Travel day – and a long one at that. 27 hours of travel – and that’s if we make our very tight connections in Washington Dulles and London Heathrow. For some reason, though, we can’t get the internet check in to work on Thai Airways for me– so while you can see my ticket, I can’t check in. Ed’s reservation checked in fine… hmmm…. And to top it all off, we can’t check into United either because the system keeps kicking us out when we say we don’t have a visa (technical issues – our incoming and outbound flights are more than 30 days apart – if we were staying in Thailand the whole time, we’d need a visa, but we aren’t – United just doesn’t know that). This is starting out well!
At least the predicted thunderstorms never materialized – so that’s a one positive
The drive to the airport doesn’t take any time, parking at the Springhill Suites a bargain, shuttle to the airport quick, we’re there with plenty of time to argue about the Visa, get me checking in with Thai Airways, etc. Of course, the argument never happens. The desk attendant just checks us in – no problem. However, he can’t get my Thai boarding pass to print. Ed’s prints, mine doesn’t. After fiddling with the computer, he says to check with the gate agent.
We check with the gate agent, he can’t do anything either, he can’t access that flight. He tells us to just go to the gate in Bangkok, and it will be fine. Since we have no wiggle room with our connections, we don’t want to leave it to chance, so we go to the bar for farewell beverages and call Thai Airways. Long story short, something has happened to my ticket – Continental has done something? - and we need to call them to get it fixed. Ha! First call, the VRU said there was an hour and 30 minute wait! 2nd call to the frequent flyer number never gave us a waiting time, but after 45 minutes, I hung up. no more time – we have to get on the plane!
Got to Dulles early enough that I corralled the gate agent there to help with the Thai Airways issue. He was a doll – tried everything he could – but to no avail. He couldn’t access the reservation and couldn’t get me checked in and boarding pass printed. Onto the next flight we go.
The London flight was fine, we both got some sleep and we arrived a tad bit early. Yay – because we have to hoof it over to our next flight and get this ticket thing figured out. Construction at Heathrow took up all the time we gained with our early arrival, after walking for miles just to find the transfer station, you then can’t continue to walk between terminals any longer, but have to take a bus over hill and dale to get any where. Finally we arrived at Terminal 3, running through the halls and up escalators. We still had 45 minutes, but didn’t know the status of my ticket. We presented ourselves at the transfer passenger desk – and 40 minutes later had my ticket! The poor girl had to make 2 phone calls, work the computer forever and finally got my ticket to print. In the meantime, for some reason, they “off loaded” Ed. He was no longer on the flight. So, now she has to call the gate agent to get Ed approved to be back on the flight. Oy! When everything is finally corrected we haul ass to the gate – and are literally one of the last people on that plane. Phew!
So- for all of our stress and turmoil – we actually were sort of rewarded. We were in a row of 4 in the middle of the plane with 2 others – the row behind us was empty – so we squatted there before the doors were closed and claimed it for our own (actually beat out another girl who was with her husband in a 3 seat – with one empty in between! Hey – no way Jose! We have NO empty seats – we’re getting this row! Don’t mess with the seat shark!).
While long, the Bangkok flight was really nice. Service was superb. Food excellent. Attendants came through all night long with water, soda and juice. Plus, because we had the extra room, we slept pretty well. Even got into Bangkok 45 minutes early. Nice! Well, nice, except for the landing part. They turn on the front camera and project it on the screen as we land – so it’s kind of cool watching the lights come up on the runway. Except, it didn’t look like we were really low enough to land, and well, we kept going and finally touched down and then the plane started to skid and slide right and left. When they finally got control of it, the pilots stood on the brakes – and I mean stood on them. That was a little scary. Everyone clapped when we finally came to a halt. Welcome to Thailand!
Immigration was a zoo, and we 
had a little bit of heart failure when our bags didn’t show forever – and the sign on the bag carousel said “last bag”. But finally, they made it, all in one piece too. Although there was a huge red tag on both bags saying “Do not Load Contact Gate”. Oh – that would have made our day! Thank heavens both the bags and us made it on that flight!
Our driver is waiting right where he told us he’d be. We wait about 5 minutes for another couple coming in from Oslo and off we go to the Bangkok Loft Inn. 27 hours later – we’ve made it! Hooray.
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