An Incredible Journey

13 de mayo 2017
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Yes yes, I know, I'm terrible about keeping up with this blog.  But I'm going to tell you a story of events that happened 5 months ago - my journey back to Colombia from Chicago after Christmas break.

It's a long and harrowing tale, involving standing in many lines and a lot of waiting time.  Thankfully there is some frustrated attempt of wit through my live tweets of this trek. (See below!)


7 - 9 de enero 2017
Mount Prospect, Illinois, United States
O'Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Newark Liberty Airport, Newark, New Jersey, United States
Wyndham Garden, Newark, New Jersey, United States
El Dorado Airport, Bogotá, DC, Colombia
Palonegro Airport, Lebrija, Santander, Colombia
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

What was originally supposed to be a 15-hour trip became a 43-hour odyssey.  Here's my original schedule:

1. ORD-EWR: 7 Jan 6:10 pm CDT (GMT-6) - 7 Jan 9:22 pm EDT (GMT-5)
2. EWR-BOG: 7 Jan 11:55 pm EDT (GMT-5) - 8 Jan 5:55 am COT (GMT-5)
3. BOG-BGA: 8 Jan 9:45 am COT (GMT-5) - 8 Jan 10:51 am COT (GMT-5)

Here's what actually happened:

1. ORD-EWR: 7 Jan 7:25 pm CDT (GMT-6) - 7 Jan 11:52 pm EDT (GMT-5)
2. EWR-BOG: 8 Jan 3:59 pm EDT (GMT-5) - 8 Jan 10:34 am COT (GMT-5)
3. BOG-BGA: 9 Jan 9:45 am COT (GMT-5) - 9 Jan 10:51 am COT (GMT-5)

Here's the full story:

1. ORD-EWR:

• Takeoff from ORD delayed an hour and fifteen minutes.
• Spent another hour and fifteen minutes on the tarmac at EWR.
• Pilot says we are waiting for our gate.
• Pilot says our gate is being changed.
• Pilot says our gate is back to the original.
• Pilot says we are waiting for another plane to finish refueling.
• FINALLY we get to the gate.
• It's just about midnight.  I run to my next gate.  It's bare.  Not a single United employee or customer in sight.  Plane's still there though, but I've got no way to get to it.
• I get in (a very long) line for United customer service.  One girl tells the rest of the line that she just called United and got helped a lot quicker.  I call while waiting in line.
• I get a notification around 1:45 am that my plane JUST TOOK OFF from Newark.  Needless to say I'm pissed that there were no staff at the gate.
• Though I was told by the hold track several times that my call was important to them and would be answered in the order it was received and that it would be approximately 15-20 minutes, my call gets picked up in about 40 minutes.  I've hardly progressed through the physical customer service line.
• The man on the phone schedules me on the next available flight: EWR-BOG: 8 Jan 3:59 pm EDT (GMT-5) - 8 Jan 10:34 pm COT (GMT-5), BOG-BGA: 9 Jan 8:45 am COT (GMT-5) - 9 Jan 9:51 am COT (GMT-5).  
• This means 16 more hours in Newark and 9 hours in Bogota.  This means arriving home 22 hours after my original plan.
• The customer service rep takes about 30 minutes to schedule this and leaves me on the (mostly silent) line.
• I learn that hotel vouchers can only be given in person, and travel vouchers can only be given by complaining online.
• He transfers me to luggage services to see where my suitcases are.  After 30 minutes, they pick up the phone and tell me they have no way of knowing exactly where my luggage is, but that it should follow me.  I can't retrieve it until Bucaramanga.
• After waiting in line for over 4 hours, I get to the desk, where I'm given a hotel for the...morning?  It's about 4 am.  The rep can't promise a hotel in Bogotá but says she'll write a note on my file.  She sends me on my way with a hotel voucher, three $10 food vouchers, a toiletry kit, and a bottle of water.
• Took the airport train to the hotel shuttle pickup point and wait almost an hour for my bus.
• The bus is full of British people for unknown reasons.  Half of the Brits are left behind because the bus isn't big enough for all of us.
• Get to the hotel and wait almost an hour to be assigned a room.  Spend one of my vouchers at the hotel cafe on a banana, muffin, and bottle of water.
• Get to my room about 6 am.  I look in my carry-on and find no change of clothes, just weird stuff that wouldn't fit in my suitcase but is not useful to me now.
• Sleep for about 7 hours.  Find out the banana is definitely not ripe and definitely not edible.
• Take the shuttle back to the airport.  Throw out the two full bottles of water I didn't have time to drink. 

