurt to Chicago! Now those that know me, understand that I get to the airport early. I don’t run in airports, I read and relax. Now that’s exactly how the morning began. Rick had me to the airport in plenty of time, 4 hours early. Perfect. The ticket counter for Air India wasn’t even open, yet. When they did open, I was near the front of the line. I checked in and proceeded toward the gate. After the usual passport and security checks, several times, I arrived at the waiting area, calm , relaxed and prepared to continue the book I was reading. Oh, it would have been so good if the day continued with such a pleasant pace. But, oh, I was wrong.
When they called a dozen of us to the podium, I felt a knot in my stomach. Then the dreaded words to any frequent international flier, “We regret to tell you that your plane has been cancelled.” Oh, it gets better. “The next flight isn’t until tomorrow and you have to go back to the ticket counter to pray.” (not pay, pray)
Now I’m not sure how many of you have had to go through security in reverse, internationally, but it really isn’t fun. How do you tell the passport person who asks how long you are going to be in the country, “Hopefully for less than an hour!” They don’t enjoy humor, believe me.
I arrived at the ticket counter to find that there were about a dozen others waiting in a line that would make a snail proud. Rumor swept through the line growing behind me that American Airlines had a flight leaving in less than an hour, direct to Chicago. Cool was my first thought, and almost my last.
The woman in front of me was also intending to get to Chicago and the agent put both of us on the transfer ticket and told us to hurry in order to catch the plane which we learned was boarding. To get from the ticket counter in Frankfurt to the gates, is quite a process filled with many obstacles. One of them was the fact that the woman on my ticket did not have the sense of urgency that I did. Second, when we rounded the corner, near security, 100 other people were in line in front us. They also did not have any sense of urgency. Did I mention that I absolutely hate to run in airports? (rhetorical)
With a few minutes to spare, I arrived at the gate which fortunately was still boarding. As the gate agent checked my boarding pass, she asked “Where is your ticket?” My response did not impress her. “Some other strange lady has it and I have no idea where she is!!”
OK, I did get on the plane and was grateful, for a few minutes. Did I mention that one of my pet peeves is sitting in a middle seat for 9 hours? (rhetorical) Augh! It’s times like these when you discover that perhaps you lack a valuable trait called patience. Severely. But I survived and arrived safely in Chicago within 20 minutes of my original flight.
Was the long week in Germany worth such an airport adventure? Absolutely!!!
I hope you have enjoyed these recent additions to The Travels of Juan Marcos!