Whoa. Today was crazy. I started my journey to Tokyo last night after work--I had purchased a ticket on the sleeper train to Shanghai that left Nanjing at 1:40 AM Wednesday morning. It was set to arrive at 5:32 AM. Well, it was delayed over an hour. I've never had that happen before. I thought it'd be okay seeing as my flight didn't depart until 8:40 AM and I wasn't checking any luggage.
When I finally arrived in Shanghai, I grabbed my things and took off toward the metro (it takes over an hour to get to Pudong airport by metro). I was planning on getting to the airport around 7:30--still enough time to get on the flight... then the metro had some sort of issue and we had to get off the train and wait for the next one. Now it was looking like I'd get there closer to 7:45 AM... pushing it, but still doable (I had also checked in online the night before.) I finally arrived at the airport at 7:50 AM. And I ran. Literally ran. I got to the check-in counter to get my boarding pass and there was a little bit of a line so I tried to use the machine. It said that I was too late and needed to go to the counter.
I waited for a second at the counter, then was able to get someone to help. She wasn't very helpful--just told me the gate was closed and I could rebook on the flight tomorrow. That was definitely not an option. I begged. Like a sad puppy. After a few minutes of begging and pleading, I was escorted by airport security through the security check, through customs and to my gate--straight on to the plane. I thought it was kind of odd that everyone was already on the plane 40 minutes before take off.
Once I landed here in Tokyo, I was checking my email at the hostel and I had received an email from Delta 1 hour before take off saying that the flight had been bumped up to 8:20 AM. Seriously? Who in their right mind sends an email to people traveling to say the flight is EARLIER an hour before we're supposed to leave? Do people really check that? By that point, they're probably like me and late.
By the way, this is my 200th post :)
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