2. EWR-BOG:

• Get on the plane, stow my carry-on, and find my seat.
• A flight attendant comes to me, hands me a boarding pass with my name on it, and says, "Ms. Roznai?  Please occupy this seat."
• It's business class!
• There's no one next to me, or occupying either seat across the aisle.
• I get to order a complementary alcoholic drink?!
• Oh, I had to scarf it down before takeoff?  Bye mostly-full Jack & Coke.
• Cool, I don't have to pay to watch TV in business class!
• First I watched the Golden Globes until we lost the US signal somewhere at the end of Florida, then I watched Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children.  It was an enjoyable film.
• Flight lands in Bogotá and luckily there's no line at immigration.  I take the bus to my terminal and ask the Avianca desk about a hotel voucher.  They can't do anything since it was booked through United, so they direct me back to the main terminal to find the United desk.
• I walk past customer service desks for every airline except United.  I ask around and am directed to the single United ticket counter.
• I tell my story to the United worker, she looks up my reservation, and says she cannot give me a voucher because it is against United Airlines policy to give vouchers for weather delays.
• I argue that it was not entirely a weather delay, that the gates at EWR were full of other planes so we could not occupy a gate.  She argues that those planes were occupying those gates because of weather.  She calls over her manager who repeats the same company line.
• I ask about the note written by the representative in New Jersey.  She says the note says, "If possible" and that it was not possible.  She says if she were to have written the note she would not have used that language.  She would have been more direct and written that it was "required."
• I tell her it's ridiculous that it comes down to passive voice like that.  She doesn't bat an eye.
• Through sobs of despair and desperation, I ask if there are cots somewhere.  She tells me "There are some chairs over there."
• After crying in the bathroom for a bit, then buying a few souvenirs (including some dinosaur stickers 'cause treat yo'self), and buying some dinner, I find a plot of floor to call my own for the next 6 hours.

3. BOG-BGA

• I head to check in to my flight and am redirected to the other terminal.  I find a bus that takes me there.
• I check in and find my fellow teacher Andrea, and we wait together for our flight.
• Our flight ends up being delayed an hour.
• We finally start boarding, and I am thrilled to discover that I'm in a row all by myself.  In fact, I am the only person sitting in the entire 12-person exit-row section.  The flight attendant is concerned that I can't handle the responsibility and offers to relocate me.  I stay.
• I raise the armrests and lay down for a nap, waking up only for my complimentary Avianca juice box.
• I arrive at the airport and my luggage does too!
• Andrea and I wait 20 minutes for my scheduled cab to arrive.
• Finally I make it home and collapse on my bed.

It was quite exhausting and took me at least a week to recover.  I later sat down and sent the following message to United (I maxed out the character limit):

On my journey from Chicago to Bucaramanga 7Jan2017 I encountered many misfortunes. The first plane UA330 was delayed an hour due to weather, but I still would've made my connection as I had a 2.5 hour layover initially. But, we spent an hour and a half stuck in the plane on the tarmac in Newark because there were not available gates and the plane in our gate was refueling. I sprinted 30 gates to my next plane, which was still sitting there, but there were no United employees in sight to let me in. UA1558 left the gate 45 minutes later-enough time for me to have gotten on the plane if they had not locked me out. I got in line at United customer service at 12:15am. The line was moving extremely slowly so I called United while continuing to wait in line. After listening to 40 minutes of "Your call is important to us. Your estimated wait time is 15-20 minutes," I finally got ahold of a representative. After telling me that the earliest possible flight I could get on was at 4:30pm the next day (16 hr layover in Newark), landing at 10:30pm and departing at 7:30am (9 hr layover in Bogota), he remained silent on the line for 30 minutes confirming my flight (I almost thought he'd hung up). He then connected me to luggage (another 30 minutes on hold), where they told me they THOUGHT my luggage was in Newark but really had no way of confirming that for sure, and that it would "probably" be checked through with my new tickets. I continued waiting in line until 5am (5 hours total) and received a hotel, but the Wyndham Gardens was not ready for that many surprise guests and I waited another hour to check in. Later that day I return to the airport and take flight UA1068 with no issues. When I arrive in Bogota, the United representative and her supervisor refuse to help me out due to policy, despite the note left on my record from the rep in Newark. I had to sleep in the Bogota airport through no fault of my own. I would like to receive recuperation for this harrowing 43 hr Odyssey.

As a response, they gave me a $200 travel credit.  Here's the catch: if your flight involves planes that are not United (even if they are Star Alliance) it won't work.  United doesn't fly to Bucaramanga.  I've got a year to figure out how to use it.

Last but not least, in case you're interested and missed it the first time around, here's my Twitter tale of this venture:

Travel Nightmare - Jan 7-9, 2017