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My Airport travesties

It's beginning to feel like i'm married to the Airport with all these sort of extemporaneous trips i have taken there in the last several months. I guess it all started when we missed our return flight from the Philippines earlier this year. The ordeal presaged my coming airport trips in the following months. Keep reading... It all began when traffic in Manila wouldn't let up on our way to the Airport (we were stuck for hours). Damn that fireworks show! It became apparent we might miss our flight and that made me almost sick to my stomach. When we finally made it to the International Terminal, after what seemed like an eternity in traffic hell, my sister, in an attempt to salvage the situation, flew out of the car like a bat out of hell. I had never seen her move that swiftly before. It was like Normandy or something... I figured it was a lost cause so i just waltz on over without a care as i lit a cig. Besides, our passports and plane tickets were with my parents in another car yet to negotiate its way out of traffic... "Nothing to worry about" my dad surmised when they finally arrived. He figured since we'd left home something like ten hours early and the most peculiar timing of the fireworks show (about a three hour drive), that most were still making their way through traffic, thus, it was likely the Airline might possibly consider delaying the flight. He almost convinced me too even though it was long past boarding time (and 20 minutes past departure). The Airline would make no such consideration, of course, thoroughly frustrating my father. It's good to be optimistic but delaying the flight was wishful thinking...

Twenty four grueling hours and $980.00 each later (with the exception of my big sister who elected to stay against my parents wishes for another ten days), we finally board our fist-class flight. No choice really but to fork out the extra dough and fly in style. That or wait another ten days. Doh!

Ten days pass and i find myself at the Airport yet again, this time to collect my sister. It's kind of a cool place to hang anyway, isn't it? Especially if you like to people watch. There's all sorts of interesting and very telling things happening in the airport. I think it is the one place anywhere where the human emotions of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, and love are in full display and most evident. You can always tell who is coming or going by the expression on their faces. Even those who work there because they have that certain confident and brisk stride as they come along. You see anxiety on the faces of those who might be flying for the first time and the look of anticipation to those who await their love ones. Sort of majestic, isn't it? Anyway, my sister made it back in one piece looking surprisingly refreshed considering the lengthy flight. Clearly she had a heck of a time back home. She then confessed that she went out on a date with a 21 year old kid hahaha (this might get her in trouble with the new BF, but to hell with it!). Poor kid...

Long before collecting my sister though, the Jersey Girl IM'd me saying she was coming to town in less than a month. It was the day i arrived actually, interestingly enough. Tough to get excited about going back to the Airport after such an ordeal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Philippines), but i got over that soon enough hehe. The Jersey Girl's experience at the Airport was another ordeal too. Not quite like the one in the Philippines but reminiscent of it. Her and younger sister and Betty Page look alike apparently missed their flight from Newark to Los Angeles due to a snowstorm that had swept through the east coast. Additionally, they had managed to check-in their luggage on a later flight (1 1/2 hours later). I didn't bother asking how such a thing could happen, i just presumed it wasn't their fault... So as such, the best thing, I figured, was to wait in the Airport for the luggage. However, Betty Page couldn't wait to see her significant other and asked to get dropped off in Burbank. A lot to ask, i thought, considering... And before i could say no or anything at all, her older and wiser sister (you would think haha) surprisingly said okay. I couldn't really say no because, you know, they're hot (lol).

Two hours later, Jersey Girl and i were back at the LAX to retrieve their luggage, luckily without any fuss (whew!). Oh, did i mention it was Valentines Day? Not to worry not to worry, we were able to move our reservations to a much later one (and dinner was interesting by the way...). The events during her vacation shall remain untold at the risk of being too expounding. Trust me, it's a good idea. Let's just leave it at interesting, okay? Anyway... After several fun-filled days and about fourteen hours of constrained snowboarding in Mammoth Mountain, her vacation came to a finale. And so i thought... When she tried to check-in using one of those check-in machines it appeared there was a problem. Much to her puzzlement because she'd already printed her boarding pass online. All she really had to do was check-in her luggage. This system blip effectively thwarted the one and only advantage of doing it online lol. Apparently her name was inadvertently removed from the passenger manifest after her sister had missed her flight that morning and re-booked it for the next day. Which still doesn't make sense if you think about because they are two different flights. Why should it matter that Betty re-booked hers to begin with? To me it was nothing more than a good old fashioned Snafu. And the only logical explanation was carelessness and neglect... Somehow, when Betty re-booked her flight, they had deleted Jaja's name as well even though her flight was not scheduled to leave for another seven hours. Nice! Eventually, after an hour on the phone with a Continental Airline representative, they all agreed to put her on the next flight out to Newark at no cost to her. Wow, awfully nice huh? Yea i guess, except, the next flight was eight long hours later haha. But, mercifully enough, later on that evening (at 10 pm), many many goodbyes later, boarding went off without a hitch...

Apparently i haven't learned my lesson yet because a couple of nights ago i took a friend to the Airport. Its been over ten years since her last vacation to the Philippines. Well, i sort of involuntarily volunteered to take her. Nothing really exciting happened i'm sorry to say. I, you might say, offered a kind of a shuttle service with a personal touch hehe. I did not only do it because i am such a nice guy and i empathize with her flying alone and all, but also to hopefully fulfill a somewhat obdurate promise. But that is neither here nor there, so... And oh, she made me promise not to say anything about being over-dressed for the Airport (and especially because the flight is nearly seventeen hours long). And so i won't!

Kickin' it old school, in the Bahay Kubo... Good stuff huh?

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Wednesday, August 01, 2007