I'm not a satisfied customer.
They still haven't found my bag yet. What drives me absolutely, screaming mad is the lousy fact that I can't do anything about this situation. There are no strings I can pull, no legal threats I can invoke, and no amount of yelling is likely to be constructive. All I can do is to call them up repeatedly and to no avail, while the process of tracing continues, at snail's pace, over at United's HQ, or wherever all those misdirected bags end up.
My roommate brought up the possibility that someone could have simply grabbed my bag off the carousel and made off with it. No one checks, anyway. I console myself with the thought that my bag didn't contain anything particularly valuable. A couple of international edition biology textbooks (which I sorely miss), Altec Lansing speakers, a Japanese novel, bunch of anime DVDs... good heavens. Who'd want any of that? Right...?
Let this be a warning to one and all: avoid bankrupt American airlines, multiple transits, checking in more than you absolutely have to, and winter travel. If you have to fly in winter, stick to balmy airports like LAX. Skip Narita.
words were spilled on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
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Monday, January 23, 2006
Then I opened my door to find my Hong Kong dorm neighbour back and in high spirits after a great flight in business class during which she saw and chatted with a major pop star. (I forget the name; I have only a middling acquaintance with Chinese idols.) While I had a terrible time in humble Economy class/ slave ship conditions and had to camp overnight at an under-equipped airport like some refugee.
Felt even more miserably screwed over than ever, because Northwest/ United Airlines/ whatever the heck was responsible still hadn't called to confirm delivery of my delayed luggage, and I was having visions of my bags pathetically sitting around in Detroit, lost in the tangle of flight re-routing and airline inefficiency. And I hadn't had a proper, hot meal since dinner on my transpacific flight - which was practically a lifetime ago.
Because I decided that sulking around indoors wasn't very productive, I went out, in a T-shirt and my 4degC-and-above jacket in the 2degC cold (and that's not factoring in the wind chill), to shop for essentials and get my life back in some semblance of order. So now I have a clock radio tuned to a love song channel with a terse, snappish DJ who sounds like he is reading off some checklist when he takes song dedications.
... so I called Northwest's luggage service office here in Providence and it looks like my bags may be coming tonight. But because I filed my claim with United (because the NW office was bloody closed when I arrived in Providence... and so events continue to conspire against me), the bags will have to be transferred to United before being delivered. Geeeeeeez, thanks, more delay.
There has been one bright ray of hope though: it seems like Brokeback Mountain is screening here at Avon, a small arthouse theatre near Brown, so even if I can't make the Boston trip as originally planned, I can still watch it right here in Providence, and with an audience that is likely to be respectful. Not too bad for a silver lining.
words were spilled on Monday, January 23, 2006
The US-bound odyssey I have just endured has hammered home the realisation that for all my paranoia, a lifetime of fairly uneventful flights had lulled me into complacency, leaving me completely unprepared for the worst air travel could, and did, throw at me. (Barring fatal accidents. Of course.)At Changi, I found to my dismay that my flight had been brought forward by 45 minutes, leaving me less time than I had counted on for check-in and goodbyes. Check-in brought another unpleasant surprise: I had excess weight in one of my bags, and had no choice but to repack, shifting the heaviest items from the overweight bag to the lighter one, discarding things that wouldn't fit. I managed to accomplish this in 10 frantic minutes of going wild with anxiety, shifting through a mess of personal paraphernalia next to the airline counters. I managed to bloody my fingers too, which isn't too surprising considering their default state (i.e. hopelessly damaged). After all that fuss I had to rush to the boarding gate before Xuwen could come to see me off. All in all, the Changi experience sucked.
But at Tokyo-Narita, everything went to the dogs. My connecting flight got delayed by snow that wasn't even anywhere near blizzard proportions. We just sat in the plane as it prepared for a take-off that never came. For one thing, the wings had to be de-iced, and that took some time becase Narita was woefully unprepared for snow (apparently, according to a Japanese lady I talked to, this sort of thing only happens a couple of times every winter... the east coast of Japan doesn't see a lot of snow) and had insufficient resources to cope (according to passenger rumour, only 1 de-icing truck was available). Then when the wings were finally de-iced, the runway wasn't available, so we had to wait until snow accumulated on the wings and they had to be de-iced again. And so this went on for about 5 taxing hours. I slept through most of it, because the crowded, cramped and hot cabin wasn't fit for consciousness. Finally, just when the plane was ready for take-off, Northwest ordered it to return to the gate. The entire airport was shut down, all flights were cancelled, and I became one of many disgruntled passengers stranded at Narita, which wasn't even a very pleasant place to be stranded in. The scant few restaurants and cafes were swamped by hungry passengers, there was only 1 small bookshop and which didn't provide much in the way of decent English reading material (only airport literature of the finest sort... I noted some S&M books with very suggestive covers), and I wasn't remotely interested in shopping for cosmetics or perfume or tidbits.
What annoyed me most was the incompetence and inefficiency of the airport personnel, who seemed just as lost and confused as the hordes of angry passengers were. Their lack of English proficiency didn't help either, hampering their ability to communicate vital information and reassure passengers. Two extremely aggrieved and aggressive Singaporeans confronted the Northwest counter staff, demanding immediate provisions for a flight to Singapore first thing in the morning. One of them, a bellicose middle-aged man, was practically yelling, for all to hear, that he had traveled all the way from the US to attend a funeral and the last thing he wanted was to miss it. An American insisted on speaking with airport superiors, and things got tense when the Japanese Northwest agent failed to satisfy his demands.
