A travel nightmare: kicked off a plane, not allowed on another...and more!

2-29-12 Leap Day
Didn't have a chance to sleep last night b/c of getting in so late from CB and having to pack. I still left in a rush and wondering if I had everything. Drove down to Denver to catch the bus the DIA. Met with Chris Sherman at the airport as the mr sexy himself was connecting through Denver from Boise. It was awesome! to see him. After I said goodbye to Sherman, a nightmare ensued (which is not uncommon among the ladies that have to say goodbye for several months to sherman). When I checked into m gate for the passport check as this flight was going to Toronto, they said I couldn't get on bc I needed a visa for Argentina and they were also concerned since I didnt have a return flight and you are only allowed to stay in Argentina for 90 days. I convinced them that Americans don't need a visa for Argentina, we just have to pay a reciprocity fee on arrival, so they let me board the plane. Just as the plane was getting ready to be pulled from the gate, they rushed on board and pulled me hurriedly off the plane, much to the surprise of all the passengers on board who probably assumed I was some sort of security threat. It was pretty embarrassing. Bc it was a small express jet, I had checked in my carry-on at the gate to save room in the overhead compartment for others. When I got rushed off the plane, in the confusion, they only pulled off my big checked bag, not my carry-on. They didn't realize this until the flight was in the air--a huge break in international security regulation, by the way, to have a bag flying w/ out a person. They had pulled me off bc they said I needed a Brazilian visa since I had a connecting flight through Sao Paolo. It is true you need a visa for Brazil, but I was 99% sure I didn't need one bc I would not be leaving the airport. The guy at the gate who had pulled me off called in two supervisors bc I was a bit upset that I had been pulled off my plane for no reason, to me anyways. At first tey were all grumpy w/ me and upset that I didn't have a visa and hadn't done my research (I had). They said if I had made it to Brazil, I would have immediately been deported and United would have been fined 30,000 bucks. But I smiled, said I understood their concern, and was polite. Soon the two ladies were feeling bad for me and trying to figure out if I could go. In the meantime, I was freaking out inside that my trip was being canceled and felt like I could cry. Another gate agent, Sophia, was especially smart and helpful, and it was her quick research on the computer that originally got the two supervisors to being digging deeper in the first place. We spent several hours on their computers trying to understand all the jargon on their network about visas. Keep in mind at this point, I hadn't been asleep since 6am the previous night (a restless night night for zach and I on top of that as we kept waking up to see how much new snow had fallen), so I had been up for 34 straight hours. Their network seemed to indicated I needed a visa, but the Brazilian embassy website that Sophia was looking at indicated that didn't need one since I was connecting. But the supervisors had to go off what the United network said. But they said we could call the consulate, which secure). The problem, I thought; however, was in the wording. I wasn't "transferring", I was "connecting", in my mind. I knew about transfer visas from other countries that give you 3ish day to stay in their country befre you move on, and which is significantly cheaper than a normal visa. But I had trouble getting this across t the supervisors. At this point, I was exhausted and on the verge of tears, trying to get pity, and thinking that my plans were all ruined. On top of all that, my parents were out of the country for another 2 weeks. I had locked my keys in my car in Denver as mom would pick up the car w7 her spare keys when she returned, so I could even get into my car to go home. My carry-on, with all my important things (except my passport, thank God), was on a plane to Toronto, and I didn't even have my cellphone to make a call. I was eventually able to convince the supervisors that a connecting flight was different. They booked me on a later Air Canada flight to Toronto, washing their hands of me (they were United employees) and saying Air Canada could eal with this problem. They had tried hard, but were worried about their jobs, which I told them I understood. The Air Canada reps weren't in the terminal, so I had to leave security to go to check in. The agent their checked her computers and had no problems w/ me going. But I also didn't want to get deported from Brazil, so I asked for a 2nd opinion from a supervisor. Still no problem. So I spent the next couple of hours before my flight trying to figure out how get my carry-on back. People kept asking me to go to different people and parts of the airport from Air Canada to United to United Express/sky west, especially bc they were all shocked that I had a bag go internationally w/ out me--a major international security violation. Finally I got an answer that I would probably have to go through immigration and customs in Canada (as opposed to just connecting) to get that bag, a major problem since I only had 55 minutes between arrival of my flight and departure on my next one. As luck would have it, we were late getting to the gate, so I had 45 minutes to clear immigration (and its line), clear customs, find the united bag people, get my bag, go through security, and get to my gate at the far end of the airport. I ran past the connecting route (dang that would have been easy) and ran to and from all the places I had to go, out of breath. The united baggage people acted a bit clueless at first and said I just better get on the plane or I'd miss it. They said they would send it to my final destinations. I had this happen w/ a checked bag not meeting me in Morocco, and it took me 3 months to get that bag back, so I didn't like the idea as this bag had everything important to me in it. But then I spied it behind a counter. I grabbed it and sprinted to security. Got through and raced for probably 1/2 a mile to the far end of the terminal. I somehow got their 8 minutes before departure. Of course the plane was on mechanical delay and didn't board for another hour! I was sweaty, exhausted, dehydrated, and a nervous wreck when I got there. I relaxed a bit, but was still a tad bit worried about Brazil

