It took me almost 24 hours to get to Centrair —Nagoya Airport (also called Central Japan International Airport)
My flight from Seattle to San Francisco was delayed; by delayed schedule, I would land at the San Francisco a few minutes after my connecting flight to Nagoya taking off. There were 7 other passengers (2 were connecting to Shanghai, 5 were connecting to Nagoya) in the same situation. After we took off from SeaTac, the crew member on board did their best to get us there on time and also contacted our connecting flies to hold a few minutes for us.
On this flight, I have meat all 7 other unlucky passengers for our seats were together. They were businessmen on their business trips and all of them are working for the same company as David. Since we were on the same boat, from that pint on, we became travel buddies.
As soon as we arrived at San Francisco, we took shuttle from Terminal 3 to International Terminal. Staff at the airport helped us to get there as fast as they can. After the shuttle ride, we ran about ½ mile to our gate. When we got to our gate, the gate was closed; we saw our plane pushing back…
Now what? We tried to catch up our breath as we walking back to the business lounge, thinking about changing tickets to whatever fights would get us to our destinations. At this time, someone received a test message from the United Airline to let us know that they can put us on the next fight to Tokyo then Nagoya. The fight will take off in about 1 hour 45 minutes.
By the time we got everyone’s new ticket, the fight was boarding. We got on it OK and the fight was smooth. But the story didn’t end here; at Narita (Tokyo Narita International Airport), we found out our luggage didn’t arrive with us. Luckily one of the guys speaks Japanese, so we were able to talk to airport people, fill out the lost luggage form and clear customs without our luggage. We had 2 ½ hours layover at Narita then finally made it to Nagoya.
Thanks for all the people who helped me on this not so easy trip. Because of them, I made it to Nagoya in one day; because of them I was able to call Daivd from San Francisco and Nagoya Airport (guys offered me to use their cell phones).
Things happening in our lives; I didn’t know my adventure started even before I get to Nagoya. It was frustrating yet fun. Yes, it was fun, when you are with kind hearted, positive happy people, the worse situation can be fun too.
P.S.:
- The other 2 guys who were connecting to Shanghai missed their fight too and detoured through Beijing.
- The guys who helped me also helped an elderly Japanese couple to catch a new fight with us.
- My luggage were delivered two days later. Some things in my bags were missing.
