Getting To The Airport And Actually Getting On The Plane: Take Two.

As some of you will know, I was supposed to fly out of Townsville this morning and set off on one of the greatest adventures of my life. All was going well; we woke up at 2:30 in the morning and managed to stumble out of the house at 3. We arrived at the airport at 4:30, as estimated and checked in without a problem.

We sat down and started to get comfortable while we waited for the farewell party to arrive. After about 5 minutes one of the airline staff approached us, informing us that there was an electrical fault with the plane and that there was an estimated three hour delay. For some reason we decided that, although it would be close, I would still probably have enough time to get through to my connecting flight.
Fail.

I was supposed to be travelling with a fellow exchange heading to Canada. Soon after she arrived and learnt that the flight had been delayed, she switched airlines and grabbed a ticket for 6 o’clock, requesting that the airline page me and tell me what was going on. By the time I got to service desk, heard what was going on and made my way to the other airline the flight had been closed, I’d missed my opportunity.

Drama after drama, in our early morning hazy we tried to see if there were any other earlier flights to Brisbane where I would catch my connecting flight to Auckland. Or perhaps catch a flight to Sydney or Cairns and then to Auckland? In the meantime I asked the service desk to recall my luggage as I was more than likely changing my flight. When I got it, it was absolutely COVERED in dust and one of the handles was broken, creating a hole into my bag.
Fail.
So we then asked service if they could do something to compensate. We were told that all they could do was send it away to get fixed, which would take about 2 weeks...

In the end, we decided that the best course of action would be to switch my international flights from Thursday to Friday and just try again tomorrow with new, stronger luggage... and a different airline :P

Michelle,
xx