I arrived yesterday, a bit delayed (but still alive) and minus 50 pounds of baggage. It's a funny story:
Once upon a time, a girl named Emily Rose decided she wanted to go to New Zealand to visit her boyfriend before she made her way over to Prague to study art history. On the day of her flight to New Zealand, she was a bit nervous about her first solo trans-Pacific flight, but knew that, somehow, everything would turn out fine. Earlier in the day, she had had lunch with her friend Hannah and Hannah had warned her that things wouldn't go the way they were supposed to. When Emily Rose was in the car, her grandmother called and told her that nothing would go according to plan. Emily Rose accepted both of these statements, even though she didn't like them.
Her flight was supposed to take off at 5 and load at 430, so Emily Rose left her parents and sister (who had come to see her off and give her tasty treats for the flight[s]) behind at 330 as she went through security. Security was about the only thing to go right for the next 20 hours.
Emily Rose loaded the plane just fine and everything seemed to be going well. She had the window seat for the flight to Los Angeles and she was looking forward to catching up on some sleep, or reading some of her magazines, or doing some serious soul-searching and determine the meaning of life. Unfortunately, ten minutes before the flight was supposed to leave, the pilot came on over the PA and announced that every had to get off the plane--they had found a leak they originally thought to be small but it turns out it was a big leak. Everyone would be updated on the status of the flight in about an hour.
Forty-five minutes later, an announcement came on at gate G14. They were still working on the flight, and would be updated in about another half an hour. After that half an hour went by, they announced they were still working and that the next update would be in an hour.
Emily Rose didn't know what to do. This was a very difficult position for her. She knew that she was going to miss her flight if they didn't take off within the next hour or hour and a half, and from what she'd heard, this didn't seem to likely. Luckily, her spirits were lifted when just a few minutes after that last update, they announced that a new flight and a new gate were in order. So everyone packed up and moved over.
Emily Rose was hopeful. She should not have been.
The plane began boarding at 640. The plane left at 8. The only fortunate thing about the plane ride was that there were others on the plane in a similar position. The other two people in her row were going to Australia, via Qantas (to Sydney) and Virgin Australia (to Brisbane). Their flights left an hour after hers, but she still knew that following them would only be a help to her. Sydney and Brisbane did some general bashing of Delta, which Emily Rose would have been more than happy to join in with if she had had anything to add, other than the present situation. They were disgusted with the way the approached the situation with the original plane, the politeness (yet general worthlessness) of the flight attendants, and were generally very angry people.
This did not help Emily Rose's state of mind. She was very happy when the conversation drifted into the personal lives of Sydney and Brisbane. Brisbane was headed to Brisbane because his daughter was studying in Queensland--apparently just a short drive from Brisbane. He was going on a short trip, only four days, because his daughter was "having problems," which Emily Rose took to mean, from the way he was talking and said it, that she was a bit distracted from her schoolwork with all the pleasures that Queensland can afford to teenagers. Sydney's story was much less interesting, and Emily Rose tried to tune her out.
As the flight went on, Sydney and Brisbane assaulted one of the flight attendants, telling her that they needed to get off the plane first because they had some very close connections to make. "All I can do," she said, "is make an announcement. I can't guarantee that the people will listen." After this exchange, a woman name Julie, also going to Auckland on Emily Rose's flight, stood up and began plotting a plan of action with Sydney, Brisbane, and Emily Rose.
"We just need to get our bags and
run," she said. She had to sprint even more than Sydney, Brisbane, and Emily Rose combined--she had to go get her bags from the baggage claim and then go re-check them because she had been unable to check them through.
By the time the airplane had landed, it was too late for Emily Rose to get a spot on her original flight--it was 915 pm in LA and there was no chance she could make her 930 flight. But the 1030 flight was the one thing that kept her going. She knew she could make it with some perseverance and some sprinting, and some ignoring of the fact that her carry-ons, together, weighed about 50 pounds, or so it seemed.
Eventually they got off the plane--by the time ER, S, and B tried to make a run for it, Julie had already disappeared into the crowd, and ER, S, and B were left behind 35 rows of people slowly filing out of the airplane.
And so the run began.
