Delays

Yep! I got caught by delays. Welcome to the world of travel.

We have an 1135 flight from LAS to LAX, so being the retentive wee possum that Sarah is, she wanted to be here early.

So I arrange an 0830 shuttle pick-up. He is on time, so we get to the airport by 0900.

Then we do the check-in. We have to pay $25 for EACH bag here, so we are ready with the green stuff. Everybody here must check-in on a kiosk, so no problem. We did that in LAX to come here.

But these kiosks are different. The last one had a passport swipe at the top, this one you put it face up in a slot. No problems, I am flexible. I can cope with change.

Next, the LAX-LAS kiosk offered us a first class upgrade for $45pp. Nah, we might do that on the return.

Does that option exist this morning? Not so much.

Next change, the damn kiosk wants me to pay my $25 bag fee by credit card. But I want to pay cash. I paid cash in LAX.

Bail out of the check-in. Yes I DO want to cancel, thanks.

Find a customer assistance lady nearby. Sorry, she's busy letting some people into a disney queue with their bags. No multitasking here.

At last, "Can I help you sir?"

We want to check in one bag, but we want to pay cash. OK, just check-in with no bag and pay at the counter. Hey, that is bordering on common sense. Not bad.

So, we are all good.

Got our boarding passes, got our cash, the lady has let us into the bagdrop queue, we see the lady at the counter. Want an ID? Sure, here's my passport.

"When are you going back to Christchurch?"

3 days

"What flight are you on?"

NZ001 on the 10th

"What flight are you on?"

NZ001 on the 10th

"What airline are you on?"

Air New Zealand

"So that's Zee Enn?"

No that's NZ

Enn Zee

"Oh, En Zee. OK then"

Anyway, you get the idea. This went on for a while, and then she told me to put my money away.

It appears she added our flight details to justify not charging us for the luggage.

Excellent. $25 saved. So up goes the bag onto the scale. All good?

"Just a moment, your bag is 9 pounds overweight. You will need to take 6 pounds out or pay $50."

OK we will reshuffle some stuff.

How much weight is that?

"6 pounds, see the scale?"

No we are just trying to convert that into kilos.

"Oh, here we go. (flicks a switch) that will be 3 kilos"

Great, thanks.

So we take out a few shoes, and now have a plastic bag to carry as well.

We soon buy another bag to tidy up our hand-luggage situation.

We do the whole queue at security thing, no dramas. Eventually we are in the departure lounge, where I write the last post about the military.

After basking in the sun for a while, we head for the gate, only an hour early.

That shouldn't be too bad. I give Sarah a little stick for getting us here too early.

A little after boarding time, we hear talk of a gate change.

Then somebody with worse english than us asks if the flight is delayed. Sarah goes to look at the screen, and yes delayed from 1135 to 1250.

About departure time we start hearing announcements about the delay. The aircraft was held up by bad weather somewhere first thing.

About 1155 we hear that the aircraft has not left LAX yet. An engineering issue. ETD 1200, ETA 1300, we will leave at 1345.

Then at 10 past 1220 we hear that it has left the gate, and we will be told when it takes off.

OK it has left, and on it's way. Due about 1325, but we might still leave at 1345.

Time will tell.

Happy, happy, joy, joy

Just as I finish this, 1326, the PA says the a/c has landed, and is taxiing to gates.

Here we go then.