Every year my family and I go visit Brazil. My wife is from there, so this is a chance and part of my promise to her dad that he'll see his daughter every year. This was going to be my 5th or 6th time going, so nothing too new out of the ordinary, except now we were packing for the trip for me, my wife and daughter Olivia, who is 2 years old.
First off, our flight wasn't going to leave until about 3:30 PM on Friday, so Lucelia and I both worked from home. I work at JobDig and Fridays are often our sales deadline days. We had just gotten through a tough recession where our industry was hit pretty hard, in the fact that we make money by advertising the job openings that our clients have on JobDig's product lines. Well today was a busier morning than normal and I was receiving more than the typical amount of orders for advertising to schedule. Not going to complain there, but being that it was the day of our trip, I was sort of hoping for a slower morning. Needless to say I was busy up until noon which was when we were going to head out to the airport. So I really didn't get the best chance to do a once over through our house and double check to see if there is anything else I needed.
Over the past few years, I have been able to park by my friend Joe's apartment to leave my car there since he lives about 3 miles away from the airport. Joe usually then drops me off at the airport if he's available to do so. So he was going to do that again this time.
We had gotten the tickets at a little bit of a discount $850 or so each using our Delta skymiles. But in order to use them, we had to sign up for their Delta Credit Card. We are trying to not use CCs but if this was going to save us money, we signed up. Also another perk is that you always get 1 bag to check for free. We also each got 2 free passes to the Delta Club. I was pretty excited to try it out. Free WiFi, Free snacks and drinks and comfortable surroundings. Thought it would be a good chance for Olivia to get comfy before our flight, and I, get a few cocktails in before the flight so I could sleep better on the 10 hour flight we were about to have from Detroit to Sao Paulo.
So Lu, Olivia and I check in at the counter and decide to just check our 2 checked bags under me and Olivia's name. Whenever we travel to Brazil, there is always a hang up with Lu's passport. Her Brazilian passport has her maiden name on it and her Green Card has her married name on it. So we can always count on about a 10-15 minute delay to get it cleared with our marriage certificate. At check in we realized that we forgotten to grab Olivia's car seat out of the car when Joe dropped us off. I had to call him to come back. He had just gotten back into his apartment, when he had to turn around. It also caused him to have to reschedule a work call, which I felt bad about.
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| Family picture at the Delta Club |
We got our tickets and sped through the family security check line. Once past security, I usually always head to the gate to confirm the plane is leaving the same gate that's posted on my ticket, but this time I didn't. I saw that the gate was about 8 gates away from the Delta Club, so we went straight to the club. Lu and I had the chance to catch up on a few more work emails, Olivia got some snacks and watched Elmos world on my cell and I got a few drinks which I was looking forward too. It was a great 60-90 minute spot to rest.
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| Olivia enjoying her time at the Delta Club |
I wasn't going to make this flight the my dad wasn't going to arrive in time. It was really disappointing that I had to leave Lu and Olivia on the plane themselves. I hugged and kissed them both and said good bye.
I realized this story is getting long, so I'll speed it up. The head of the delta 'wing' helped me search for more flights that I could get on that day in hopes I could still get down to Brazil near that time Lu and Olivia got down. She was the best lady. She was this short Asian lady and here name was like "Apple" or some food name. I found out that she can't book me for another flight until I had proof that I had my Travel Visa. So then I headed back to the entrance of the airport to meet my dad, get the passport with visa in it and go to the "Special Issues" desk. I had been told there was a flight 3 hours later with United and I was hoping I could get on that flight. I was in line and observing all the ticket ladies. I was just praying I'd get a nice and sensitive lady and that I could get on the next flight without a problem. And I for the most part did. I got this new lady and told her the story and we started looking at flights. She said if I wanted the United flight it was going cost $1800. They couldn't transfer my ticket to United for free because it was my error and not the airlines. I wasn't going to pay that much. I was willing to pay $1000. But then reality set it. I was able to get on the exact same flight on Saturday. So I'd arrive 24 hours later. Luckily we were going on vacation to see family and not start touring Brazil. I guess they also waived the ticket change fee for me too, when they would normally change me too. All thanks to "Apple."
