I've juz managed to get my luggage... after it had been missing for more than 24hrs (well in fact it was missing for about 14hrs). It was a little nightmare ever since i board the SQ flight bound for Los Angles (LA). It was not a good start of my conference cum leisure trip.
As you have gotten to know, I left s'pore on 30th Sept for Seattle for the conference that I'll be attending on 3rd Oct - 6th Oct (2nd Oct is registration). Once all the passengers were on board the SQ flight, the captain announced that there was some electronic technical faults with the aircraft and we gotta get off and board another aircraft. Hence we were all delayed for 3hrs! Totally horrendous.... coz there were quite a number of passengers who were rushing for our connecting flights when we touched down in LA. I was one of them. Luckily I had about 3hrs for getting onto my connecting flight on Alaskan Airlines. However, with the 3hrs delay... I was really skeptical if I'll be able to make it for the flight.
Anyway, for that 6hrs to Tokyo, there were 4 babies in our segment and 2 of them were screaming their heads off for the entire 6hrs. Could not get any peace. I don't understand why the babies parents did not try and do something to placate the babies. Or maybe they did but why did they not try other methods? It was totally horrible. Luckily, that family got off in Tokyo. Then it was another 10++ hours to LA. I managed to catch some sleep and switch my body clock to US (west coast) timing.
Finally reached LA and I had to run..... (2nd time running in the airport trying to catch the next flight) to the customs, get myself cleared, so i can pick up my baggage go through the customs and run to terminal 3 (international flights are in Terminal B) to catch my next flight to Seattle. I had practically 1.5hrs to get everything done. Its really worrying... coz I've heard of news that the US customs are really strict and they take really long to clear us. But because our flight was delayed, we had the privileged to get an orange express card. and get onto express lanes and customs etc. but..... it was quite a joke... coz the 'express lanes' was not that 'express'. Coz only 1 lane was opened - there was only custom officer. It was only much later that more lanes were opened. I happened to talk to 2 'uncles' whilst waiting for our turns.... and apparently we were all trying to meet our connecting flights... but they were in more difficulty coz 1 of them, his plane flew off whilst we were waiting whilst the other still had another 14min. and I had about 1 hr 5 min before the plane flew off. soon it was our turn.... and i cleared the customs pretty easily... the next was the custom checks of our baggage. Luckily... i had nothing to declare... so i went through the customs very easily.... and entered another hall where those pple who were trying to catch the connecting flights had to head to. One of the airport staff called me over and asked me for my flight and gave me the directions and instructions to run to the terminal to get my boarding pass whilst she helped me to bring my baggage to the airlines and put it up the plane.
Managed to find my way to terminal 3 (luckily it was pretty nearby) and waited for the plane. soon i was in the air (on board alaskan airlines - it was pretty much the same as the usual budget airlines. But it was my 1st time on this particular airlines) and reach Seattle Tacoma airport 2hr 30min later. I was really surprised that there were very few checked in bags from the plane. I was even more surprised when I do not see my luggage at all! I went to the airlines and reported my missing baggage. Was really irritated.... coz nothing has been going right for that entire day. Thinking about not being able to have clean clothes and soap for washing up really is a disgusting thought. But the airlines staff assured me that I would be able to get my bag by tomorrow morning.
Anyway I had to wait another 1 hr for my parents and sister to arrive on Eva Airlines. After that we took the shuttle service (Seattle Airport express) to our service apartment. And I must say.... another terrible blunder.... coz i did not read the instructions from the person whom i made the reservation with. Coz instead of giving the driver the service apartment address... i gave him the office address of the people whom i made the reservation. Hiaz! really terrible! hence, instead of 15-20min to get from the airport to the service apartment, we took about 1hr to reach there.
When we reached the apartment, Doug, one of the owners of the service apartment 'Seattle Suites', was there to show us the apartment and also some information. The only nice thing that day was the apartment. It look pretty grand! Anyway, I must say that I am pretty lucky that my parents and sister came with me. Coz they lent me their clothes for that night and the bathing stuffs, the apartment had some.
Anyway, after washing up, I crashed into bed. I had to wake up at 5am to call Alaskan Airlines as I've got to give them the address of my service apartment to send my baggage to. (Coz previously I gave them the address of the office)
(sorry no pics for this entry as my re-chargeable batteries did not have any energy. Apparently they were spoilt! Totally terrible start off of my conference trip. Juz hopping that it will get better as the days pass)
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