on jetlags and flight connections

Somewhat belated perhaps, but happy new year.
…and greetings from Vancouver, British Columbia.

No, I’m no longer in manga/animeland (more commonly known as Japan, more specifically Osaka), I’m back in prison… erm, I meant school and work.

Now, there are multiple reasons to explain why I’ve neglected to do updates up till now.
Well yeah, you can say I’ve just been slacking or was having too much fun watching Tenimyu or opening up boxes of merchandise that have accumulated over the past year, but that’s when I was back home.
Yes, it has been, in fact, 4 days since I’ve left Kansai Airport. The thing is that, in actuality, it’s only been 3 days since I actually got back in Vancouver.
So what the hell happened during that 1 day that I (at least claim) haven’t been in Vancouver but was outside Japan?
I was tossed between airports or terminals, f***ing missed a flight.
Erm, no, this wasn’t because I was getting lost in the airport, sleeping in, or was doing anything else that makes me look like a complete retard.
(for the record: yes, there was one time I actually slept in and missed a flight, almost got myself in trouble with my relatives, got yelled at by my parents, making myself look like a complete retard – the said relatives still poke me about this for the hell of it every single damn time I go back)

So, the remainder of this entry will consist of rants and complaints related to all the chaos I went through on my way back here from Osaka, which made this the worst experience with flights.
Trust me, I don’t go off ranting about crappy flights to this extent (warning: yes, it’s friggin’ long), but really, if it wasn’t for this flight screwing me over, I wouldn’t have been as jetlagged as I am right now, and would not have missed more than 1 class (which, by the way, I deliberately and intendedly missed)
So, feel free to keep reading for the hell of LOLs and facepalming =p

My original plan was, as with my flight on the way to Osaka, to go through San Francisco.
As lame as this may sound, I chose this route due to the fact that a) it was the cheapest option I found at the time of booking, and b) it was through an airline company which would recognize my mileage plan (the one and only reason why I barely ever fly JAL is simply because of the fact that I don’t have their mileage plan =p)

On the way to Osaka was perfectly fine, except for the amount of delay I suffered at YVR.
Now, the problem about getting back to YVR mainly came from the fact that I ended up missing a connecting flight. Had I been able to grab that flight on time, I would have been able to get back to YVR 12 hours earlier than my actual arrival time.

Now, allow me to reiterate that I wasn’t getting lost at San Francisco International Airport, despite the fact that it was an airport I was unfamiliar with. I wasn’t sleeping in at the terminal and let me flight leave without me.What actually happened was that I got held back at virtually ever single place that can potentially hold me back, namely immigration, baggage claim, baggage re-check-in, and at security.
What usually takes up time at immigration is waiting in line. Now, if the line moves fairly quickly, that’s fine. Problem was the fact that not only was there one flight coming from Japan (the one I was on), but there was another flight coming in from Narita (Tokyo). Now, I never encounter problems facing the immigration officers (being an English major, I’d be sad if I can’t get through their questions), but this unfortunately wasn’t the case for many of the people who were ahead of me in line. As a peer advisor who deal with many ESL students and as a perspective ESL teacher, I try my best not to criticize people whose English proficiency is not as high. But I’m sorry, seeing people who stumble upon questions as simple as “hi, what is your job?” or “are you a student?” annoyed the sh** outta me.

Sadly enough, no matter how quick I got out of immigration, baggage claim would have stopped me anyway, since it took forever for it to come out. As tired and annoyed as I was I waited patiently, and as soon as they came out, I immediately proceeded to luggage check-in. This fortunately didn’t take long.

Security was also a bi***, as there were tons of people there. The fact that I had a laptop also didn’t help.
Now, the departure gate was right across the hall from security, so, feeling slightly relieved, I proceeded there as soon as I could.
Problem: they f***ing closed the doors to the gate literally 30 seconds before I get there!!! I mean, I saw them close the f***ing door!
This basically screwed up all my plans – I first went to the attendants at the gate adjacent to my gate, explained the situation, but their response was, “I’m sorry, the Vancouver flight is completely full and can’t let anymore people on.”
Well excuse me, but they’ve already checked luggage, I had to take this flight to get back to Vancouver, in time for my classes the next day. And really, you gotta realize that I can’t nor shouldn’t be taking the blame for the fact that I missed that connection! (let’s recall the fact that it took forever for my bags to come out, and, unless you’re uber arrogant and inconsiderate, you can’t say “well you would’ve made it to your connecting flight if it wasn’t for you checking baggage”)
Sure enough, they of course didn’t f***ing care about my situation (so I didn’t even bother explaining), and instead directed me to customer service. Since I did realize that screaming or cursing customer service won’t do a thing, I tried to keep myself as calm as possible as I explained my situation to the rep.
Sadly enough, none of the direct flights from San Francisco to YVR had vacancy, since many of the flights were getting cancelled due to the weather conditions. As a result, I had to take a flight to LA, and from LA to YVR.

Initially, I was told that the flight from LA to YVR will arrive in YVR at around 9pm. That was still reasonable for me, considering that I’d be able to give myself enough time to sleep and allow me to get to my 8am class.
Problem: the flight from LA to YVR was delayed by over 7 hours.
The flight left LA at around midnight, and landed in YVR at around 3:30am.
For this, I did receive conpensation (dinner voucher to use at the airport, and a free meal on the plane), but that of course didn’t relieve me from distress, fatigue, and sleep deprivation.

Sure enough, I ended up having to miss all my classes on Tuesday which really, really sucked – they were classes I actually *did* want to attend, so I’m rather annoyed by what ended up happening.
Still, what’s done is done, and I’ve decided I’ll stop complaining.
But… well, sure, things do happen, but I wouldn’t have minded getting an apology y’know… *sigh*