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Published: February 7th 2008
Well you thought all we had to do was catch the plane and after 18 or so hours we would be home...Ha!!!
First thing we arrived at New Orleans airport to find that our flight was delayed insted of flying out at 3.10pm it was not going till 4.20pm .... so phoned Air Pacific to express concern that we would be getting in a bit late and how could we secure an exit seat for Ian as it is a long time squished in an ordinary seat both for him and the person sitting in front of him with his knees in their back.
Got on to Daniel at customer service he said just try and get to check in as quick as possibe as they can only allocate exit seats at the desk...OK
Arrrived in Dallas to find that we had just missed our connecting flight and the next one out would be at 8pm rang Daniel again but found that their office was closed then worse newsfound out it was not going until 9.20pm which would then arrive in Los Angeles just as our flight home was due to leave...but what could we do?
Meet
some others in a similar position Shanni from Ohio was going to Fiji for her sisters wedding on saturday and still had to get her dress made...suggested a sarong might be a good idea....her sister did not think this was a good idea......no sense of humour!!!!
The others were 2 couples also heading to Fiji for 3 days, as the first leg of a 3 week holiday before flying to Brisbane...none of us were very happy.
Arrived in Los Angeles to find no staff at the Air Pacific counter to assist us...American Airlines with whom we had flown from New Orlens wiped their hands of us ....said their contract with us was to get us to LAX not their problem that we missed our flights.
The others had more luck because they had round trips ... AA paid for their rooms and gave them meal vouchers.. so we decided we would hook up with them and stay at the same hotel.
Next morning at breakfast we were advised seeing as there were 7 of us that we should consider a "private"charter and do the Hollywood LA tour as a group...well we had the best day. Our
tour guide 's name was Matt and between him and Shanni's humour we laughed and laughed. He took us all over even to Westfield's Shopping Centre's Food Court for lunch to do a bit of celebrity spotting but we didn't see any.
We drove around Beverley Hills looking a the Stars homes went up to Mulholland Drive Lookout to see the Hollywood sign and Matt commented that the air was so clear a very rare occurance in LA probably only happens a couple of time a year...we could see all the way to the beaches.
Next day we just hung arounf until it was time to go to the airport staying in Shanni's room as the airlines had paid for 2 days and she had flown out the night before. Got to the airport to be told even though we were paying nearly $1400 to fly home that we were only on "standby" Not happy Jan.... then to top it off as we were flying Air Pacific we could not access the Qantas Club lounge as we had hoped...
So all in all the last few days spoilled what had been a fantstic holiday and we will
have a chance to see how good travel insurance really is!! but on a positive note we did meet some nice people who shared a difficult situation but made the best out of it.
So I will sign out for the final time as we have arrived home safe and sound ....hope you all enjoyed the blogs.
Look forward to catching up with you all when we get the end of the month done :-)
Irene and Ian
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Glenny
non-member comment
Thats a glass half full blog if ever I read one (hic)
well done Lizzie - no good having a whinge - and the driver looked ok too