Leaving Newark for Miami and then catching a plane to Santiago would seem pretty easy…except… when the connection time in Miami to make the next flight allows only about an hour to get from point A to point B.

Our first clue that maybe things weren’t going to work out so great was when we were sitting on the tarmac in New Jersey waiting to take off . The captain announced we were number 15 in the queue for takeoff and had to wait our turn. Our turn took 30 minutes till we could finally get in the air, so of course we didn’t leave on time.

The flight was very turbulent with our drinks sloshing all over, but we finally arrived in Miami, albeit a little late. We figured okay, we’ll make our next connection if we hustle. But then the plane came to a stop far from the terminal and the captain announced he had to wait for the plane that was already in our spot at the terminal to leave. That took about 20 minutes. We told the flight attendant we had a plane to catch. He said yes…6 others on the plane are also making that connection. He said don’t worry. He also advised us not to take the sky train…”you’d be better off running to the gate” he said. I cautiously asked, “How far away is the gate if we would normally take the sky train to get there?” And he said “we’re going into gate D7 and your next plane is leaving from gate D30.” Geez… can’t we catch a break?

But… Allan and I are still hopeful – I mean there are 8 of us getting on that plane. They’ll hold the plane, right?

The plane gets parked and the doors open and Allan and I are the first ones to disembark, when right in front of us waiting to board, are a few police officers standing in the doorway. An announcement comes over the PA from the captain that everyone must return to their seats immediately and clear the aisles. I’m like ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So, the police came on and after more than a few minutes of interrogation with a passenger, they escorted said passenger off the plane.

The flight attendant wished us luck and off Allan and I ran dragging our carryons to gate 30, which of course is in Neverland.

My cardiologist wants a routine stress test done every five years. My primary actually doesn’t think it’s necessary and neither do I, especially since i NOW know my heart is working pretty freaking great as it kept up with me as we sprinted to the plane.

Which had already left. There wasn’t a soul at the gate as we came to a screeching halt.

So we went to where they rebook American Airline flights. An hour plus later, all the agents behind the counter are leaving and only one is left who is finally agreeing to take us as her last passengers of the day, since they were closing for the night. The line for rebooking was huge and a verbal fight broke out at one point, because all the rest of the people behind us were told to stay in line and follow an agent to yet another area of the airport to find a flight. It is now after 1 am.

The only flight out of Miami to Santiago was leaving the following morning on Latam Air… and only economy seats. But, the American airline agent cheerfully said, “We are booking you a hotel and you can Uber back and forth to it and we’ll pick up the tab. Just keep your receipts. We’ll send your luggage to Latam tonight and it will be at the airport tomorrow when you arrive in Santiago.”

I ordered an Uber and instead of meeting us at gate 5 departures like we were told by the American airline agent to go to for Uber pickup, he apparently was at gate 5 arrivals. I said, “Well we’re not. We’re at departures.” He said “Well go to arrivals!” We go back in the airport trying to find where the heck arrivals is…we get there… only to find out… the guy left and has canceled our ride AND charged us $6.20 for the cancellation fee.

So we get another driver and he took us to the hotel where our room would be awaiting us. It’s now about 2:30 in the morning and we are exhausted. We walk into the lobby and the lady at the desk said, “I don’t know who told you we had rooms available. We’re sold out.” So I handed her my voucher that the airline gave us for the reservation. The lady said, “Sorry, we have nothing to offer you.”

So we sat in the lobby of the hotel for a while, I shed a few tears, and then we decided to just go back to the airport and wait till they posted the gate number. We called another Uber, got to the airport, went through security, which took about 40 minutes even though it is the wee hours of the morning, and we sat waiting till our flight number and gate would be posted on the board. Our flight number finally comes up, but it says Punta Cana is the destination, not Santiago. We’re like, are we going to the wrong country? So we sat at the gate and waited for the agents to arrive. We couldn’t use the lounge since we were now flying economy, so we sat from 3 am in those wonderful little plastic seats till Starbucks opened (although Allan wasn’t hungry at all and didn’t want anything and the bagel I purchased went into the trash bin uneaten. We were just so exhausted, and we weren’t feeling that great.)

The agents arrived at the gate and told us our final destination was indeed Santiago, but we had to make about an hour plus layover in Punta Cana, which we found out was in the Dominican Republic. She said we don’t get off the plane but just have to sit and wait for the cleaning crew to come in and do their thing and then new people will board. Of course this didn’t surprise us that another two hours would be added to the flight time. This is how it’s been going all along.

Latam is really a great airline. Everyone was so kind and we were fed very well. We actually had seats right behind business class at the bulkhead so Allan had room to stretch his legs. The configuration was 3-3-3 and for the whole flight, and no one sat next to me in the third seat so we could really spread out. (However, about a half hour before we landed, the flight attendant brought a gentleman over to the extra seat next to me and he sat down. Don’t ask me where he came from. He just materialized, but after all we’d been thru already, again, nothing surprised me.)

We arrived in Santiago and went through customs. We’re pretty tired not having slept in over 36 hours… just dozing a bit here and there on the plane…but the agent was relentless in his pursuit to make sure we were who we said we were. He wants a copy of our itinerary, our hotel addresses, the name of the tour company, and on and on. Allan always brings the final documents booklet with us that OAT always sends before a trip, so the guy sat there perusing the entire booklet. He was young and I guess just wanted to take his job seriously. When he was convinced we weren’t terrorists, he finally stamped our passports and we went in search of our luggage.

Our air tags in our luggage told us the bags were over 4,000 miles away, so we didn’t have high hopes of seeing them on the baggage carousel and sure enough, they weren’t there. American Airlines never sent them over to a Latam flight like they promised. They had assured us our luggage would be in Santiago when we arrived, but instead, our luggage was still vacationing in Miami.

We impressed upon the Latam agent the importance of getting out luggage since we are flying out to Easter Island on Monday. She said no worries, they will put it on a plane to Santiago during the night and it will arrive early in the morning and be delivered to our hotel. We thanked her and made our way out of the airport to find our driver who was thankfully there waiting for us.

We checked into the hotel and decided even though it was after 11 pm, we would love a bowl of soup. We walked around the neighborhood a bit, but all the local restaurants were either closed or in the process of closing. So we went to our room, got into pj’s, brushed our teeth, and promptly fell into bed and were asleep in two minutes.

It remains to be seen if we will be reunited with our luggage tomorrow.

And now you know why the blog is called The Escapades of Pookie and Allan.

And by the way… Happy Valentine’s Day.