JFK - This is going less than stellar

Oi. I’m exhausted already. The only good thing about travel difficulties is that at least they make the time go by. And make for good blog entries.

It was a pretty straightforward morning and everything went smoothly at home. Sure, you never actually have enough time to get to the level of preparedness that we travelers fantasize about, but that’s par for the course. So there were the last minute luggage smashes and snack-grabbing and apparel reconsiderations that almost always accompany a long journey somewhere, but for the most part things went smoothly. I was a little worried about the weight of my luggage, as the home scale registered 50 pounds ON THE DOT, and I was ready for Jet Blue to give me some lip should their scale be calibrated differently. I was delightfully surprised then, when the bag weighed in at 45 pounds (Hmmm, does that mean I’m really 5 pounds lighter? It must!). I was therefore I was a little distracted when the desk clerk informed me that I would arrive in Singapore the morning of the 13^th, and because my flight to Surabaya wasn’t until the morning of the 14^th, I would need to pick up my bags and recheck them. I am used to overlooking important information, so in the moment I thought that information sounded a little suspect, but I figured I must have misread the flight information. So instead of clearing up the matter then and there, my brain begin panicking slightly about what I was going to do with a 24 hour layover in Singapore.

Wanting to confirm this new setback, I pulled out the printout of my itinerary and was relieved to see that, as I had initially thought, my flight landed in Singapore on the 14^th, and my flight to Surabaya left after a mere hour and 15 minute layover. So I went up to the Jet Blue desk to clear up the situation. They basically told me that there was nothing they could do – my bags were tagged to Singapore, and therefore I had to pick them up in Singapore and recheck them. I kept saying that I didn’t think I’d have enough time, and they kept telling me I had a 24 hour layover, because there infallible computers insisted that I arrived in Singapore on the 13^th. I pointed out how that was physically impossible since Singapore is about 12 hours ahead. My flight from JFK didn’t leave until 8pm on the 12^th, making it 8am on the 13^th in Singapore. The very nice but very confused Jet Blue lady didn’t seem to grasp this logic, and as we were about to board told me I’d have to clear things up at JFK.

So I arrive at JFK and try to talk to the Jet Blue folks there. They told me I’d have to talk to baggage. The only caveat – to get to baggage I’d have to leave the swanky Jet Blue terminal. If you’ve never been to the Jet Blue terminal in JFK, well, it’s like some sort of hip party is going on all over. Sure part of me was put off by all the hip-ness of it, but it would have been a nice place to spend my 8 hour layover. But I needed to get this luggage thing sorted out before I could really relax, so I descended the escalator to hell, er… baggage.

The nice ladies really were trying to help, but they suffered from the same infallible belief in their computer system. The woman kept trying to tell me that I had to call the website that booked my flight, because clearly the website had given me incorrect information. It basically went like this…

Me – “But it’s physically impossible that I arrive in Singapore on the 13^th.”

Her – “Well that’s what our computers say.”

Me – “I understand, but there must be a little glitch in the system.”

Her – “No, the problem is with the site that booked your flights, you have to call them.”

Me – “But calling them won’t make any difference, I just need my bags checked to Surabaya.”

Her – “Well we can’t check them through because your layover is over 24 hours.”

Me – “But it’s not.”

Her – “Well you’re going to have to take that up with the site that booked your ticket.”

Me – “But when you do the math, there’s no way I can arrive…”

Her – “You’re not listening to what I’m saying, are you?”

And it went round and round like that for a good ten minutes until I finally decided to give it up, go to the Singapore Airlines terminal and talk to someone there.

Then I got stuck in the big door that goes round and round. I was only stuck in it for a minute, but it was enough that I really, REALLY wanted to throw all my stuff on the ground and yell, “Oh for fuck’s sake!” and go back home. Fortunately that moment passed and I trekked bravely forward to Terminal 4.

I found the Singapore Airlines counter in Terminal 4. It was unmanned. I called the reservation number and hunkered down behind the kiosk with the phone pressed to one ear and my finger jammed in the other, I was just barely able to understand the lady on the other side. She said that the real reason my bags couldn’t be checked through is that Jet Blue has a partnership with Singapore Air, but not with Silk Air, who operates the Singapore to Surabaya leg. This seemed eminently odd because Silk Air IS OWNED BY SINGAPORE AIR, but ok, I understand the politics of all the airlines so at least I KIND OF understood that reasoning. She also assured me that since the minimum time to deplane, collect and recheck my baggage and then get to my flight is an hour, I have “plenty of time” to make my flight. Yeah. My layover is an hour and 15 minutes – that 15 whole minutes of leeway! I’m gonna be fine! (That last sentence should be read dripping with sarcasm.)

So here I am in Terminal 4, far from the swanky party at the Jet Blue terminal, trying not to freak out about my luggage, and trying to stay positive.

The glories of International travel. It’s not always this bad, I swear ;)