Monday, August 20, 2012

Singapore - We Made It!


We finally made it! With flight delays (on all three flights) it actually took us 27 hours to get here from Portland.   Here is a photo of Matty & I right before leaving PDX.


Happy travelers!

Our plane in Portland was delayed for an hour, which made making our connecting flight tight. Matty & I said our goodbyes to Omid in Portland before leaving as he was in the rear of the plane & we sat in the front. We made it to San Francisco with a half hour to spare....only to sit on the tarmac for 25 minutes. We pushed our way through to first class & were the 3rd & 4th people off the plane. We ran for our lives & made it to our connecting flight with ONE minute to spare. It was just like we were on The Amazing Race - but boy was it stressful!

Once on the plane to Hong Kong, we find out our flight is delayed again by an hour. I was actually happy about this because I thought for sure it meant our luggage would also make the flight. Not so! But more about that later.

Our flight finally took off and it took us almost 14 hours to get to Hong Kong. There were two very good movies (& two bad) on the way over. If you can, please watch The Best Ever Marigold Hotel for the Beautiful & Elderly. LOVED THAT MOVIE! So good! Also, a new movie with Eddie Murphy called A Thousand Words. Also good. The ones that I disliked were The Avengers (except for the lines Robert Downey Jr had) & Mirror Mirror.

We arrived in Hong Kong & were surprised to see a beautiful,but small mountain on one side & a harbor + mountain on the other. It was really beautiful after watching the Pacific Ocean under us for so long.


We once again boarded our plane & were delayed for another hour on the ground. Once we were airborne, I was so happy. We were really looking forward to seeing Omid. With all our flight delays, we knew he would beat us to Singapore.

We arrived at 2:00 a.m. Singapore time, went through customs/immigration & found our luggage never left San Francisco. What!? The same thing happened to Omid, but Singpore Airlines gave him $125.00 on the spot to purchase clothes & toiletries (his bag also arrived less than 12 hours later!).

When I filed our claim at the airport, I got nothing but the assurance that our luggage would arrive late Tuesday night, with delivery Wednesday morning. I was so close to crying I was so tired. I told the agent that was unacceptable & they needed to make this right. We finally got out to where Omid was, made it to our hotel at 3:30 a.m. We called United  Airlines in the States & talked to them once more. They said Matty & I could purchase some clothes & toiletries & fax the receipts in to them by 5 p.m. the next day & United would pay for the items. Whew! 

So to  make a long story short - we slept for a few hours, got up purchased a few items & faxed the receipts to United. When I called once more to check on my bag status, I was told again it would not arrive until Tuesday night. Omid gave the concierge all my info regarding the lost luggage & asked him if there was anyone he could call to expedite our luggage, please do. Well, what do you know....my bag arrived via Singapore airlines yesterday morning (Monday)! Matty & I were overjoyed!!


Reunited with our suitcase!
Moral of the story: everything will work out okay in the end!

1 comment:

Chris and Sarah said...

Sounds like quite the adventure already! Holy cow! Glad you got your stuff finally, and have a great REST of your trip!!!!