How to loose your bags and be delayed - the full whinge version
I have been sitting here staring at this computer screen for the last 1/2 hour, and I still can't think of a way to begin this blog entry.
(Well there I go being all melodramatic again - actually I'm watching re-runs of old
American sitcoms and occasionally trying to write - but the truth is so terribly boring)
Cam went to London this morning for a bunch of interviews with every finance
recruitment agency in the UK, meanwhile I decided to stay here since it's a $40Aud
train fare and I still don't have a way of making money appear in my bank account.
On the upside, we now have our luggage back (no - not my stolen bag) but everything
else that I was carrying with me, that Air Iberia managed to loose for 3 days somewhere between Athens, Barcelona and either Gatwick, London or Heathrow London.
And whats more - Cameron even scored a free sleeping bag that some other poor
backpacker lost to the black hole that is the Barcelona airport lost luggage storage area - it somehow ended up tied (with 8 knots) to his backpack.
So as you can tell, we have been having fun! Our month in the mediteranean nearly
almost went off without another hitch - untill of course we had to fly via Spain on our way home. (We really should have listened to our travel agent when she tried to discourage us from stopping in Spain).
You see, the fantastic Spanish airline Air Iberia couldn't work out how to make our
Athens to Barcelona flight run on time - and didn't explain why we were departing an
hour late untill we were already in the air. Then the 3 indifferent air stewards that I asked to help us be first off the plane in order that we might run for our connecting flight all gave me their own version of "not my problem - work it out yourself"
Long story short we touched down in Barcelona at the exact minute that our connecting
flight was meant to depart - hoping that we may still make it we ran from one end of the airport to the other (which was no easy task after we'd spent the last 7 days on a cruise eating 3 course meals 3 times a day) - and arrived at the gate just as the plane was climbing into the air. Awesome.
"No worries" I thought - I've seen how they do this in the movies - you go to the transfer desk - the friendly airline person finds you another flight and/or puts you up in a hotel for the night with all the trimmings.
Problem #1. We walk around for 15 minutes following badly designed airport signage
only to finally arrive at "transfers" to find - there is No-one at Air Iberia transfer desk
Fine - so we walk through immigration - customs - past baggage claim and back out to
check-in.
Then a super-helpful arrogant airport employee refuses to tell me where I can find an Air Iberia desk and points me towards information.
So - over to information - where we recieve directions to the Air Iberia ticket booth.
By this point we've been running and walking circles through the airport for almost 40 minutes and we're not in the best of moods - so when the Air Iberia ticket clerk asks for our original tickets - which I explain through gritted teeth that we don'thave because some gypo from her country stole my bag - and then asks me why we missed our connecting flight - because her useless airline can't work out how to make a flight run on time - I was just about ready to kill the next person I saw wearing an Air Iberia jacket.
She explained she could either put us on a flight to Gatwick (when we were supposed to fly to Heathrow some 2 hours earlier - or we had to see the PR department)
Perfect - direct me to the PR department - at least they should know the definition of customer service. Apparently not.
We arrived to yet another office - to find two very helpful looking Air Iberia dudes cough cough
I had barely even said the words
"Hi, can you help us we've missed our connecting flight to Heathrow"
When the guy sitting down said - (without even looking up)
"No more flights to Heathrow tonight"
ok... at which point one would assume his job would involve providing us with possible alternatives. But apparently this guy had a different understanding of the term "customer service".
Being tired and naive I stood waiting for about 10 seconds - expecting him to say
something nice like "but we can put you on a flight to another airport in London - or on a flight to Heathrow tommorow"... clock ticks by and ... nothing
At which point I tottally lost it
"Excuse me - but how are we supposed to get to London?"
still typing away and /or answering the phone "You can go to Gatwick"
"That puts us in the complete wrong part of London to get home - an inconvenience we
don't deserve since this isn't our fault - is Air Iberia willing to pay for a taxi from gatwick airport since we have now missed all trains to Southend?"
"We don't do taxis"
...
"What do you do then?"
"You can wait untill we can get you on another flight to Heathrow - you will have to stay in Barcelona for two nights before we have seats available"
"So you can pay for two nights of hotel accomodation but not a taxi?"
