We were directed over to the transfer desk and after waiting in line for who knows how long they told us our flight had already departed.
Yeah... we knew. We needed a new flight.
Well, we couldn't get one at the transfer desk. We had to go to the airline counter.
So we went through Chinese immigration (btw, the girls @ Hiroshima airport said they'd forward our bags to Bangkok because they'd already assured us that we'd make it there) sans luggage and found chaos at the airline counters. I forget how long we were actually at each counter but I know we were in Shanghai for around another 6 hours.
We got in line and heard about how so many other people couldn't leave for days because the flights were full. Not exactly bolstered with confidence we approached the counter... only to find that the next flight apparently wasn't till Tuesday night (it was Sunday).
No.
Uh, uh yes. The next flight was was Tues-
No, they promised us we'd make it to Bangkok. We're getting on a flight today.
We were told to go to the supervisor desk. So off we go to the supervisor desk where they confirmed the next flight was, in fact, Tuesday.
Well, what about a waiting list?
Oh yes, we could be put on one of those and we'd have to check back an hour before departure time.
And our bags...?
Well, they'd obviously missed the flight too so they were waiting for us downstairs. We were also invited to check out their partner airline because we could possibly get on one of their flights.
Couldn't they call and ask?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was impossible.
Right...
So we collected our bags and made the 15 minute trek to the other terminal where they told us their flights were full but that the next one was Monday night. We decided to see if we could get a refund for our other tickets. So we went back to the supervisor desk and they said we could but it'd be better to see if we could get on the flight leaving tonight.
Still another two hours to go.
What were our chances?
They couldn't say. It was hard to tell plus it depended on how many people didn't show up.
How many flights were leaving that night?
Three.
Any to Phuket?
No.
Could we get on a waiting list for all of the flights?
Oh, we wanted to do that? Yes, we could.
We decided to check the flight times and saw that our airline had plenty of other flights going to Thailand. Some even going to Phuket! Liars! So we wrote down the flight numbers and times.
We headed back to the supervisor's desk, again, and confronted them with our evidence of other flights.
Ah, those are with the partner airline.
Well, could we be wait-listed for those too?
Yes, but not at that flight counter.
Why not? Their name was on the flight.
Well, yes, but it wasn't their flight.
If it's under their name how could it not be their flight?
Ahem, to be wait-listed for those flights we'd have to go to the other terminal again.
Feeling an odd combination of hope and exhaustion we hurried back to the other terminal and spoke to the same man who told us to ask for a refund. He directed us to their supervisor's desk.
The woman at that desk was working her a$$ off. The first person we saw who actually looked like they cared. She was making phone calls left and right, trying to help multiple, disgruntled people at a time.
Unfortunately, due to all of the chaos, the line system was abandoned and we were constantly being looked over.
Carli's mom tore some of them a new one and we got ourselves the waiting list to Bangkok and Phuket (finally something positive)! We were just hoping to get to Bangkok. We were prepared to spend a night there then head to Phuket in the morning.
We hastily put our names down and felt our hopes rising.
She told us our odds were pretty good but we'd have to wait until an hour before the flight left which meant about one hour left of nervous nail biting, frantic pacing and frequent glances at the clock. We knew we were on the waiting list for Bangkok but oh! if we could get on the flight to Phuket...
After we waited the hour we went back up to the counter. She told us she still didn't know about the flight to Bangkok, we told her we actually would prefer to go to Phuket.
Oh... well we could definitely get on the flight. Score!! She started punching in information and it seemed to good to be true.
When the woman next to her said that if there were seats on the Bangkok flight we would have to take those since that was our original destination. NOOOOOOOOOOOO, we were so close.
But Phuket was our final destination! I pulled out our certificates of delay and our confirmation for the original Phuket flight. We were supposed to change airlines in Bangkok but because our flight to Shanghai was delayed, as evidenced by this paper, we missed our flight to Bangkok and our flight to Phuket was supposed to leave in about 5 minutes and we were obviously going to miss that. Please, we just wanted to go to Phuket.
To have that possibility dangled in front of us and then so suddenly dashed aside... I think she saw how desperate we were. She made several phone calls and finally, with a smile, handed us our boarding passes. We could have hugged her. Instead, we gave her some cookies from Hiroshima, which stunned her, and thanked her profusely.
But we had to hurry because boarding was in 15 minutes and we still had to go through security which had quite the line.
We had all of our documents ready to hand in as we looked at our watches ever five seconds and the line was moving sooo slowly. 15 minutes later all 3 of us were through security. We literally ran to the gate, got on the bus and grinned at everyone as we made our way to our seats in disbelief.
None of us had ever been so happy to eat airline food and chicken with rice had never tasted so good.
Oddly, the "full" flight that we had managed to get on had enough seats so that we all were next to one another and five out of six of the back rows were completely empty. The next flight is on Tuesday, my foot.
Stay tuned for the next installment where we actually make it to Thailand!
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