Getting here was characterized by a series of minor hiccups. But when you're leaving for 3 months, hoping you didn't forget to pack something important or leave your passport at home, minor hiccups can turn into whooping cough.
It started when our Uber driver called to say he was stuck on Stratford, in the middle of a line of cars, waiting for a garbage truck to finish emptying trash receptacles. And it looked like it was going to take a long time. And there was no way for him to break the logjam. Even tho it seemed like forever, the delay was only 5 minutes. We got to the airport at 435PM for our 7PM flight. And we got to sit in the brand new Flagship Lounge, which is reserved for first and business class passengers only. It was very nice; finally American has a lounge that is up to the standards of most international carriers.
Did I say 7PM flight? Oops. We went to the gate at 630, when boarding was due to begin but hadn't. There were several guys wearing jackets with the word MAINTENANCE going in and out of the jetway. Not a good sign. The clock kept ticking while the gate agents stood around chatting. Finally one of them made the announcement we'd all been waiting for: there was a problem with one of the tires and the brain trust was trying to decide if it really had to be changed. The consensus among the passengers was: of course you change it. Taking off and landing a fully loaded 777 (766,000 pounds - I googled it) with a bad tire is a bad idea. Duh. Maintenance finally agreed. OK, a one hour delay. Not bad for that kind of job, and they were going to board us while doing the repair. But they didn't, nor did they make any announcement to let us know what was happening.
When I'd had enough of waiting I asked the gate agent what was going on. She said that it wasn't just a tire that was the problem; a part was broken which made the repair more complicated. They were deciding whether to repair this plane or put us on a different one. Departure time was still 8PM, which was getting less and less realistic by the minute. Finally an announcement. There was a plane that was supposed to go to Dallas at a nearby gate and they were talking to operations about making a swap. While all this was going on the flight crew were milling around the gate area. All of a sudden they all started to head in the direction of the other gate. I decided to follow. They got to the other gate, but didn't board. After several minutes of trying to figure out just what was happening, they all marched back to the original gate. While following them, the dreaded text came: AA150 has been cancelled. We're working to re-book you and will send an update soon.
OH NOOOOO
When I got back to our gate, the agent was trying to calm a bunch of agitated passengers, all of whom got the same text. Don't pay attention to that text, she said. Really? What's the point of signing up for flight info texts if they aren't accurate? Indeed after only 8 minutes another text came: AA150 has been reinstated, with a new departure time of 845PM. But a few minutes later they rolled in a very big rack of snacks - sandwiches, chips, soft drinks. Not a good sign in my opinion; we were in for another long delay, so we might as well go back to the Lounge. Who needs their crappy saran-wrapped sandwiches when we could be having something really good in a setting that was much nicer than the gate area. I did ask the gate agent if we had time to return to the Lounge; all we needed was for us to be sipping Bollinger while our flight took off. She assured us that it would be OK, so back to the Lounge we went. We barely got settled when they announced that our flight was boarding. We finally left at 945PM, a delay of nearly 3 hours.
We had an unusual experience on the flight. The head flight attendant went thru the cabin and introduced herself to each passenger. I don't know if this is some new AA policy, or if it was just her style. Whatever it was didn't quite compensate for the fact that they ran out of single malt and vegetarian meals. But considering the fact that it was 1030PM we didn't care about the meal service; we were going to go to sleep anyway, altho Sid was pissed about the scotch.
I slept well and didn't wake up until I heard a flight attendant say it was last call for breakfast. Not that I was hungry, but I wanted coffee and maybe a piece of fruit. When she got to my seat she said all they had left was quiche Lorraine. In that case, just bring me coffee and a croissant. I must have looked annoyed because she came back to my seat with a fruit plate that somehow magically appeared. She was probably keeping it for herself. And the basket of rolls contained not one single croissant. Imagine ... a flight to Paris and not a croissant in sight.
We made up an hour in the air and arrived in Paris with 2.5 hours to connect to our El Al flight. I was a bit concerned because El Al security is thorough and time consuming. I should have been more concerned about getting thru the transit area and security at DeGaulle. We had to walk about a mile to the security checkpoint, and as we put our stuff on the conveyor we were asked for our boarding passes. Uh oh. We didn't have them because AA couldn't print them in Chicago. OK, so let me see your reservation. Big UH OH. Because in my very misguided attempt to get with it and enter the 21st Century, I didn't print it out. Hey, there's an app for that. But in order for apps to work you need wifi. Fortunately there's wifi at the airport and I signed on, but couldn't get either of the 2 apps I have to display the reservation. The most I could show the guy was the flight number and when boarding was due to begin. So he pulled us out of line and called a supervisor. I had to convince her that we really did have a valid reservation, but I had nothing to show her. She finally believed us and let us thru.
We actually had time to sit in the El Al lounge, which was pretty nice. But we hadn't cleared El Al security yet and I was wondering when this was going to happen. We decided to go to the gate a few minutes before boarding, and as we approached we heard ourselves paged over the loudspeaker. We had to pass El Al security, which was done at the gate. The agent asked the usual questions - who packed your luggage and has it been with you the entire time? What flight did you take to Paris? Can I see your boarding passes for that flight? How many bags did you check? Can I see the claim checks? When he called someone to verify the bags, he took a picture of the claim checks with his cell phone and sent it to the baggage handler. So how come everyone else is in the 21st Century and my apps don't work???? When everything checked out we got our boarding passes and were on our way.
El Al is a pleasure to fly. I remember the days, long long ago, when El Al was the acronym for Every Landing Always Late, and the inflight service motto was: get it yourself. Not any more. The flight attendants were cordial and even the food was good. Their slogan, roughly translated, is feel at home wherever you fly. And it's true.
Israeli passport control was very crowded and we had to get into separate lines. Mine went faster than Sid's. Way faster. Citizenship does have its advantages. I retrieved all our bags before he came out. He must have been in the line with the passport control agent who asked even more questions than El Al security.
We took a sherut to Jerusalem. The driver must have been in a big hurry to build his sukkah because he made it from the airport to the entrance to Jerusalem in 28 minutes in heavy traffic. In fact he was in such a hurry that he backed all the way up our one way street, which is about 3 blocks long. We were the last to be dropped off. As we shlepped our very heavy suitcases up to the second floor I realized that we had an extra bag. The driver just emptied the luggage compartment and drove off without either one of us realizing that he unloaded an additional suitcase, which happened to resemble one of ours. I called Nesher (the taxi company) to let them know. The bag's owner had already contacted them. Nesher took my phone number and gave it to the hapless suitcase owner, who called and thanked me profusely, and came right over to get it.
By this time it was around 1030PM. Luckily we have a 24-hour convenience store right up the street. We bought the necessities (coffee, milk, rolls and butter) for the morning, did some unpacking and went to sleep around midnight.
I slept fairly well till 8, Sid was up at 4. We went to the super market for a few more items to cover us for the next 48 hours, finished unpacking, made a few phone calls, and here I sit finishing my first post for this trip.
Sukkot begins at sundown.
Chag sameach from Jerusalem.
No comments:
Post a Comment