As we started processing the ticket, we noticed that my Travel Visa was going to expire in 3 days!!! I felt like the biggest idiot. I could have sworn that when I renewed my Travel Visa, that I was given the 10 year visa and not the 5 year visa. That is why it didn't even cross my mind. So the new ticket lady had to call some "visa" place to see if I can still travel. We didn't know if it had to be valid upon my return or what. Luckily I remembered that I should try calling the Immigration Law Office, Thal Visa, and see if they could help or knew any of these rules. Thal Visa helped Lu and I with the first round of marriage paper work when she and I first got married. I'm forever grateful to them and they are a place I refer all my friends with "immigration" issues to. I couldn't get internet at the airport cause of their stupid wifi blockers. So I texted Joe again to find the number for me. He got me their number pretty quickly. It was 5:05 PM on Friday. I just prayed that someone was still in the office. I called, the receptionist asked who I was, and I told her. She said I'll have to schedule you an appointment unless you are a client. I was like "is an emergency and yes I'm a client." The only stretch was that we hadn't used them in 5 years. Luckily Wendy, our legal contact, was there and she was gracious enough to search her Visa websites to find the rule on traveling with an expired visa. Luckily, we found out, it only had to be valid while entering the country, and that you didn't need to show a visa when leaving. I was cleared! I owe Wendy big time!
I got my tickets rebooked and was ready to roll. I kept in touch with Lu also. I told her to keep her phone on while flying and I'll text her updates. So we sporadically were able to connect. Think the story is done, not yet.
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| Heading to my parents house upset |
So I was on the way home with my dad. I was so embarrassed, I wasn't going to tell a soul. I decided to stay at my parents house that night. All I had was my backpack and a pair of boxers in my bag. For the first time ever, I packed my house keys in our Carry On luggage that Lu took with her, instead of putting it in my pocket or backpack. So technically I couldn't get into my house. Although my parents had keys too. Lu and I were able to connect with Lu's sister Fran and our Brother In Law Takashi to tell them what happened and prep them. Takashi speaks great English, so I called him on Skype to tell him what happened and for half of the call he was laughing under his breath.
The last part of the story happened the next day. As you can image, I barely slept and I couldn't reach Lu in Detroit because her phone died. The next morning, around 9 AM Brazil Time, and 6 AM US time, Lu landed and we connected on Skype through Takashi. She told me that 1 of our 3 checked bags made it down to Brazil. She had to hand check our small carry on luggage because the over head bins were full. This was the bag that had my house keys in it too. The 1 bag that arrived had my clothes in it and the two that didn't had Lu and Olivia's clothes in it.
We didn't have all the baggage tracking numbers, so I had to call the airline to get some of them. We were able to track that they were hung up in Detroit. I asked how there were going to get to Brazil and they told me they had been booked on the next flights to get there. But when I dug further into it, one of the bags, was flying back to Minnesota and was coincidentally going be on my flight with me on the way to Brazil and the other bag flew on a flight through Atlanta to Sao Paulo. Bags were tracked at least and all suppose to arrive the next day when I was landing.
Last part I promise, Lu and I were going to buy an umbrella stroller to bring down there, and leave it with her family. We didn't have time on Friday to buy it, so I went and got one Saturday morning. At the airport I got through security really fast as I just had a backpack and a stroller (still boxed up). Lets just say I got a lot of looks walking around the airport and on the airplane without having a baby. Even the security x-ray person was like, "where is the baby?" "Ah, funny little story ma'am," I said....
The first flight to Detroit was rather quick. I said next to a person that took up part of my seat, so lets just say it wasn't too comfortable., thank goodness it was quick. Then was the 10 hour flight from Detroit to Sao Paulo. Since I was rebooked on a new flight, I couldn't choose my seat. I was put smack dab in the middle of two people in the middle section. I had like 10 things I wanted to do on the plane in terms of reading books and sorting files on my lap top. But after what I went through the day before, I just focused on sleeping. The worst part is that feeling that you have to go to the bathroom and that you don't want to bother/wake up the people next to you to get up and go. I only had 2 opportunities to get up. I also didn't sleep worth a darn either.
I made it down to Brazil with out a problem and easily found all my missing luggage and found Takashi at the airport to bring me to Lu's parents house.
Looking back at it, it may have all be prevented if I would have just gone to the air plane gate right away to just confirm the flight, and maybe my Travel Visa would have been able to get to me before my flight.
The rest of the trip was rather fun!
-Chris Husby
If you have any horrific travel stories, please share.
