Thursday, March 29, 2012

Airborne (A blog about time, and eventually a rant about airline customer service…)

The alarm went off at 4:30 bloody a.m. ... Too damn early.. A quick shower, followed by stuffing the last few item in the suit cases...checking the weight again... One last shuffle to make sure the checked bags are not over weight... Then downstairs, check out, and walk across the street, into the terminal, to check in, check bags, clear immigration, security, then the hike to the gate... They had warned us when checking in, that the walk to the gate took 40 minutes... They were not kidding, gates 15 & 16, used by Virgin Australia, at Auckland International airport are located at some distance from the main terminal... General Sherman covered less ground on his March to the Sea... I believe we may have walked half way to Australia... at one point they sent out a golf cart to search for passengers for Melbourne stranded, lost, between the main terminal and gates 15 & 16...

Now seated aboard flight DJ 187, for Brisbane, Australia... Bound for California... For Home... the IPad is on, music on, blogging again. the 10 rows ahead of us are filled with a Chinese tour group... The flight attendants are having a hard time getting them to stow luggage under their seats, buckle seat belts, and raise seat to their full upright and locked position... They are resisting taking to their seats... It appears that there are both language and cultural misunderstandings... Finally, everyone is seated and buckled and they are closing the cabin door... IPad off for now... I have a book for situations like this...

I turn the IPad back on once we reach 10,000'... music on... still reading... blogging occasionally... sitting... Tina and Karin are napping... The cabin attendants are working their way down the aisle with the beverage cart. An airplane trip, particularly a long flight is a unique experience (beyond the curiosity that comes from being strapped in an aluminum can which is hurtling across the sky at 35,000' above earth at 600 miles per hour...) You are voluntarily trapped, mostly sitting for an extended period of time... There are diversions available, particularly on very long flights, but for most of us this is the longest time that will find us sitting... In one place without responsibilities. It's not like anyone is going to complain we are being lazy, and suggest we really should consider taking the trash out, or maybe mow the lawn...

Your options are the on board entertainment system if offered (it was on the SFO to LAX and LAX - Sydney flights, but not on Sydney - Uluru and return, or on this Auckland to Brisbane Flight, but will be on the Brisbane – LAX (at least I hope)) Alternately you can nap, read, or listen to music.. I also write, mostly this blog, but I have been working on a couple of history pieces one on a Hawaiian railroad car, the other a technical piece on how 19th century wooden railroad cars work. It is a wonderful time to listen to music... I loaded the IPad before leaving with a number of albums many recently acquired, and it is a chance to listen to them straight through without interruptions. I find I keep going back to John Hiatt, including his new album "Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hyhms" and "Ghost of Good Manners" by the Good Time Thrift Store Outfit... The Waifs, Simon & Garfinkel, Mark Knophler, and Towns Van Zandt all seem to be getting a bit of air time as well...

Now near 10:00 NZ, 7:00 Australian, still over the Tamzin Sea... blue water, broken clouds... We are turning, seemingly in circles... first left, then right... land in 25 minutes or so... They are asking us to turn off electronic devices... I will have to make do with a book…

On the ground, through immigration… We have checked in and have boarding passes through to SF…I had a chance to check email and blog in Brisbane...

Now 10:30 Australian... Who knows what NZ or Pacific Daylight time... Time is beginning to be a flexable concept which I chase but never catch… Onboard Virgin Australia Flight 7, headed for LA, but for the time being sitting at gate 81, at the Brisbane airport, loading... This Boeing 777 has 52 rows (we are in row 51) up to 9 seats across with 2 aisles... (fewer if not seated in the back, in steerage). It is close to full... Time to power things down...

I have a window seat..this is important... I like to see out... Of course crossing the Pacific, the view is limited... Dark blue above, lighter below... Clouds, mostly white, but occasionally grey.... of course, for half the flight it will be dark, mostly black with occasional stars... followed by blue and white… Now, 30 minutes out, it is mostly cloudy

A bit later... 6:25 pm NZ... 3:25 pm Australian... 9:25? am in California. If so, it is roughly 9 hours to LA... Outside, we have just climbed out of a heavy cloud layer... With another layer above us... Finally in clear air for the first time in an hour. It has been a rough flight... Not scary rough, just constantly rough... tea splashing out of the cup rough… we need more napkins… there is spilled tea.

We are racing towards sunset... It is bright outside... But sunset will come somewhere west of Hawaii... My strategy is to stay awake until about then, then try to sleep until we approach LA... If my plan works, my internal clock won't be too out of whack... Just moderately out of whack…

I managed about 5 hours of sleep, in 1 and 2 hour blocks... Finally waking, walking around, eating at about 4:30 am PST.... The sky brightened... Below, I can see one of the channel islands... (its not blue or white… it is different… ) The seatbelt light came on, seat backs locked and in their full up right position, tray tables up, carry on luggage stowed... We come in, San Pedro off to the north, cross the coast at Seal Beach, then line up and land at LAX, wheels down at 7:10...

After that everything went to hell... (and the blog reverts to a rant about airline customer service… we have been here before… it is low lying fruit… but, this is where we are…)

We taxied... Past the Delta terminal we expected to arrive at... (LAX has 9 terminals, plus a couple of weird remote terminals... A previous trip to Peru took us to one... Apparently, eventually, today we may see the second, but I digress)... Back to our plane... We continue to taxi, then turn, and taxi back to the expected Delta terminal... (Virgin Australia has partnered with Delta for LAX operations, including baggage and customs clearance, our Virgin Australia flight also carried a Delta flight number, and some on board were ticketed as Delta passengers)... We park, or at least stop on the tarmac, just past the expected Delta terminal (on the taxi way) .We si ...(again) for a few minutes (5, maybe 10)... They attach a tugger, and push us backward, then pull us to the gate we passed some time ago... At the Delta terminal… Finally, we begin to disembark... But this is a big airplane... And we were in the back... Aisle 51 of 52, so we wait...

Now moving, now off the airplane… We have to clear immigration, so we pass through a maze of hallways, some glass walled, alongside the terminal, others internal, with stairways and doors... we may be in the basement… Eventually, we find US immigration… We, holding US passports are in a different, much faster line than those who don't, and most of our fellow passengers don 't hold US passports... Aren’t we special…

We beat most to the luggage carrousel... They are using two carrousels today, one for first and business class (and crew), the second for steerage, or “economy” as they chose to call it on airlines... (I note that most of the steerage passengers on Titanic sank with the ship… most survivors were from the first class area… )

Now, time slows down... (and the blog enters too familiar, airlines don’t do a good job rant) We arrived at the carrousel at 7:50. The 1st bag (1 bag, only one bag...) appeared at 8:05. About 8:15 three more appeared...At 8:20 a cart load arrived. The bag started arriving for real at 8:30, about 8:40 Karin got her last bag... (This is not normal… baggage handlers tell us… the Virgin Australian air employee in the room is on the radio… he is ranting… he is not making progress, but is trying… something is up… maybe a labor action, maybe the weather delays are affecting staffing… who knows… no one is talking…) Then, with bags (finally) we pass through customs with a couple of questions and a wave, and we went in search of the transfer desk to check our bags through to SFO... We were there by 8:43... There was a line... Said line was not moving... There were several Virgin Australia staff present... I spoke to one who told me she hadn’t heard of any issues… then a second, asking for help… she said it was Delta's problem, take it up with Delta... I said I was traveling on a Virgin ticket... She said I had to deal with Delta and walked away... (this more than any part of the process pissed me off… it is probably letter to Branson time… I have always liked the Virgin Brand and this woman is trying to change my mind… ) At 9:00, Raymond, a Delta employee saw what was happening, and walked us (and another couple) upstairs and checked our bags through for SFO... Thank You Raymond. (a note to Delta is in order… If we note and complain about the bad, we assume the responsibility of praising the good… and Raymond represents the good)

There is a lesson here... Our Virgin Australia flights were great... Until LA... When they let someone else take over... And with VA employees present, that other organization blew it... And the VA employees did not assist, and worse, defaulted to "It is someone else's problem"

Then we had to clear security... The TSA was not playing their best game... Lines were long and confused... People were getting frustrated... We cannot blame the airlines, but can blame the process… Once through security, we found our gate, then retreated to a bar for a beer and a glass of wine...

Beer and wine consumed, we go back to the gate, where they were boarding a flight… a flight to Orlando?... Our gate had been changed... To a bus, or at least a gate where you board a bus to a remote terminal. At the new gate, the agent knows the flight has been transferred to her, but doesn't have any other information... Staff is getting flustered (but not rude) We find seats, and wait... They have announced our flight is now delayed... Due to weather...

Finally, a little before 11:00 we board our bus (the second of 2 or 3, who knows.... once aboard, the pilot announces "It is a fluid situation..."). Our plane is parked in a hanger area, away from the passenger terminals... We walk up the stairs and into our plane... They refuel the plane… we move to a holding area… we move to another holding area… I nap, I think Tina naps (but I was napping so you shouldn’t trust my observations).

We were scheduled to leave at 10:45... But, are now on a ground hold due to weather in San Francisco... But are currently slotted to take off at 12:30... But could be moved back or forward, based on the weather outlook at SFO...

I have faith that I will get home eventually... Maybe even today.

Ultimately, the 12:30 takeoff time held... Tina and I both slept through the delay... Eventually we took off, sometime afterwards we landed… We recovered the bags… then to the street and… Home... Steph picked us up... she drove… We got home “today” The dog was excited... We love the dog.

We dumped the suit cases... I went to work... I was tired, so had the daughter to come to drive… she studied, I worked…

It was a good trip...

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