Day 17--Going Home, Part 3: Line after Line after Line...!!!

Sometimes travel is great fun.  Today was NOT one of those days!!  We know it could be so much worse, including not going anywhere in the first place.  So, we don’t want to be dark and grumbly, but we also don’t want to pretend our life is all rainbows and sunshine.  So, bear with us.  (Or come back tomorrow!)

We had to be out of our room by 8AM.  We were opening the door to step out at 8:00…PERFECT!!  Breakfast was pretty nice and we didn’t really need to rush, because they were to start disembarkation about 9:15.  Well, they were late.  But we got on the busses, tooled around for a while, stopping once to look at what must have been the ugliest beach available, and finally got to the airport to queue up in one line after another.  Security was not a big deal, but of course when 200 people arrive at once, a four gate terminal is hardly able to manage it.  Once through, we headed for the Pacific Club, a lounge for which we should have had access.  Well, they were limited to 10 people (and since at least 50-60 of us had “access”, we had to line up outside the door and just wait until someone decided to leave.  But since we were mostly all on the same flight, no one was ready to leave.  Sigh.  We did finally get in and set a timer so we didn’t hog the seats. 

Really???  You brought us HERE???  Why?!

Not sure where he's being pushed...with engine covers still on?

Tid bits in Punta Arenas lounge.

The plane was late (of course).  At boarding time, they called us by rows.  Being in Row 27, we were the second called (back to the front).  As we scanned our boarding passes, they lead us into a long greenhouse of a hallway.  Sigh…  Finally we got outside and headed to the plane, up the stairs, and situated…for the hour or so until we actually left.  I’m not sure LATAM knows what “schedules” are?  (Yes, I’m throwing stones here.  I don’t pretend charter operations are easy, but telling people what is going on isn’t hard.)  Theresa and I were seated across the aisle, and in the same places as the trip down.  I made a bet with my neighbor on when the 1:45PM flight would be wheels off.  She guessed 4:15, I took the “under”.  We were off the ground at 4:08 so I guess I won?  I had made friends with her on the way down (a pilot for the “enemy”), and we talked about airplanes, airlines, and operations for about 3 hours.  It was great fun!

There was a LOT going wrong here.  But, it's not our plane.

Why, oh why, are we in this greenhouse?

We're sneaking up from the back like...stowaways?

Once in Santiago, they repeated the weird deplaning game as the first flight…the first 6 rows, the last 6 rows, then mayhem and chaos.  SCL was a zoo!!  People everywhere!  We negotiated our way to the get our bags and find our way to check in, go through Immigration, then security, all in just about an hour.  We hustled to the “Business Class” lounge, only to find a line of about 20 people.  50 minutes later, we made it inside.  Pickings were a little slim, but we found some peanuts, some beer and champagne, and weird little cheese sandwich.  OK, done grousing!  We board our flight to MIA in a few minutes, so time to reset attitudes!