"yes. If you don't like it - here is the contact details for the complaints department" - and with that line he finally looked at me - which made me all the more mad
And then I completely lost it
I slammed my hand down on the desk - leaned towards him and said through my teeth
"NO. I am not staying in this city another 2 nights - I had my bag stolen here and I hate it - we are going to London tonight"
At that moment he looked just a little scared - who was this manic girl screaming in his face on a Satrday night?- and then he was saved by the phone - answered of course without saying "excuse me I need to take this"
Cam and I sat down on their little couch - this could take a while - when suddenly Mr
helpful hangs up the phone looks at me and says "so what do you want to do?"
which was a funny thing to ask because it implied that he had given us a choice - when really he hadn't ... I just looked at him - fuming when Cam stood up - obviously he'd had enough too.
"Fine we'll go to Gatwick - I do not want to stay here."
So 25 minutes later, after running through the airport yet again we found ourselves
sitting in the business class section of a plane flying back to London.
But apparently they didn't treat our luggage like it belonged in business class because when we arrived at Midnight, tired and dirty, and watched the luggage carousel do a full circut 200 times we discovered that our bags were missing. Awesome. Just perfect.
Reporting the missing luggage was however one of the most positive experiences of the
whole day - the British Airways dude was so friendly, helpful and compassionate - I
almost couldn't believe it.
Once that was done we suddenly realised the horrible reality of our situation, we were in Gatwick - a good 3 hour trip on Public transport from Southend - the trains wouldn't be running again untill 5am, and a taxi would cost a small fortune. Awesome, what a fantastic day.
"Thats ok" we thought "We're backpackers we can handle anything - let's sleep here in
the airport untill the trains start"
But there were no dark quiet corners to be found. Eventually we curled up in a cold
draughty brightly lit seating area where the PA announced "do not leave your baggage
unattended" in 5 languages every 10 minutes. I lasted 15 minutes.
I'm sorry but I just wasn't cut out for things like this. I'm too much of a princess. So I woke up Cam, who had already fallen asleep thanks to his eye mask, ear plugs and day pack full of handy things such as travel pillows.
We walked to the airport hotel and paid whatever ridiculous amount of money it was and crashed in the most comfortable beds in the history of sleep.
Next morning we awake - put the same clothes as yesterday on, and spend 3.5 hours
getting the tube, overland rail and then a replacement bus service for half the trip since that day - of all days they decided to do rail work on our line!
Awesome - thankyou Air Iberia.
(Well there I go being all melodramatic again - actually I'm watching re-runs of old
American sitcoms and occasionally trying to write - but the truth is so terribly boring)
Cam went to London this morning for a bunch of interviews with every finance
recruitment agency in the UK, meanwhile I decided to stay here since it's a $40Aud
train fare and I still don't have a way of making money appear in my bank account.
On the upside, we now have our luggage back (no - not my stolen bag) but everything
else that I was carrying with me, that Air Iberia managed to loose for 3 days somewhere between Athens, Barcelona and either Gatwick, London or Heathrow London.
And whats more - Cameron even scored a free sleeping bag that some other poor
backpacker lost to the black hole that is the Barcelona airport lost luggage storage area - it somehow ended up tied (with 8 knots) to his backpack.
So as you can tell, we have been having fun! Our month in the mediteranean nearly
almost went off without another hitch - untill of course we had to fly via Spain on our way home. (We really should have listened to our travel agent when she tried to discourage us from stopping in Spain).
You see, the fantastic Spanish airline Air Iberia couldn't work out how to make our
Athens to Barcelona flight run on time - and didn't explain why we were departing an
hour late untill we were already in the air. Then the 3 indifferent air stewards that I asked to help us be first off the plane in order that we might run for our connecting flight all gave me their own version of "not my problem - work it out yourself"
Long story short we touched down in Barcelona at the exact minute that our connecting
flight was meant to depart - hoping that we may still make it we ran from one end of the airport to the other (which was no easy task after we'd spent the last 7 days on a cruise eating 3 course meals 3 times a day) - and arrived at the gate just as the plane was climbing into the air. Awesome.
"No worries" I thought - I've seen how they do this in the movies - you go to the transfer desk - the friendly airline person finds you another flight and/or puts you up in a hotel for the night with all the trimmings.
Problem #1. We walk around for 15 minutes following badly designed airport signage
only to finally arrive at "transfers" to find - there is No-one at Air Iberia transfer desk
Fine - so we walk through immigration - customs - past baggage claim and back out to
check-in.
Then a super-helpful arrogant airport employee refuses to tell me where I can find an Air Iberia desk and points me towards information.