3-1-12
Of course everything was super smooth in Sao Paolo. I didn't have to go through immigration (thus no visa) since I had a connecting int'l flight (as I had told the supervisors would be the case back in Denver). I just had the bad luck of getting that paranoid gate agent in Denver. Had it been the Air Canada group, it would have all been smooth. I had a really long layover in Sao Paolo and spent the time watching Glee that Cassa had put on my ipod in Antarctica. Got on my TAM airlines flight and headed for Buenos Aires.

3-2-12
My flight landed at 140am at the international, and I had until 445am to get to the domestic terminal across the city for my flight to Ushuaia. This time, also got uncomfortably close bc of course my checked in big bag wasn't there. I had worried this might happen. It took a while to wait for all the bags to come out to be sure that it wasn't there and then to fill out the necessary paperwork to have it taken to Ushuaia. When I got done with this, I knew time was close, so instead of my normal frugal self taking a public bus, I went for the more expensive mini van. I arrived at the airport about 7 minutes before bag check in would close for my flight, though of course I didn't have a check in bag, so it didn't matter as much. I walked confidently up to the LAN desk to get my ticket which I had booked on LAN.com back in January. The agent swiped my passport and then seemed to be having trouble. But I wasn't worried yet. They he called the supervisor over and before I knew it, they were saying I couldn't get on the plane. What??? I had clearly paid for this and had a ticket for this flight as my eticket showed. But apparently the ticket had been transferred to another passenger and it all had something to do about him being in Colombia or a LAN office in Colombia. I couldn't believe it! How do you just switch passengers on a ticket. I thought security issues made that illegal and if it were to happen, I feel like I should have at least got a confirmation email saying, hey, you were successful in giving your ticket to x.
Now the problem is that, the LAN people in Buenos Aires didn't really know what happened and whether it was my fault or theirs, so they couldn't just put me on another airlines flight to Ushuaia or so they told me. At this point I was incredulous. How could this be happening? I fricking had the ticket! And now the people here weren't being super helpful or doing much about it. I felt like they needed to do something about it. If I had been back home, I feel like they would have immediately booked me on another flight, even with a competing airline or booked me to a hotel until the next flight with their company. Instead, they gave me a phone card and said call reservations and see what you can figure out, and that they would try too. Well it was 5am and reservations wouldn't be open until 930. So I had to wait around in this domestic airport that really had no seating, which meant I just laid on the floor. I tried to be a little bit aggressive to get what I want, but I am not super good at that. This girl about my age, Gisela, came up to me and asked if everything was okay bc she had seen me pacing around and looking nervous and trying to talk to people. She said she was a big traveller, off to Korea next. She was Argentinian and said with Argentines, you really had to be aggressive so she marched right back up to the supervisor and got in quite the heated discussion, talking at a million miles an hour. I felt like it helped a bit, but then she had to hop on her plane.