It was nearly impossible for Emily Rose to run--her bags were much too heavy--but she was able to keep up with Brisbane (Sydney had already run ahead, much like an antelope) and Auckland, another man who was headed to Auckland, though with a different carrier from Emily Rose.
When they began getting to the international terminals, Brisbane slowed and asked a man where Virgin Australia check-in was. He was told to go down a couple more numbers. B then asked where Qantas was for Emily Rose. The informant told Emily Rose she had passed where she needed to be and sent her back.
Emily Rose was on her own.
She quickly walked back to the Qantas check-in, and when it was her turn, she went up to the counter and told the woman her predicament. "Hi. I was supposed to be on the 930 flight to Auckland but my first flight was delayed." The woman looked at her questioningly. "930? We don't have a 930 flight to Auckland." "Are you sure?" Emily Rose asked, wondering if she had been booked on a flight to anywhere. "I'm sure...you must be Air New Zealand. Let me check...yes, they had a 930 flight and they have another at 1030. You'll have to be fast. Just follow this around and keep walking. It's in terminal 2 at the very end." "Thank you so much." "Good luck," the woman called after Emily Rose as she half-sprinted half-shuffled to the door and entered the LA summer heat.
When Emily Rose finally arrived at Air New Zealand, Auckland was there, waiting for the person who was helping him return. They smiled at each other and he pointed her over to the Premium desk just so that she'd get faster service. It was there that the transactions were made and Emily Rose got two new tickets, though she also learned that her luggage would not be arriving with her.
Just as she was finishing up with the person helping her with her tickets, Julie came running up, her bag on a trolley, and completely out of breath. "I made it!" she said. "Mine was the third bag off the plane!"
And so the two went through security together and walked up to the plane together, chatting, and Emily Rose borrowing her cell phone to call her parents to tell them to tell her boyfriend she was going to be late.
Once in Auckland, Emily Rose had more time than expected to go through customs and get to her gate. She was feeling very happy about this until she had to file a claim with baggage services about her suitcase. The people were kind and helpful, and incredibly slow, and by the time Emily Rose made it out of customs, she only had half an hour to find her gate and board. It seems easy enough, but this would prove to be no easy task.
ER followed the signs to the domestic check-in, however, this was not what she needed. She had no bags that she needed to re-check and she already had her boarding pass. All she needed was a gate to go to, and a way to get there. At domestic check-in, she walked one way, then turned around and went the other, then turned and went a completely opposite way. There was a guy in the line looking at her funny, and ER told herself, "Don't look like a tourist." She then spotted a departures board on the wall, walked over, and found that she needed to be at Gate 33. "Awesome," she said to herself. "Gate 33. Now how do I get there?" She looked around.
The guy in line caught her eye as she walked past the black line dividers. "Do you need some help?" he asked. "Yeah. I'm on a domestic flight next," she said. "And is this your checked bag?" he asked, indicating her duffel bag. "No. This is my carry on," she replied. "Then where is your checked bag?" "Lost." "And you have your boarding pass?" "Yes. I just need to find gate 33."
He pointed in some direction behind her. "Just follow the blue line. It will take you to the bus to the domestic terminal." "Great, thanks," Emily Rose said, as she turned and went in a direction where there was blue on the floor, but no blue line. As she passed an information desk, Emily Rose was still lost, and asked the old, wrinkly woman behind it how to get to gate 33. "Go out the next door, cross the street, and take a right."
ER went out the door, crossed the street, and found a group of people sitting on benches. This must be the bus stop, she thought to herself. But after a few minutes with no action, she turned to the people sitting next to her on the bench and asked if this was the stop for the domestic bus. The two shook their heads and gestured towards the left, saying it was on the other side of....something.
Completely confused, Emily Rose began walking to the left, and found a man crossing the street. She asked him, too, where the bus was, and he, too, directed her to the left. She crossed the street, found a man in a jacket that said AUCKLAND AIRPORT and asked him for direction to the bus. He directed her to her right, the same way the man in line (Nelson) and the woman at the Info desk had told her. And as she turned around to follow his directions, she found Nelson, standing at the street corner, heading the same way she was. "I'm still lost!" she told him. And they walked to the bus together.
And Emily Rose caught her flight just in time, and Trevor picked her up (a bit late) but they found each other at the change machine in Christchurch.
The end.
It's a funny story.
