Friday, September 4, 2015
Hidemi’s Rambling No.551
When I left Anaheim on my latest trip, I got up 6 a.m., took ‘Uber’
again and then caught a bus to LAX. I know so well that the bus to the
airport seldom comes on schedule here, which made me too nervous to have
room in my mind that should feel sad to leave California. I took the
bus because I had purchased the ticket by a round-trip discount, but I
thought I would most likely use ‘Uber’ for my next trip. That thought
told me I was determined to come back here. Actually, I was searching
for a way to move in and live here somehow throughout the whole bus
ride. After I arrived at the airport, I joined a long line for check-in.
I heard a conversation between a customer in line and an airline
employee. “Excuse me, I need to show this passport of mine for the
flight, right?” “Let me see, well, no, yours has expired.” “Whaaaat?” I
was envious of those easygoing people who hadn’t cared to see an
expiration date on their passport up until they got to the check-in
counter for an overseas travel. I started to prepare for this trip well
over eight months ago. A couple with a baby was checking in before me.
The counter person said to a woman, “You can’t check in as your name on
the reservation is different from the one on your passport.” She
replied, “That’s OK. I made a reservation by my maiden name, that’s
all.” “That’s not OK, you can’t take the flight.” “Whaaaat?” The couple
and the airline employee began to make numerous phone calls. At one
point, they were required a marriage certificate. At another, the woman
resorted to pity for an exception, saying, “We have a baby.” Every try
didn’t seem to work though. I was envious of those people who casually
made a flight reservation. When I made it online, I checked the spelling
of my own name on the screen at least ten times. As too many careless
passengers occupied the counter, it took so long to have my turn to
check in. I intended to show people how smoothly things could go by
careful preparation I had carried out. Then I was told, “Both your
flight and the next one on the schedule have been cancelled.” “Whaaaat?”
It was a clear fine day without a speck of cloud. I wondered when this
airline’s planes flew if they didn’t in such nice weather like this.
The good thing was, the flight was to Vancouver and I had purposely
moved an international flight to Japan to the next day so that I took it
with any delays since I didn’t trust this airline. Two flights were
cancelled altogether and the next one to Vancouver was five hours later.
The counter person told me that the larger airplane would be used
because of the two cancellations and my seat would be in the business
class. I was also allowed to use the executive lounge. To me, five-hour
waiting would be nothing considering the business class and the lounge. I
was even grateful for the cancellations. I was headed for the security
gate cheerfully with my head full of the coming goodies, and never
prepared for the biggest ordeal of my trip that had awaited me next…
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