Sunday 1 December 2013

Day 1 - Flight to Punta Arenas

Continuing the theme of the start and beginning of each trip being harder than the mountain itself, BA / Iberia / LAN compete to see who can be the most unhelpful over the course of my journey from London to Punta Arenas via Madrid and then Santiago. 

BA yet again excel by being unable to cope if part of your route is with another airline and so whilst they graciously give me a boarding pass for the flight to Madrid they can not help with either of the next two legs. I have about 2 hours turnaround time at each but it looks as though it is going to be tight. We get to Madrid at half ten and querying how I will get my boarding card there I am told that there will be someone waiting for us as we disembark to provides transfer passengers with their cards. 
 
Unsurprisingly, no one is there to meet us and as it is late the desk (once we finally locate it) is closed as everyone has gone home. I head to the departure gate but first there is confusion as to which gate the plane is flying from and then there is no one there to help. Luckily, I am flying business so, as a last resort, I head to the lounge to see what they can do and am met by smiling faces and a helpful attitude and we soon get out boarding passes. 

As this is being printed, I am chatting to the lady about the trip and she seems very surprised that I am going to Antarctica with no luggage. I assume that this is a problem with y Spanish so I tell her about my two large bags full of mountaineering clothes and equipment. She now seems confused and switches to English to confirm that there is no luggage associated with my ticket - which is really rather concerning as I don't think that the outdoor stores in PA have all the technical equipment I need. I show her my luggage tags from the London flight and she checks the system again but can find no record of them. This is really worrying but she calls someone who claims that the bags have arrived and been transferred to the Santiago flight and do not understand why the system isn't showing them. Don't worry she says, it will probably be ok. Easier said than done but there is little else I can do at this point so find a seat and have a large whisky to calm my nerves. 

The next part of the fun comes on arrival at Santiago as I have to clear immigration, pick up my bags and check in again as I am now on a domestic flight. I have repeatedly queried the time allowance for this and told it will be fine and so no special fast track service is provided or needed. Firstly, we arrive at about 9am when the majority of trans-Atlantic flights arrive so there is a huge queue in immigration. Despite that delay, there is still quite a wait in the luggage hall for the baggage and I am on tender hooks as to whether my bags have made it - naturally they are pretty much the last bags off the flight!

Then I have a wonderful time clearing customs as the chap behind me has ticked on his Customs Declaration that he is bringing plants or fruits into the country. For some reason they decide that this is my form and I am brought back to the counters having nearly got out. They don't accept that it is not my form and want to see what I have in my bags. Then they are annoyed that I have wasted their time when it turns out that I don't have any fruit or plants in my bags. By now a good 1h 15mins of my 2 hours have passed and I am getting rather concerned about the check in so I peg it to the departure hall which thankfully isn't too far away but obviously is absolutely full. I find a lane for the handicapped and families which is empty and ask what i should do since I am now running very late. The chap shrugs his shoulders and says he can't talk to me unless I have children or am in a wheelchair. Again I assume that my Spanish is at fault and so switch to English and again he repeats that he can't talk to me unless I have children or am in a wheelchair. I finally convince him to talk to me briefly and (remaining remarkably polite!) and he then agrees that I can go into another special lane (it is not clear what this is for) which is massively shorter than the main queue.  Within 30 seconds of joining that queue an airline official comes through calling for people for the Punta Arenas flight and I am lead back to the wheelchair and family line where the same chap seems to have forgotten our conversation of a minute ago and is now very happy to help me and then adds that I need to hurry through the airport to the gate as I shouldn't hold the plane up!

I get to the gate as they are boarding but there is a long queue so I take a seat next to the desk to wait. The queue gradually subsides and I head to desk when there are a few people left talking to the lady checking the tickets and so I wait my turn. This goes on for a bit so I go to the other side and speak to someone else at the desk to go through. They say sorry and that the flight has now closed! It turns out that the others are airline employees trying to get a standby seat and there weren't any and it is my fault for not interrupting the conversation to go through. I press this and they say sorry, there is nothing that they can do as the last bus has left for the plane - this does seem to be a problem but I think I can see a plane through the glass walls and moving 5 yards to the side of the deal it is quite clear that the gangway does in fact go straight to the plane.  Having been caught lying, one of the ladies agrees very reluctantly to see what she can do and so calls the plane and then says rather crossly that I should hurry up as they have been waiting for me. I walk the 20mtrs or so to the plane to be greeted nicely by the air hostess- obviously, there is then a further 20 minute wait while they complete paperwork etc. Thankfully, that brings the dramas to an end and I don't really have time to worry about my bags at PA as the whole lot come quickly and mine are some of the first. 

Overall, a pretty stressful journey but I and all my bags have made it. I get to the hotel at about 8 pm and not having met anyone else from the trip as yet have an early night to catch up on some sleep. 

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