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For some of us this morning started a little later than others. Joel and I were supposed to meet and share a cab to the airport. He thought that we were meeting at 8:30, when in fact we were meeting at 8: 15. When I called him at 8:20 to ask whether he was on his way, he said: “What do you mean?” When we got to the airport at 9am, we found Vicki and Yu-Wen scowling at us, because they had left at the correct time and had been waiting for us to arrive. There was something wrong with each one of us this morning: Vicki was dropping everything - her cell phone, boarding pass, Sprees candy; Joel was having a bad day already; Yu-Wen wasn’t feeling well and I had stepped on a piece of glass the night before, so my foot was hurting a little bit.
The crew on our first flight this morning was not accommodating or friendly at all! They got mad at us for “not pre-boarding early enough” (It’s this airline’s policy that people in wheelchairs pre-board first, and there were quite a few of them on this flight, so naturally we couldn’t have pre-boarded earlier). Apparently the cello, which is considered cabin baggage, has to sit in the bulkhead. However, the airline we flew on doesn’t have assigned seating and since we weren’t the first ones to pre-board, all the bulkhead seats were taken by the time we got on the plane. The crew became frantic when they found out that there was a cello on board. It was as if we had brought a bear! They stopped the boarding process, and made an announcement over the loudspeaker, saying that there is a cello on board and that it has to go in the bulkhead. Well, problem was, the people that were already sitting in the bulkhead didn’t want to move for the cello. The flight attendant first tried to tell Yu-Wen that they’d put the cello in the closet in the front of the plane. At this point I decided to get involved, knowing that I’d make a few enemies. I told the flight attendant that the cello has a paid seat and they can’t just put it in a closet! Then she tried to get only one person to move, to put the cello in the bulkhead and Yu-Wen a few rows behind it. I told her that was also not ok and that the cello has to sit with Yu-Wen. Then they started to tell me, with a rather raised voice, that the ticket for the cello guarantees it a seat, but not necessarily a seat next to the person it belongs to. That was when the gate attendant who had pre-boarded us got involved, the captain was peeking out of the cockpit, and apparently I was “causing trouble”. It all ended when two of the people in the bulkhead got irritated enough to move, so magically two seats appeared for Yu-Wen and her cello. Perhaps I was a little harsh talking to the crew, but hey, it worked! During the actual flight we slept a little bit, I had a geography lesson from Joel on the airline napkin, which had a map of the States on it, and we slept a little more after that.
On our second flight, having learned from our mistake, we made sure to get the blue pre-boarding slip and we were the first ones in line to pre-board. Since there were no people in wheelchairs, we ended up claiming both bulkhead rows. The extra legroom was quite enjoyable. Our second flight was far more enjoyable than the first one! It was also quite a bit shorter.
Once we were at the hotel we rehearsed for a little bit, then got Chinese food for dinner. We’ve instructed Yu-Wen to get lots of sleep and to keep drinking hot tea with honey, because we really don’t want her to get sick!
For me, some of the highlights of today’s travel included:
*On our first flight, before the drama with Yu-Wen’s cello, Joel, Vicki and I tried to sit in the exit row. One of the flight attendants said to me “ You can’t sit in the exit row if you pre-board.” I replied “Well, what sense does that make?” Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because she said, “I can’t deal with this”, and walked away.
*My water bottle kept contorting during the flight, and I had to keep opening it to let air in. By the fourth or fifth time I did that, Joel and Vicki were starting to think that there was something actually wrong with it. It was funnier then than it is now.
*When we landed in Phoenix, our flight attendant said over the loudspeaker “We made it. YAY!” Two thoughts went through my head: “Are we in kindergarten?” and “Was there any reason to believe that we wouldn’t make it?”
*We saw a bird inside Phoenix airport. It was just sitting on one of the benches and I was even able to get close enough to take a couple of pictures.
Well, it was a memorable travel day, to say the least. I have to finish unpacking now and then I'll be off to bed.
Until I loosen my bow again,
Bella
Joel giving me a geography lesson on an airplane napkin.
Somewhere between Phoenix and Sacramento.
A luggage tower in Sacramento Airport.
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