Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Is the news good?

1/27/10 – 2nd time around trip to England.

I officially HATE airfrance. They sent me an email a few days ago stating that I needed to provide them with more information. I tried about 10 times to complete what they wanted, but their site never worked. It ended up not being an issue, but still is just another thing to add to list. I tried to check-in online, but it wouldn’t let me, another thing to add to the list. When I get to the airport, I can’t use the kiosk, another thing, and had to talk to a person. When she was checking me in, she realized something wasn’t quite right. It ended up not being an issue, just something weird since these tickets were changed and the person didn’t do something, another thing. To top off all my frustration and nervous, I rip a hole in the knee of my jeans saying bye to my mom.

Flight was a Delta flight that left out of a domestic terminal, yeah; I thought that was weird as well. The flight was schedule to depart at 6:35pm, but didn’t until after 7:15ish. It turns out that the plane had landed at 4pm in terminal A from Paris (the international terminal) and had to be taxied over to terminal D. When the plane finally arrived it still needed everything done for the new flight. So not only was it poor logistics, it wasn’t efficient use the time. My flights to London were glorious once it got going. The flight from Philadelphia to Paris was pretty empty, leaving the middle seat open. Probably could’ve laid down in a row of seats had I thought about it. It had Delta Demand, which is an individual screens for each seat to play movies/tv/music/games.

With the plane being late, my connection was close, but I got there 15 minutes before boarding. Going thru security was a breeze and didn’t have to travel far luckily. This flight was packed but I had an aisle seat and wasn’t so bad. It was a really short ride. Landed in Heathrow and made my way thru customs.

In case you weren’t aware of what happened before: I was denied entrance because I was told I needed a visa and had to leave 2 days later. I knew that I would be on a list and most likely get held up at customs. I made sure that all my ducks were in a row and my stories were straight. Nearly 7 hours, 3 interviews, bag inspection and 2 free sandwiches, I was told I was being denied again. The basic reason why I was denied this time was because I messed up before and nothing changed for this trip. She said that If I had gotten a job and then came back in 8 months to a year, I probably would’ve been fine. (I’m sorry, I live in USA where 2 weeks starting vacation is good. Not everyone can have 4-6 week vacations.) She stated some other stuff, but above were the main reasons. She said that I could’ve gotten a visitor’s visa from the embassy. When I was doing research, I saw no such thing for USA. This is now the 2nd time their stupid site has help ruin a trip. She also said having an itinerary would’ve been good. The point of this trip was to just go with the flow, so having an itinerary would’ve been opposite of that.

I’m currently on the way to Bath to meet up with the Coach. I really didn’t feel like being miserable for 2 days in London by myself and in some cheap hotel.

So now I have no plans to return to the UK and will probably run into trouble every time unless I get a visa. This sucks. At least now I can waste all the money I haven’t been spending by visiting people, going to shows, learning to snowboard and going out. Las Vegas and/or Savanna for rugby? Toronto and/or Colorado and/or Boston and/or LA to visit friends?

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