So - over to information - where we recieve directions to the Air Iberia ticket booth.
By this point we've been running and walking circles through the airport for almost 40 minutes and we're not in the best of moods - so when the Air Iberia ticket clerk asks for our original tickets - which I explain through gritted teeth that we don'thave because some gypo from her country stole my bag - and then asks me why we missed our connecting flight - because her useless airline can't work out how to make a flight run on time - I was just about ready to kill the next person I saw wearing an Air Iberia jacket.
She explained she could either put us on a flight to Gatwick (when we were supposed to fly to Heathrow some 2 hours earlier - or we had to see the PR department)
Perfect - direct me to the PR department - at least they should know the definition of customer service. Apparently not.
We arrived to yet another office - to find two very helpful looking Air Iberia dudes cough cough
I had barely even said the words
"Hi, can you help us we've missed our connecting flight to Heathrow"
When the guy sitting down said - (without even looking up)
"No more flights to Heathrow tonight"
ok... at which point one would assume his job would involve providing us with possible alternatives. But apparently this guy had a different understanding of the term "customer service".
Being tired and naive I stood waiting for about 10 seconds - expecting him to say
something nice like "but we can put you on a flight to another airport in London - or on a flight to Heathrow tommorow"... clock ticks by and ... nothing
At which point I tottally lost it
"Excuse me - but how are we supposed to get to London?"
still typing away and /or answering the phone "You can go to Gatwick"
"That puts us in the complete wrong part of London to get home - an inconvenience we
don't deserve since this isn't our fault - is Air Iberia willing to pay for a taxi from gatwick airport since we have now missed all trains to Southend?"
"We don't do taxis"
...
"What do you do then?"
"You can wait untill we can get you on another flight to Heathrow - you will have to stay in Barcelona for two nights before we have seats available"
"So you can pay for two nights of hotel accomodation but not a taxi?"
"yes. If you don't like it - here is the contact details for the complaints department" - and with that line he finally looked at me - which made me all the more mad
And then I completely lost it
I slammed my hand down on the desk - leaned towards him and said through my teeth
"NO. I am not staying in this city another 2 nights - I had my bag stolen here and I hate it - we are going to London tonight"
At that moment he looked just a little scared - who was this manic girl screaming in his face on a Satrday night?- and then he was saved by the phone - answered of course without saying "excuse me I need to take this"
Cam and I sat down on their little couch - this could take a while - when suddenly Mr
helpful hangs up the phone looks at me and says "so what do you want to do?"
which was a funny thing to ask because it implied that he had given us a choice - when really he hadn't ... I just looked at him - fuming when Cam stood up - obviously he'd had enough too.
"Fine we'll go to Gatwick - I do not want to stay here."
So 25 minutes later, after running through the airport yet again we found ourselves
sitting in the business class section of a plane flying back to London.
But apparently they didn't treat our luggage like it belonged in business class because when we arrived at Midnight, tired and dirty, and watched the luggage carousel do a full circut 200 times we discovered that our bags were missing. Awesome. Just perfect.
Reporting the missing luggage was however one of the most positive experiences of the
whole day - the British Airways dude was so friendly, helpful and compassionate - I
almost couldn't believe it.
Once that was done we suddenly realised the horrible reality of our situation, we were in Gatwick - a good 3 hour trip on Public transport from Southend - the trains wouldn't be running again untill 5am, and a taxi would cost a small fortune. Awesome, what a fantastic day.
"Thats ok" we thought "We're backpackers we can handle anything - let's sleep here in
the airport untill the trains start"
But there were no dark quiet corners to be found. Eventually we curled up in a cold
draughty brightly lit seating area where the PA announced "do not leave your baggage
unattended" in 5 languages every 10 minutes. I lasted 15 minutes.
I'm sorry but I just wasn't cut out for things like this. I'm too much of a princess. So I woke up Cam, who had already fallen asleep thanks to his eye mask, ear plugs and day pack full of handy things such as travel pillows.
We walked to the airport hotel and paid whatever ridiculous amount of money it was and crashed in the most comfortable beds in the history of sleep.
Next morning we awake - put the same clothes as yesterday on, and spend 3.5 hours
getting the tube, overland rail and then a replacement bus service for half the trip since that day - of all days they decided to do rail work on our line!
Awesome - thankyou Air Iberia.
posted by lauren at 6:43 pm
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