Also keep in mind, that I hadn't gotten more than 3 hours of sleep since that last night with Zach as it is nearly impossible to do more than get a few cat naps on airplanes as they are always serving meals or calling something out over the intercom or whatever. So I was in a state of exhaustion I am sure, though I didn't feel it bc of all the adrenaline. I took the card to start making calls after 930. Luckily, I have been presently surprised by the Spanish I still remember bc it would have been impossible to navigate this card without it. I made lots of calls, getting nowhere bc the connections were so soft and it was hard to hear anyone and no one seemed to be able to help. Poor Ximena, the supervisor, kept getting pestered by me to see if she had found anything out. She hadn't. I eventually took a walk along the oceanfront/or is it a super wide river to clear my mind. I came back and made another call and got through with someone. She said she would contact me, via email being the only way, in 3 hours. After 3 hours (watching more glee) I checked back on the internet and found out indeed she had booked me for a flight for tomorrow. She said check back in a couple of hours for the free hotel and free taxi that I had requested. I checked back 3 hours later and didn't see anything. At this point it was 5pm and the work day was coming to an end, I was tired of being at the airport, and it was costing me 5 bucks for 3very half hour I used on the internet at the airport. I didn't see anything from her, but I saw Christopher D. Sherman, JD, MD, SexE, was on gchat. I had an American number for LAN and for the lady who had actually been emailing me. If there are any long-time blog members reading this, you will remember on my first asia trip it was indeed Sherms who was online at the crack of dawn (being that he was on the east coast) when I got bit by the rat and was able to call and wake up sweet sweet Jude so that mom knew what was going on and eventually realized I needed to bee-line it to Bangkok for a special shot. When I need help, I like to go to a Yale grad, but when I really NEED help, I liked to go for a College of Idaho strawberry mystique grad. I quickly told sherms my situation. I had 18 minutes left on my internet. He had the deal with that problem of trying to get a real person and then was put on hold. At 2 minutes left, I told him I would be kicked off soon, but asked him to see what he could do without me there. I waited a bit and then went back to the LAN counter and apparently the email to LAN or Sherman (but most likely Sherman) had worked his magic I now had a confirmed flight for tomorrow, I had a reservation at a fancy 4 star hotel in down town BA, and free taxi rides to and from there!!

My taxi driver was funny. He was overweight and probably 40. But he loved the ladies. What they say about Buenos Aires is true. Gorgeous ladies everywhere that definitely dress the part. The taxi driver couldn't believe I was all alone but told me it didn't matter if I had a girlfriend at home bc now I was in Argentina and that is far away and there are many pretty girls. I am pretty sure he gave me a special tour of the downtown area to show me his favorite places with ladies. He was funny bc he would slow down right by the girls and honk or whistle. The interesting thing is the girls weren't particularly upset by this and often smiled and waved. He showed me where all the best clubs would be (yea right, I was ready for a good nights sleep and I wasnt particularly wearing clubbing clothes and I didn't have a change of clothes with me). I had read in my travel guide that bc S. america is known a bit more for its crime and theft, on your first few days when you are jet legged, its best to not wonder around too much bc you are an easy target. I was wondering how easy of a target I would be after all my stuff, then again, my eyes after all this might have scared off a lot of people
I checked into the fancy, fancy hotel and took a nice shower and then hit the streets for a bit. BA is a busy and fancy city with a cool atmosphere around. I ran into a nice cathedral. There were 3 masses today (I have a feeling S. AMerica will be way different than Asia in finding churches) and one starting at 8pm, so I decided to go. It was apparent I needed some more prayer time. The church was full, but not as lively as Philippine masses (or longmont spanish ones for that matter).
After mass, I headed back to my hotel for the free dinner I was to get. A very tasty 4 course meal.
I am thankful to be where I am at the moment, but I still feel like I totally got screwed over by a couple airline companies. I feel like United/star alliance owes me something for kicking me off a flight, embarrassing me in front of all these people, causing me to stress, to nearly miss a flight, to have to fly an international leg without my carry-on (some people would have much needed meds or other things in their carry-on and couldn't be separated), and to lose a bag. For this kind of thing I would really expect a free flight or an upgrade to first class or at least a ticket to one of their lounges. I have gotten these things for much less before. And then I feel that LAN/one-world also owes me for screwing up majorly by allowing a ticket to be changed to another person and then when this did happen to have the person who had this thing committed against him, have to sit at a junky airport for nearly 15 hours and doing his own legwork. If I was more aggressive or just didn't feel that the most important thing is to get to Ushuaia, I would have demanded first class for tomorrow's flight. I may seem spoiled with this, but I did enough business travel to know what these airlines do for people with much much more minor inconveniences.
In the end, if you take the time that I was travelling from Crested Butte, I have been traveling for 75 hours, and I am still not in Ushuaia. And during that time I have not slept for more than a 3 hour stint, and I felt like constantly fighting to be able to get on a plane.

I was thinking if any of those single events, getting booted of a plane, losing a carry on to toronto, losing a checked bag, having a ticket problem and not being allowed to check in, had happend, it would most likely mean a really bad day and frustrating and super upsetting travel day. Yet somehow, they all managed to happen to me. Crazy! See you in Ushuaia...hopefully!