This really Happened to Me
You Could Die…Before You Get There
A travel disaster story
Departure June 4, 2022
I started the trip by getting on the wrong plane.
Garuda Airlines let me board the wrong flight to Jakarta. It was the last flight of the day. Had I missed my connection the whole trip back to Minneapolis, MN was blown.
Lucky there was a seat!
Before I could board the international leg of the journey, American Airlines (AA) said my PCR test was good. Japan Airlines (JAL) said it was “expired.”
The issue sent me running through the SOEKARNO HATTA INTERNATIONAL airport (Jakarta). It was 3:00 am. I needed a last-minute rapid antigen test.
After I arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 6, 2022, the PCR test rule to enter the United States had ended.
No PCR test meant it was nerve-wracking to be near passengers coughing, nose-blowing, and appearing to be sick.
AA dropped the mask mandate. JAL and Qatar Airlines did not.
Return June 19, 2022
AA flight #61 from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Jakarta, Indonesia left on time at noon. I had been up all night to make the 6:00 am connection from Minneapolis.
It was a full flight, cramped and uncomfortable.
I was psyched to survive the painful 12-hour non-stop to Tokyo.
What was supposed to be a 27-hour flight became the most exhausting and challenging trip I have ever undergone.
About an hour over the Pacific the captain announced the need for a doctor. He asked twice. Shortly, I noticed the plane was turning. The route map on the front seat went blank. The Captain announced he was going to land in Seattle for a medical emergency.
A flight attendant had become ill.
300 passengers awaited news of their fate.
AA flight #61 was canceled. It was 6:30 pm Pacific time.
Luckily, I had no luggage so I didn’t need to figure out where it went. Many of the other passengers for reasons unknown ran in a panic to the AA ticket counter.
It was strange to watch about 30 people do the O.J. Simpson dash.
After waiting in line at the ticket counter the only instructions received I was booked back to Dallas/Ft. Worth at 9:00 a.m. the next morning.
Any changes to the original booking would have to be done by reservations.
Do you want to spend the next 14 hours on back-breaking seats? Then Seattle Sea-Tac International airport has some suffering for you.
Want a hotel? American Airlines customer service handed out a card called “RoomStorm.com.”
RoomStorm.com was a way of helping a stranded customer? It is a discount service to a select number of participating hotels. Gone was the food and accommodation voucher.
After I checked the hotels I was shocked to see the average price was over $200 US per night.
When I checked the price with and without the QR coupon prices were the same.
Be that as it may, who knows what their short notice availability was and the taxi cost?
Bottom line I never understood how the QR code worked.
I was exhausted and not of the mind to try and sort out those details on top of trying to figure out how I was going to get home.
I saw passengers weep.
The passenger next to me was trying to visit his family in Vietnam. On hold to reservations, his call dropped. He had one choice to return to New Orleans, his origination, and start over.
If I returned to Minneapolis it would mean more hotels.
Lacking sleep for the past 24 hours, I found my way to the shuttle area and tried to find a place to stay. Somewhere to use a phone, the rest would have to wait.
Salt to the wound, bad weather around America, and 1500 other flights on Father’s Day were also canceled.
There were a lot of stranded travelers that night!
I found my way by taxi to an over-priced, $150 US per night dump called Ramada by Wyndham Sea-Tac airport north. (don’t ever stay there)
I lay on the bed with the hotel phone glued to my head. I was on hold (4 hours) to AA reservations. I had not eaten. No sleep. I fainted twice until the in queue robot voice woke me. Afraid I would lose the call I got a trash can and peed into it.
Breakfast bars kept me alive.
I got a new return booked by 5 am. I fell asleep.
June 20, 2022
The next day I realized the folly of my foggy brain and changed my return again. I would leave on June 22 which meant I was stuck in Seattle, at my expense, for the next two days!
I made a new hotel booking through Priceline for a US 50.00 per day less price.
This is a flight not a hotel disaster story so a few words on the Econo Lodge Sea-Tac North hotel.
The air-con, microwave, and TV didn’t work. The amenities published on their website were not there. The restaurant, coffee maker, and shuttle gone. Their photos are a lie.
I reported them to Priceline and with luck, a refund is in order.
Not knowing where to eat and no car left walking options only. The (3) miles from the airport’s north location was a seedy area.
Street people and other weirdos were abundant and I wouldn’t recommend walking at night.
The hotel and food bills were mounting. I was fortunate to have the money.
June 22
I called (4) Seattle taxi companies.
Only a Yellow taxi answered the phone. I made the reservation for a 2:45 am pick-up. Dispatch gave me a booking number but when I asked about a guaranteed pick up the dispatcher cut me off.
I got a receipt in my SKYPE with a track your driver link. At 2:30 am I tried the link and it didn’t work. I called Yellow again and they said no driver responded to the order? Oh yeah, they said. A ride is not guaranteed!
It seems in this post-Covid economy what is guaranteed?
At 2:45 am there is no other way to travel the 3 miles to the airport. Buses don’t run. Hotels that offer a shuttle don’t run at that hour. I didn’t have a US phone so trying to go by another service like Uber not happening.
If I had left a couple of hours earlier I could have walked the street in the dark.
As I covered my hands in despair a driver rang my SKYPE and he was OTW!
On the way to the airport, the driver told me he was the only one who worked that late around the airport area!
At this point I was really beginning to hate Seattle.
Later
5 am, the AA check-in hassled me about a not needed transit VISA through the QATAR airport. The information was on QATAR Airline’s website and government sites. For some reason, AA didn’t have the information in their system?
A serious problem considering they could have denied me boarding.
Flight #8130 Seattle/Jakarta was another no-sleep long-haul.
Surviving coach seats on long-haul flights is an achievement in Kundalini Yoga.
With luck Melatonin will work too.
I arrived in Dallas/Ft. Worth 9:30 a.m. My flight to Qatar boarded at 6 p.m.
What to do for the next 9 hours? All the rest areas were full. That left the dream seat — a cement block with arms so you can’t lie down. There was always the carpeted floor.
More tensions mounted due to the airport’s public WIFI didn’t work. To access the internet I had to park my tired butt in a restaurant.
At Qatar Airlines check-in they hassled me about downloading an Indonesian health tracking app. It wasn’t needed. How do I do that? No internet!
Qatar Airlines was able to finally assign my seats. AA fumbled with the task for two days.
15 hours later, Qatar Airlines flight #8130 arrived in DOHA late. With only a minute to spare, I did my O.J. Simpson with my heavy pack back and carry on to the gate.
How many times did I see my life flash before my eyes on this trip?
June 24
9 hours later I breathed a sigh of relief when I entered Jakarta Int’l airport.
The fun wasn’t over.
Upon reaching my destination in Surabaya, Indonesia the local airline lost my check-in carry-on bag.
As I was about to explode in anger, my bag showed up.
The trip ended after (5) days of non-stop travel, (9) boarding pass, (14) time zones, and (3) days of no sleep. I was concerned my cooked brain and broken body had a low immune system.
I was prone to whatever bugs flew around an airport and many long-haul flights.
72 hours post-arrival my body felt like a tackling dummy.
The only thing to have done was to buy travel insurance. The insurance would have covered my hotel. But, the premium was US 200.00
AA will not reimburse me. It does say in fine print on the AA website that nothing is guaranteed.
I hoped the ill flight attendant was alright. What started the Murphy’s Law travel agency was not her fault.
Up there at 36,000 feet we’re all in it together. One passenger goes down we all do.
I am an Expat in Bali. I have lived there for 10 years and these long-haul trips are something I do once a year back to the States.
I am happy to live and write about it.
