Ushuaia -> Buenos Aires -> home

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We were supposed to take a late morning flight back to Buenos Aires but it was delayed until early afternoon. To make it back for work I had to catch a flight that night so I bid adios to my travel companions for the last 2 weeks.

I wasn’t anticipating any problems but I knew something bad could happen to my connecting flight in Houston as soon as the Continental Airlines agent told me that she could not check me in or issue me a boarding pass for my connecting flight back to Canada. The only reason I worried was because it was a short 1 hour 10 minute connection, which is considered “legal”. I knew there was a good chance I might miss my flight having to clear US immigration and re-submit myself to more security checks. Apparently they were unable to check me in because the connecting flight was operated by Air Canada with a code share by United Airline. What I didn’t understand and to this date I still don’t understand was why they could not check me in when Continental and United are both members of the Star Alliance. I mean, Air Canada checked me all the way through to Buenos Aires with Continental as the connecting airline. I was told to go to the United check-in counter to try but I got the same answer. I went as far as tracking down an employee of Air Canada in the back room somewhere but he too told me he could not check me in. At that point I stopped asking why and simply hoped for the best.

There was a long line to get through security but otherwise it was pretty straightforward – no need to take out bag of liquids for inspection. Clearly this was not good enough for flights destined for the US as we were subjected to additional secondary inspection with carry-on search by hand at the gate prior to boarding. Drinks purchased beyond security check weren’t even allowed unless you had them waiting for you like duty frees on the walk-way to the plane. What craziness, absurdity and paranoia!

Lucky for me our flight landed ½ hour early in Houston, giving me just enough time to navigate through long times at immigration and additional security clearance. I explained my situation to the lady directing traffic at the immigration line-up and she was nice enough to allow me to use the US citizen/resident line which was much faster. The Argentinians I saw had to get their finger prints electronically scanned and photos taken. It didn’t help that there was more line-up at the security check and the guy wasn’t as sympathetic and I had to wait like everyone else. After that I ran like a madman but was still at the mercy of the tram to go from Terminal E to A, getting to my gate just in time as they were boarding. If it weren’t for empty seats on the plane I would have been bumped.

Moral of the story: never connect through an American city if you can help it, even if it’s a shorter connection. I was happy that I didn’t check my bag or surely I would have missed my flight as I would have to collect my bag in Houston and re-check it for my connecting flight.

Let’s see if I’ll go back to Patagonia. Maybe back to Ushuaia for my trip to the Antarctic sometime in the near future!

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Photos

Flying back to Buenos Aires
Port William, Chile, southernmost town in the world