My flight leaves LAX at 1:55AM PST. I leave my house at 12:30AM PST and get to the airport around 12:55AM PST. There are no lines. I get my bags checked in, get through security, use the bathroom, and get to the gate at 1:25AM PST. Efficient. I board the plane around 2:00AM PST.
When I get to my seat, I get some good news and bad news. The good news is that there's no one sitting to my left nor my right, and there's tons of leg room in front of me because I'm in the front row. The bad news is, since I'm in the front row, the arm rests do not come up. Sucks but whatever. I plug my ears, skip the 3:00AM in-flight meal and sleep until the second in-flight meal, which was about 9 to 10 hours later.
Approximately 13 hours later, I landed in Taipei, Taiwan. My layover in Taipei is 3 hours. During those 3 hours, I get on the free Wi-Fi at the airport, get a little research in (I studied a bunch of printouts on Hanoi and Saigon), check email, updated the family on my arrival, brushed my teeth and flushed out some airplane food. With the new time change plus the 13-hours passing, the current time in Taipei at landing was approximately 6:20AM the next day (Wednesday, July 6th, 2011). My boarding time from Taipei to Saigon was 9:20AM local time. There's a 30-minute delay before takeoff, as these fools on EVA Airlines try to find people to give up their seat in exchange for $50. The tradeoff also includes a upgrade to first-class but you board a later flight that same day. Apparently, somebody was trying to get on that early flight and these guys "overbooked."
Nobody gave up their seats so they made us wait for nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment