It all started with a co-worker asking if she could borrow a suitcase.
Two days later, both my brother and I had plane tickets and time off of work for a five-day trip to Colombia, South America. I couldn't believe my brother had volunteered to go with me and actually seemed excited, since I had been trying to get him out of the country for the past five years to no avail. It also felt strange to be going on a trip that wasn't a missions trip. We would be visiting with our coworker while she visited family members in Colombia before bringing her mother back to the US for a month. It had been five years since she had seen her.
Less than a month after purchasing the tickets, we made our way to the Philadelphia airport for our American Airlines flight to Cali, Colombia. I wore my usual ensemble for air travel; my brother wore the shirt I had brought him from Thailand and had never worn before.
It had been years since I flew American Airlines; usually I flew United if going to similarly-distanced destinations. While I enjoyed the surprising small meal we got on the second half of the flight, I was not happy to see my checked bag (in which we were bringing some items that our coworker had packed in it) returned to me with the front pocket ripped halfway off the bag. It was only a couple of years old. Along with other issues on the return flight, I decided I was not impressed with American Airlines and I would stick with United.
Thankfully, besides the ripped luggage, the trip to Colombia went well and was fairly uneventful.
Arriving in Cali at night
The return trip, however, was anything but.
It started off as soon as we went to check in at the Cali airport (which is the smallest and emptiest international airport I have ever seen, with literally no line to get through security and a barely-mentionable terminal). We were told that our flight was already delayed about 2 hours because of bad weather and there was no way we could make our connecting flight; however, after trying for quite a while to find us seats on a later flight, the man told us we would just have to try out best to make our connecting flight.
Fantastic.
Our layover airport was Miami, and, having had bad connecting flight experiences there before, I was sure we were doomed. But what can you do?
A cultural statue outside one of the three small airport gift shops
As we were trying to board the plane, for some reason the people (the same ones who also checked us in, by the way) kept asking my brother for his Colombian passport, so that was a whole lengthy process of its own...and I then had to get some little man out of our seats because he was just sitting in them and hadn't even looked at his boarding pass to see that he was a whole five rows back farther. But finally we were sitting in our seats.
At least there were some beautiful views from the plane!
From the moment we arrived at Miami, I had told myself multiple times that I would never, ever, ever boo a flight through Miami airport again. I have never had a good experience in the Miami airport, and this time was no exception. The baggage was late (like really late) getting in to the baggage claim; the person at the help desk was not helpful at all and simply confused us and others; customs lines were long as usual; when we were almost at security, a long line of us were told to go in a different direction and everyone was confused - the lack of direction was ridiculous and the person giving directions acted like we were stupid when she was too dumb to give decent directions; the security line we were directed into looked longer than the one we were directed out of.
My brother told me, "So that's why they have so much security standing around all over the place - because they make everyone so angry!"
The only bright spot in Miami was the fact that our connecting flight was also delayed because of bad weather so we made it onto the plane just fine - well, fine except for the fact that there was nowhere for several passengers' carry-on suitcases because too many other non-smart passengers had put their personal items in the overhead bins. (Side note to American Airlines - shouldn't flight attendants pay attention and fix those kinds of problems before they become problems?) The whiny woman who was definitely from Philly and making very stupid, pointless comments did not help the situation at all.
When we arrived in Philly, we couldn't get to the gate because the plane that was there couldn't leave yet because an animal had gotten loose. What next?!
At long last, we stood to exit the plane. The friendly couple behind me, who had talked to my brother and I earlier before we loaded the plane and knew where we were from, told me to have fun in__. I thanked the man and then he asked, "So, do you ever get to__", naming the place that I worked! Laughing a little bit, I replied that "Actually, I work there...my brother and I both do!" He was certainly surprised!
But that was just the travels to and from Colombia...next post will begin the stories of our Colombia adventure!
Comments
Post a Comment