Singapore/KL Bangkok Stuttgart Washington DC Toronto Colorado Springs San Francisco

My trip to Asia got off to a rocky start. It started with an e-mail from United saying that my flight from DC to Tokyo had been delayed 90 minutes That wasn’t too bad, since I had 3 hours in Tokyo to make my connection to Bangkok, so all it really meant was that I’d have less time to freshen up in the Red Carpet Club (they have a really nice one in Tokyo, with showers and good food). But as I got to the Red Carpet Club at the airport in DC I got a call from United’s automated system telling me the flight was delayed an additional 90 minutes. This was not good because now I’d be arriving in Tokyo at the same time my connecting flight was due to depart. Ack!

Fortunately I was able to check right away with the United help desk, and it took half an hour to do, but they finally managed to rebook me on a flight through Beijing, with a 3-hour layover before going to Bangkok (and getting me to Bangkok a couple hours earlier than I was originally scheduled). They even managed to keep my upgrade, which means I had a very comfortable 13-hour flight, getting about 6-7 hours of sleep. The big question would be, could they pull my bag off the Tokyo flight and get it onto the Beijing flight? As I write this I’m on the plane so I still don’t know.

The real trouble came in Beijing. I was switching to Thai Airways, which is a nice airline, and because it was a different airline, United could not give me a boarding pass (so they said, but I’m still unsure about that). Anyway, even though Beijing has a nice new terminal for the Olympics, you still need competent people to work there. As I tried to find where to check in, the International Transfers desk (which I later learned should have given me my boarding pass) sent me off in another direction. I found myself trying to go into the gates without a boarding pass, and that gave them a fit (especially when they discovered the Tokyo-Bangkok boarding pass I’d originally been issued). I had four non-English speaking people ask me why I did not have a boarding pass before someone finally took me to the immigration supervisor’s desk. Four more people got involved and then they decided to call United Airlines to send someone over. It took an hour before someone came, all the while with me sitting there while the immigration police held my ticket and passport.

Someone finally arrived from United and told me I should have been issued a boarding pass upstairs (apparently, I was supposed to have figured this out on my own). She told me that now I would instead have to go to the Thai Airways check-in counter two terminals away and get a boarding pass. I asked her to come with me to make sure there were no other problems, but she wouldn’t.

My concern was this: I did not go through the entry process into China, nor did I have a visa for China. What she was telling me to do was go out the exit past baggage claim -- as if I had legally entered -- and then after getting my boarding pass, return to the secure area and go to my gate. (if I wanted to immigrate illegally into China, this was my big chance) My concern was that when I tried to go back through immigration control they would see that I had never legally entered, but now I was leaving, and I would have more troubles. Only now, I was 90 minutes away from my flight taking off, and I couldn’t afford more trouble.

As it turned out, I got back through the immigration checkpoint OK. What that tells me is that, despite having all these people looking at paperwork, despite all the hassle they put people through when entering or leaving the country, they ended up letting me depart from the open, non-secure area, even though my passport showed I’d never officially arrived. While I’m happy they let me through, I’m puzzled as to what, exactly, they were accomplishing with all the inefficient Communist bureaucracy.

These people are in BIG trouble when the Olympics start There is no way they will have the ability to handle all the international visitors.

Speaking of inefficient bureaucracy, I am curious to see the status of my luggage upon arriving. I’m betting it’s not there. Fortunately, I packed what I need for Bangkok, and for my first day in Malaysia, in my carry-on. But so far, this has not been so great.

(later: OK, my bag made it...it came out as soon as I came through Immigration. Yay!!)

(still later: United Airlines must have felt bad about the problems because they gave me back the 15,000 miles for my upgrade, even though I was still upgraded on the more important part of the journey)

Labels: Travel