it’s K-Rad y0!   Starting from scratch

Talk about a close call.

If you’ve been following my Tweets, you’ll already know that I tend to have a bit of trouble sleeping the night before I travel. For some reason, the issue is even more severe when going to Japan. Perhaps because it’s one of my favourite places to visit, and like a child before Christmas, I just can’t settle myself down to the point where I can sleep. I was tossing and turning all night, and finally gave up around 3am. I had my alarm set to 5:30am, and intended to leave for the airport at 6:30am, in time to check in at 7:30am for my 8:10am flight.

So I had a lot of time to spare. Instead of jumping in the shower, quickly trying to dry off while eating breakfast, just in time to run out the door at 6:30, I could take a more leisurely pace. I had a nice leisurely breakfast while watching Olympic womens’ beach volleyball. So I spent my extra 2 hours well.

I headed out at 6:30, just as I had planned. I decided to take the MTR/Airport Express this time, since it wouldn’t be busy, and I only have one piece of luggage to carry around this time. This trip usually takes about 65 minutes, about 16 minutes quicker than taking the bus. Plus, I could check in about halfway through, get my boarding pass without lining up, and stroll leisurely through customs and security, making it just in time for final boarding call, where there is almost always a lineup anyway.

How wrong I was.

I arrived at the Airport Express terminal at about 7:10am. At that point, I am about 25 minutes from the airport – a bit later than I would have liked, but well within reason for usual. I have travelled many times, and I usually find that checking in within 30 minutes of departure is totally sufficient.

However, when I arrived at the Airport Express check-in. I went to Desk 12 where NWA’s check-in counter should be. Instead, the counter was for Air Canada. I asked the clerk if this was the NWA check-in counter, and she tersely asked for my name. I told her, and she said it was too late, that I will not make my flight. I guess the MTR ride took a bit longer than expected. Too late to check in at Airport Express, fine. I told her I would just check in directly at the airport, but again she insisted (in a miserable way) that I would not make it. NWA closes their check-in gate 60 minutes prior to departure time (which would be 7:10, exactly the time I was at the train terminal), so I better run if I want to make the flight.

I ran.

Here’s an idea of how close I cut it – I ran to the elevators that take you to the train platform – the door was closing but of course everyone inside pretended not to notice the guy running to catch it. I had to wait for the next elevator, and take it down. I estimate that this wasted an extra 45 seconds.

If that had been 47 seconds, I would have been screwed.

I ran from the elevator, and the train was there. As I passed through the gates, the doors were closing! I couldn’t help but to yell out loud “AH FUCK!!!”. That was directed to the assholes on the elevator who wouldn’t hold the door for me.

Luckily, MTR doors are controlled by drivers, and the driver saw (and probably heard) that I really really needed to make that train. He opened the door, and I got in. It was about 7:20am at this time – I would be at the airport at about 7:45, which was ‘boarding time’ for this NWA flight, and a good half hour after the last passengers were supposed to have been completely finished checking in.

While on the train, I tried to get in touch with the check-in counter at the airport. With the help of Andrea, we tried various phone numbers – NWA’s reservation line didn’t open until 9am. The other NWA # was a pre-recorded message, telling everyone to make sure to check in at least 2 hours before departure time. We tried calling two different numbers at the airport, to no avail. There was no way to contact the counter directly, but I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

So all I could do was sit and watch the time go by. 25 minutes later, I sprinted out of the train, running to the NWA gate (which was in Section H, at the very end of the hall). I looked all over for an NWA gate, but there were none (Section H is where all the smaller airlines reside in HKG – NWA only has a single flight from this airport, so they hire temps to check people in for them). Someone saw that I was running around, looking for a gate, and offered assistance. He was able to check me in, gave me a priority sticker, and told me I would have to run through to the gates. I had 10 minutes to get through customs, security check, and make it to the gate. Turns out, I would only need 5. Yeah, I run fast

Actually, I was able to ask someone (I believe he had a Taiwanese passport) in the front of the line at customs if I could go in front of them. I was probably a bit out of breath and sweating profusely by then, so he kindly obliged. Once through customs, an airport staff member took me through the cabin crew security gate, so I could bypass that lineup. After that, he told me to go downstairs and RUN to the gates.

Luckily, I know my way around HKG pretty well. I know that my gate (Gate 29) was basically right in the middle of the “should I walk, or should I take the shuttle train” limit. On a normal day, I would take the shuttle, which drops you off at about Gate 31 and walk 2 gates back. This was not a normal day though – I couldn’t risk having to wait 3 minutes for the train, waiting for the escalator or elevator to take me back up, delays not withstanding.

So I ran again.

There were NWA staff at regular intervals, who spotted my little red sticker. I guess their job is to make sure that the late comers aren’t dilly-dallying but RUNNING. I finally made it to the gate at about 7:50am. And guess what – THERE WAS A LINEUP. I probably had another 10 minutes to work with, in case of issues. Since I checked in so fast, I had to answer some questions to a security agent. They asked me where I was going, where I was staying, what did I have in my luggage, etc. You see, what I didn’t realize is that this flight is bound for Detroit after stopping in Narita. Therefore, they are adhering to more strict American security policies. The reason they want you to be at the gate way before other airlines is because they check everyone’s carry-on baggage for suspicious items. If I had known this, I would have left a lot sooner. Hell, I was up at 3am, I could have been there by 5am!

Anyway, after towelling myself off in the bathroom, I am happy to say that I finally made it onto the flight. I even got them to move me to an emergency row seat! I am sitting here listening to some Bach adagios (the only classical I really like is the really old, slow stuff) to help wind down a bit. And now they are serving breakfast – I get to choose between bacon and eggs, or udon with chicken. Here’s a K-Rad.hk travel top-tip; when flying to Japan, order the Japanese food. The fellow beside me ordered the eggs, and… well they don’t really look like eggs; more like yellow milk or something. And the bacon looks like it’s made out of plastic.

After breakfast I’ll watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall and maybe Redbelt or Street Kings (I have a bunch of movies on my laptop, but can’t decide!) I watched the first half of Street Kings, a pretty cool movie so far.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans and general tomfoolery from Whackyland*!

* Whackyland = Japan