Oh boy, this trip to Japan almost didn't happen. Again-again. At least that's how it felt. Coming home from work at 9:30 to a text on my phone saying our first flight, from CVG to Houston, was canceled due to weather. Please call United airlines to reschedule or if you wish to cancel. WHAT?! Okay, fine, we call United and held for about 15 minutes. Their weird chat/call thing, which only let us hear the lady at the other end (breath VERY loudly) and tell us that since we booked with ANA, we had to call them. Fine. Call ANA, be on hold for an hour and a half and they say they can't do anything because we did the early check in through United and they have to cancel the check in. Call United and wait half an hour and they take about 45 minutes talking to supervisors trying to figure out how to "cancel a check in". Someone Jeff talked to said they think they got it but it'll take 2-3 hours to go through. Call ANA and hold for half an hour and it's the same lady saying she still can't do anything until that check in cancel goes through. It's about 2 a.m. by now and Jeff's decided to attempt some semblance of sleep but I'm too angry to sleep. Visions of having to cancel this trip are flashing through my mind. Not getting anyone at United or ANA to take responsibility for this one canceled flight and just putting us on a fucking other flight that will get us to Haneda airport in Tokyo by Wednesday for fuck's sake! My face was hot and flushed and I am PISSED.
We get to the airport by 4:30 (thank you Espelage Transport!) and decide our best bet is to talk to someone in person while also calling ANA (knowing we'll be on hold for a while). We don't have an ANA desk at CVG but there is a United one. They confirmed that the check in cancellation did go through so ANA shouldn't have any troubles rebooking our flight. This time our hold for ANA was 1 hour and 45 minutes. They have an annoying message every 38 seconds telling us to "help expedite the call, please have your ANA Mileage Club Number ready". Doing some math, we heard that freaking message at least 364 times while on hold. I got no sleep whatsoever, and we were on the phones for 5 hours.
But Lo and Behold, an angel works at the CVG United counter and her name is Tonya. ANA was ONCE AGAIN insisting they were unable to rebook our flight or get us on any other flights out of CVG to an international airport that will whisk us away to Japan. Jeff even had the alternate route all picked out. There was a United flight to ORD at 11:15 that would fly to HND at 12:30 and we could still make it with plenty of time to make our original and final flight to Fukuoka. "No no, I am unable to do that, I am very sorry." The ANA lady was telling Jeff. So he told her to hold a minute as he got in line at the United counters. Enter the hero of our story Tonya, who also knew this ANA agent (I swear we got the same lady all 3 times. She might be the only person who speaks English to answer the phone after midnight PST) was wrong and could absolutely change our flight to the ORD. She took no nonsense, told the ANA agent that United could only change our first flight but ANA had to cancel it first. Through sheer determination and taking no shit, Tonya saved our vacation and we left the United counter with a tear in my eye and triumphantly clutching boarding passes that would get us to Japan! While we are flying United instead of ANA and not in our premium economy seats we so excitedly splurged on, we are in the emergency exit row with an amazing amount of leg room!
And now we are 2 hours and 33 minutes away from landing in Tokyo's Haneda airport. The extreme low of last night/morning and extreme highs of having the error fixed has left me in a weird numb state of shock. I think I need to hear the Family Mart tune to slap my mind into the present and make it realize we have finally returned to our favorite country to visit!
Also, shout out to my husband's birthday gift to me, a lifesaver on this trip with a baby two rows behind us that they keep bringing in front of us to calm down since we have all this space in the emergency exit row: wireless earbuds with ANC noise cancelling. It's AMAZING how it instantly turns off the loud drone of the airplane engines, and the baby a distant wail I can easily drown out with my music.
Now it's later. About 10:30 pm and we are in our hotel room here in Fukuoka, at The Lively Fukuoka Hakata. Whew, what a day full of flying!
We made it to Haneda and boy is customs BUSY! There are many many people enjoying Japan's fully open borders. And who can blame them? This is an awesome country to visit! Boy were we packed in there though. It was pretty warm too and some girl ahead of us in line had a near-fainting spell! Luckily, Jeff and I made it through the borders okay. Well, almost okay. When we left home I put my house keys in my bag. Now usually I leave my car and house keys at my parents where I'm parked but I was in such a tizzy I forgot. I got pulled aside and bag checked because my Roger Stick (see: pointy, metal, protection jabber for creepy patrons) was in my bag. Opps. I was very apologetic and, thank you Google translate, told them they are okay to throw it away, as long as I get to keep the keys XD.
Customs took so long and our flight into Haneda was delayed an hour, so there was no way we were going to make our connecting flight to Fukuoka. Luckily, THAT was handled easily enough at the ANA ticket counter. And okay, okay, ANA is back in our good graces. I will reserve my hate and judgement for their English speaking line when trying to fix a cancellation. The flight attendant asked us, the only foreigners on the flight, if we were here to sight see and where we were going. We told her and asked if she recommended any good foods. She said that each place here in Kyushu has its own special ramen! We chatted a little and then about 30 minutes later she came back with a small gift of candy and this adorably personalized postcard where each flight attendant wrote their favorite food from the Kyushu cities we'd be visiting! OK ANA, that is how you make me like you again! <3
Now we're here, showered, appeased with conbini drinks, Fami-Chiki, and a mentaiko rice ball for me and a tuna mayo rice ball for Jeff.
As a phone-based customer service person by trade, the ANA call center person infuriated me to no end. There were multiple, easy fixes that could've been done, but it wouldn't've counted as a sale for her so she wasn't willing to assist. The fact that she repeatedly stated that there were no other possible itineraries that would get us to Fukuoka before Thursday or Friday was infuriating. Ma'am, I found five different ones with a cursory Google search that would all get us there at literally the same time as we expected or earlier. Whatever. That is passed.
The meals on United were, as usual, bland and inoffensive. While the extra leg room was nice, the flimsy flippy-outy tray table left a lot to be desired. While my earbuds aren't as powerful as Angie's, tuning out babies and emergency sirens from all directions, they did allow me to catch up on some very old Lets Plays that I'd downloaded on my iPad. It's a good thing I did that, since (like every time I'm on an international flight more than 4 hours) the WiFi on the plane was inoperable. We made the best of it, like usual, and had an enjoyable time. Well, as much enjoyment as you can have being on a 14 hour flight next to the bathrooms because Houston TX's weather is inconsiderate.
After checking into our hotel and wandering out to Family Mart, I'm going to stand by my original assessment; there are orders of magnitude less tourists (well, at the very least, tourists as melanin-deficient and easy to spot as we are) than in any other city we've visited in this country. I could count on one hand the number of Obvious Tourists we've seen since clearing the gates at FUK.
Speaking of, I hope they have some FUK merchandise at Fukuoka Airport that I can buy.
That's all I've got for tonight. More to come tomorrow.
So glad you all made it there safe! Reading this stressed me out! I cannot imagine how stressful it was for you two!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a nightmare, but Tonya fucking rocks!! Hope you guys have so much fun!
ReplyDeleteP.S. this is Linny. Not Anonymous. Or is it Disco Hair Witch?
DeleteThank you Sarah and Disco Hair Witch! Any shrine donations and wishes will now be made in Tonya's name. Lolol. Thanks for reading!
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