The bonaire airport is kinda small. this is pretty much the whole departures area. there were two flights leaving around the same time, so it was standing room only. at least it was air conditioned.
Its one of those airports where you have to walk onto the tarmac and up the stairs to get on the plane though, which feels blistering after a few hours of air conditioning.
My plane landed in Newark, New Joisey right around sunset, which made for a beautiful view of Manhattan.
The contrast between Bonaire and Manhattan is pretty intense. Thats the statue of Liberty under the wing.
And thats when it all went to hell. My original reservation had me leaving NJ an hour before i arrived there, which, without time travel, posed significant problems. United rescheduled me to have a 12 hour layover here before I can start the second leg of my trip. I had planned to spend some time with a friend but he mixed up the days and wasnt available. Contingency plan A was to use the United Club passes my father had given me to camp out in the first class lounge for a few hours at night and then again in the morning before my flight.
When i got through customs and passport control, which felt a lot like ellis island but with robots, I asked the united customer care agent how to get to the club. She told me to go out a door and around the corner. So i did this, and found myself in the checkin area. I checked in for my flight and they told me how to get to the club and directed me to security. which was closed. After three tries i found a tsa area that was open. This involved a not inconsiderable amount of running around a very large airport.
They said I couldnt get through until midnight because my plane technically left the next day. It was about 8:30 at this point. They also told me that united could give me a gate pass if i wanted to get in tonight. So i was directed back to the check in area, where a supervisor who couldnt really be bothered said they dont do gate passes, but one of her underlings could take me through.
He tried to escort me through but said "i dunno why she didnt do a gate pass" to TSA, which then decided that he would have to stay with me if he was going to badge me in. He told me i could wait in the checkin area, but the police sometimes come around to kick people out because homeless people hang out there. Needless to say, as a female travelling alone, this was not a big selling point. He was about to get off work (his girlfriend was following us around waiting) and didnt want to bother doing anything, so he directed me to a locked door, behind which was supposedly a supervisor and walked off.
The agent who had initially checked me in walked past at this point and wound up talking to the supervisor for me. After a long wait they decided that the best way to handle it was to give me a key to a suite at the airport DoubleTree Inn. This was fine with me, all i wanted was a shower and a place to charge my stuff.
After another long trek around Liberty International, I made it to the hotel shuttles and was able to get to my free room. At no point in any of this did anyone even ask my name or for my reservation information. I was able to go straight to the room with the key, and the front desk didnt want anything from me. Id be lying if i said i didnt consider stealing the towels.
I slept for about five hours and managed to shower twice while I was there. I headed for the airport where I made it through security with no issues and (finally!) got into the club. I am now gorging myself on celebratory bagels as I type. They are delicious New York bagels. I have an extra ziploc bag in my carryon (a girl should always be prepared) and I think I will take some "to go."
Another ten hours and Ill be home!
No comments:
Post a Comment