Los Angeles, California
Monday, August 11, 2008
Ok, so I was up late last night watching Heroes on my laptop thus waking up late this morning. We grabbed all my bags and dashed off down the tiny, endless stairwell and put into the noisy construction ladden street in search of the car. Once loaded, my three bags barely leaving room for the three passengers, we were off in a flury of dust and paper scraps, headed for the airport. Once at the airport, my sister helped me haul my luggage in from the area they call the kiss and go so she could help me find the ticket counter and such since it can be really confusing as you may remember from an earlier post. There was no line so I was checked in, said my tearful goodbyes and through security within 20 minutes! One of my bags was overweight by 3 kilos. There was no way I was going to find room for 6+ pounds of clothing in another bag so I pulled out my wallet, prepared to pay the $50 overweight fee. Somehow, the ticket agent forgot to charge me, even after he pointed out the amount I was over and asked if there was any way I could transfer stuff into my other bag so as to avoid the fee. Sweet, so smooth! I grabbed some gifts and a croissant then proceeded to the gate. All the seats were full so I found a nice comfortable spot on the carpet to settle in for the 20 minute wait before boarding. "Ding Dong, due to the airport baggage handlers strike, flight operations may be delayed." What? While waiting for my flight, they decided to strike? There were no announcements until I had been sitting there for a half an hour so apparently, they just went on strike right before my flight departed... Thankfully, we weren't already on board cramped in our tiny seats without any air movement waiting for the bags to be loaded... After two hours of no action outside on the tarmac, it was a funny sight to look out the terminal window and see several people wearing suit and tie pushing and pulling levers, trying to figure out how to use the loading equipement ss well as hauling bags back and forth. Finally, we were off and only 2 1/2 hours late. The flight was ok, just make sure when you are picking out your seats online to never intentionally choose seats right in front of a bulkhead, even if its in the middle of the plane and an international flight. They don't recline! An 8 hour flight without a reclining seat, what a way to learn that lesson! My arrival into Chicago was fine but, of course, I missed my connection so had to wait in line, only to be placed on standby for the next 3 flights to LAX. My luck was holding out, I made the first one and actually arrived about the same time as I was originally scheduled to since my original itinerary had an additional plane change in St. Louis.
Ahh, I am finally home after two months on the road! Hmm, I'm already thinking about where I am going next...
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Comments
check your seats
Next time, visit seatguru.com
And regarding your next visit ... I wanna go I wanna go!
Or
You could come to Italy with me next month :)