Flight canceled

Photo by Matthias Mullie on Unsplash

Remember how just the other day I told you that I had learned from a bad experience and from then on I was only traveling with a carry-on that contained my necessities?

Well, that was true for the trip to somewhere.

This case was different. It was our last day. We had spent the most wonderful time in South Africa. Safari at Kruger, sightseeing in the Cape Town area, including the Cape of Good Hope.

My father-in-law was raised in South Africa, and his sister still lived there. Every couple of years, my parents-in-law spent several weeks in Cape Town. 

It was 2005, I had a busy job that didn't always allow me to take time off to travel, but things worked out at short notice, so we booked our trip and decided to surprise them once we were there.

This is why - when it was time to go home - we were not on the same flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Hubby and mine was a couple hours later, and we met my in-laws at Johannesburg airport. They were sitting in a café, not worrying about a thing.

"Have you guys found out the departure gate yet?" We asked.

Nah, there was still plenty of time.

Said the man who grew up there. 

This may have been my first time to South Africa, but already I had learned that things worked differently than in Europe. 

You had to plan ahead. You had to double check. You had to ask the same question to different people. Only if you got the same response from everybody, there was a chance, it was correct. There were power outages. There were other unpredictable incidents. Having a written confirmation was nice and all, but there weren't any guarantees. 

Hubby and I wandered around in the departure area, looking at the large screen. 

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Our flight was not on there. We approached a nearby counter and asked what was going on. The guy who worked there seemed to be even more confused than we were.

We moved on. 

There must be a counter representing our airline. 

There was in fact. Only that it was closed. Other Swiss passengers were also hanging out there. 

A person that looked important walked by. You know, walkie-talkie, large keychain, lots of stripes and buttons on their uniform? Definitely supervisor vibes. If this person couldn't help us, who could?

Now, how do I put this without sounding like a basic white bitch?

Looking important does not equal being competent.

Bottom line, just like at a clothes store, he said "only what you can see around here, is available."

So if our flight was not on the screen, it didn't exist? Was it canceled? Was it delayed? What were we supposed to do? Who was in a position to give us reliable information?

Public WiFi wasn't a thing back then, especially not in Africa. 

One of our fellow passengers took it upon himself to place an international call to our airline's HQ back in Switzerland. We al gathered around him. 

"Yes LX283, from JNB to ZRH, yes tonight. We're supposed to depart in an hour. Nobody can tell us anything. We're several Swiss people who need to get back. I have to be at work tomorrow morning. Some European passengers even have connecting flights out of Zurich. Really? Aha, I see. What's the address? What time tomorrow?"

Here's is what he learned:

Something was wrong with our airplane. Nothing major, but protocols required replacing a spare part. Which was not available on site, but was being flown in as we speak. Should be there in a few hours.

We were supposed to go to a nearby hotel. Rooms were booked and paid for for all of us. As was transportation, dinner and breakfast. 

The aircraft was expected to get fixed over night and be ready to take us home early next morning. Apologies all around, they did not understand how nobody at the local airport was able to make this information known to all the passengers concerned?

Off to the hotel we went. They gave us an emergency kit containing a T-Shirt, a pair of socks, a toothbrush and some other necessities. Looks like this was a regular thing, and they were prepared for it. 

Why did we need this?

Nobody knew where our bags were. Or they simply didn't want to go and get them? 

The next morning we got back to the airport. Our flight was on the screen. Everything went smoothly. We made it back home.

Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash

Our bags didn't make it though.

A courier service delivered them to our home the next day. Now I loved this part! Going home from the airport without shlepping our baggage!

Have you been stuck at the airport? Tell me about it and don't forget to leave the link to your own blog post, so I can visit back.