I think the eventual presence of airport policemen at my original flight's gate was very telling. Tempers were becoming dangerously frayed, disgruntlement was degenerating into barely concealed hostility - shouting, fist-banging and sarcastic insults accompanied by threats. There was an American passenger capturing all the drama on his digital camcorder. 'That's right, get the news! Get the news!' someone cheered. Frustrated, vocal people took every opportunity to hassle and belittle the staff.
I would have felt sorry for the harried, overworked Northwest counter staff, if I wasn't plenty pissed myself about being kept waiting for hours, on a empty stomach and negligible sleep, half bored to death and extremely upset at the enforced time-wasting. I don't mind wasting time, as long as I'm doing it of my own free will and it is being carried out on my own terms, but I don't like other people wasting my time. Especially on mind-numbing activities like standing endlessly in line, listening to the staff repeat unproductive things like 'I don't know' or 'I'm sorry, but we have no idea at the moment', in between confusing paying customers with contradictory, incomplete, or otherwise useless information.
I spent the night at Narita with a Japanese lady called Sayuri and another middle-aged Japanese lady, exchanging small talk (some of it in Japanese) and sharing food... before they ran off to grab limited seats on an early flight (which they claimed were 'reserved' for women. I went, 'HUH?'). I couldn't understand what the fuss was about at first (because the other lady was babbling in Japanese, most of which I couldn't catch), so I was slow in packing up my things, lost them and was effectively abandoned. Left alone to fend for myself in the messy aftermath of massive flight cancellations, to jostle for the precious few boarding passes with hundreds of equally (if not even more) desperate stranded passengers. What made the experience especially irritating was all the Japanese being spoken around me. Usually that wouldn't have been an issue - in fact I rather enjoy listening to Japanese chatter even when I don't understand it, but this time round, my foul mood and the inanely chirpy nature of the language didn't mesh well at all.
But by some miracle I landed myself boarding passes for a flight to Portland - Minneapolis - Providence, departing on 22 Jan, which was bloody fortunate because the flights on that day were all overbooked and many passengers ended up stranded for a consecutive day.
However, my Portland flight was delayed for about 3 hours, so I missed the connecting flight to Minneapolis. To my great relief, the Northwest staff in the US were considerably more efficient than their Japanese counterparts, managing to re-route me to United Airlines flights from Portland to Chicago and then from Chicago to Providence. It was a roundabout way of getting to my destination, but at least it got me where I wanted.
No such luck for my luggage, though. Yet again, Northwest has screwed that up.
I really have no luck with air travel, do I?
words were spilled on Monday, January 23, 2006
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Thursday, January 19, 2006
21 Jan (Sat), 6:00AM
Terminal 1, Northwest flight NW 6
/sigh/
words were spilled on Thursday, January 19, 2006
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Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Inspired by the apparent onset of brilliant weather, I managed to coax my dad into letting me play with his Canon EOS-20D for a few days. The result: a bunch of sneakily obtained Chinatown shots and macro shots too blurry to be any good, because my freehand steadiness isn't up to macro standards, and I didn't really have the time to set up a tripod. (OK, so I was lazy.)
The crocodiles and vampires seem to be giving way to lurching, flesh-eating hordes of the living dead now. I swear, I haven't been watching horror movies or even anything remotely exciting. For some undefined reason, my subconscious has decided to go into panic overdrive even as my days slip placidly by.
words were spilled on Wednesday, January 18, 2006
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Thursday, January 12, 2006
The most chilling was the latest one, in which I thought all my friends had been murdered by a psycho serial killer whom I had wanted to snoop on, because I fancied the thought of a Three Investigators-style adventure. So I talked everyone into participating. It was supposed to be fun - we planned, moved into position, scoped out the area, etc. Then I excused myself for the afternoon to watch a movie at a theatre (apparently it was supposed to be a date, but he quickly lost interest and disappeared). I was left with my disappointment and - since more than half the audience had walked out - inconsiderate louts making loud, rude conversation in the theatre. Enjoying the movie became an impossible task, so I left.
I returned to our base of operations (so as to speak), only to find it empty. Our files on the serial killer had been deleted, and in their place was a gloating note (entirely in Chinese), with a list of their names, pictures and the word 'annihilated' next to every name.
So, umm, yeah. What ensued was incredible amounts of angst and guilt.
Meanwhile, the sci-fi geek wants to start spreadin' the news: Directed-energy weapons are becoming reality. Check this out:
Of course, all this technological progress is driven by the desire to dominate the world and 'militarize space' (note American spelling), which is somewhat upsetting even though it's only to be expected. It's Star Wars, not Star Trek.
But from my happily limited perspective, new technology is always cool.
words were spilled on Thursday, January 12, 2006
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Monday, January 02, 2006
A couple of layout-related notes: The link to my photo album can be found under "plugs". And since I don't intend to get a tagboard, the "shouts" section is going to be a dumping ground for miscellaneous random features (such as Blank Space), and subject to pure whim.
The last week has been spent in catching up with friends and attending family gatherings while fending off jet lag. The remaining 3 weeks are probably going to be less hectic, but I'm going to need every minute of that time to luxuriate in the joys of being home.
words were spilled on Monday, January 02, 2006
