Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

Chaosboy and Chaos Gurl are reunited after four long months, although getting here turned into far more of an adventure than it should have been.

I arrived at Sydney Airport in plenty of time for my flight thanks to a lift from my parents and strolled right up to the Business Class counters, past the snaking queues of Economy Class... (am I sounding like a snob? Perhaps, but I certainly do enjoy all the perks of the higher classes of air travel!) However, the first words of the United staff member weren't encouraging, "Oh, haven't you heard about the San Francisco flight?"

She then went on to tell me that the Sydney - San Fran flight had been cancelled for the day. For five seconds, panic rose in my throat and I was wondering how to tell Christine that I would be coming another day later. Fortunately, all passengers were being transferred onto the Sydney to Los Angeles flight and she was able to book me onto a LA to Portland flight as well. Disaster averted! The LA flight was leaving much earlier than the SF one, so I had to bid a hurried (and slightly teary) farewell to my parents to get through security in time to catch it. I also was able to send a quick email to Christine to let her know the change of plans.

Thirteen hours of Business Class comfort later (I was actually able to sleep!), we landed in LA, which, by the way, is possibly the ugliest airport I have ever been in. Even Heathrow looks neat and tidy compared to this awkward, clumsy hodge-podge of an airport terminal. Immigration and Customs were cleared with the utmost of ease, with no hard questions or interrogation at all. However, as I exited the secure area of the terminal, I was greeted by a United baggage handler who asked me if I was continuing on to another destination and if he could help me recheck my bags. When I told him I was going to Portland, he informed me that that flight had also been cancelled and I'd have to go upstairs to the ticket office to find a new flight.

Wearily, I lugged by bags upstairs and asked to book a new flight to Portland. At first, the assistant told me that the next flight from LA to Portland was leaving LA at 5:39pm and wouldn't arrive there until after 8:00pm. It was only 10:30 in the morning at this point, and the idea of hanging around in crappy old LAX for 7 hours really didn't appeal, so I asked her for another option. She eventually hooked me up with a flight from LA to San Fran, connecting with another flight to Portland. This would get me in to Portland at around 6:00pm. I accepted these flights as the best of a bad lot and set off to the gate.

The flight was scheduled to leave at 1:00pm, but this blew out to 1:45 and then 2:00! This day was definitely not a good advertisement for United's reliability! By the time I eventually got to San Fran, I had to sprint from Gate 76 where we pulled in around to Gate 90 to make my connection! I made t with a few minutes to spare and was cheerfully informed that "if you made it here, your baggage will as well".

I finally arrived in Portland at 6:03pm, meaning I had been on planes or waiting around at airports for a full 24 hours or so - far more than I really wanted to. But it was all worthwhile when I saw Christine holding up an awesome hand-painted welcome sign with a huge smile on her face. Reunited at last... let the adventures begin!

Posted in: chaosboy, chaoslove, immigration, portland, united states on May 16, 2007 at at 7:38:00 PM