So, what had happened was...

I’ve been actively playing around with Instagram’s story feature for this trip, because our company is going to up the social media effort this year to connect with the youths, and I’m the closest to the target demographic. So, I get to learn how to use the internets. I documented this saga fairly well already, but I added more info where it was warranted.

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Friday, January 5th: Departure Day! Our short trip has come to a close - or, so we think.

We make fun of my in-laws about how early they insist on leaving for the airport, knowing full well that they will be getting there 3 hours early with nothing to do.

But, do we start packing right away? No. Our flight isn’t until 11:50p. Chris checks in online, but can only get our boarding passes for Singapore-Perth. We’ll have to pick up our boarding passes from Dhaka to Singapore at the airport. He is more distracted by a slight Australian visa snafu that was temporarily preventing our check-in, but all was well.

More eating. Chilling. Planning future destinations.

In Bangladesh, the weekend is Friday/Saturday, not Saturday/Sunday. Since Friday is the holy day, traffic is pretty light. My uncle suggests we leave at 9:30. We get out the door by 9:15.

At approximately 9:20, Chris tells me that the flight is at 10:50.

Um, what? He clearly meant 11:50. He was tired. He woke up for a conference call at 4a. Right?

Nope, he meant 10:50.

Um, yeah. We’re not going to make this flight. Chris insists to have faith. I insist that this is Bangladesh and that the check-in counter might be closed.

Our phones had not yet been enabled for voice or data in B’desh. So, we can’t really check for a delay. I do my best to communicate to the driver in Bengali that we *might* miss our flight. He suggested that he would circle until he heard that we made it through immigration.

We enter the airport at 10:00 sharp. 50 minutes before the flight. Dhaka airport has 2 layers of x-ray security and several levels of passport/boarding pass checks. We stumble through the first level of X-Ray security. Chris is pulling me through people. I am not pleased about this pulling. Fancy camera lenses are falling out of bags and rolling onto the floor. Disaster. We ask about the Singapore counter. We are informed that it is closed and no one is there. Like, the velvet rope and signs are already gone. I am pretty defeated at this point, knowing full well that we cannot get past immigration if we do not have a boarding pass. I also note that the check-in counter provides disembarkation cards that need to be completed before even getting in line for immigration. Nevertheless, HE persisted. Chris went up to the immigration official in an attempt to flag down an airline official. Oddly, the immigration official does not speak English well. Chris calls for me. I explain the situation in my best Bengali. This would have been much easier to talk our way out of 10 years ago, but the airport has expanded/upgraded 3-fold and security is far tighter. Alternatively, if I had an uncle with me to drop some names/yell at innocent people indiscriminately, that would have been another thing. Another airport official notifies us that Singapore has an office upstairs and that we can try to communicate with them through there. So, Chris grabs both of our giant backpacks and starts running. I walk leisurely with our personal items, somewhat laughing/acknowledging others’ laughter/faces of empathy. I also know how heavy those bags are and that by the time he got halfway up to the landing, gravity will have slowed him down enough for me to catch up with him. To be clear, I’m no novice in fighting with airlines and “loud angry ‘merican-ing” my way out of or into things when needed.

My brother and I may have staged a sit-in at Emirates corporate HQ in Dubai during an unplanned 28 hour layover after a missed connection (their fault) in 2012. They put us up in a hotel, but we still felt we were mildly wronged for other things. Most people go to the mall or do touristy things. We sat in the lobby until someone would meet with us to hear our concerns. (I got a round-trip flight to Alaska on a partner airline out of it). But, we really did not have much to stand on here. Singapore office is closed. We try to enable airport WiFi on our phones. I inform the parentals to notify the driver that we’re missing our flight and will need a ride back home in an uncertain amount of time. Chris pushes the doorbell and knocks on the door. Another airline’s official walks by and bangs on the door hard. Chris continues to bang on the door. Meanwhile, I take a video of him jumping up and down/banging on the door and turn it into a GIF. This blog app is somewhat limiting in regards to uploading one’s own GIFs. A screenshot will follow later.

We speak to a nice airport official who walks by. He tells us that the Singapore officials are all at the gate and will return after the flight boards. I think this was the point Chris realized that we weren’t making this flight. The gentleman and I have a nice conversation in Bengali about where we’re from, our wedding, how we met, and our continued trip plans. He asks some fatherly questions about Chris, his family, his occupation, etc. He seemed pleased and responded, “Verrry niiice!” with a thumbs up for Chris. Meanwhile, Chris is rocking crazy eyes trying to figure out the next steps. 👀 He’s about to incur international roaming charges to make a call, when a Singapore official returns to the office. She knows exactly who we are, because she was calling our names from the gate (since we had checked in on time, but could not hear since we could not clear immigration). Chris breathlessly starts making his case, that we were checked in, at the airport prior to the check-in deadline, but no one was there to give us a boarding pass. She seats us inside, and gets her manager. After our fiasco in St. Thomas this past year (FYI, St. Thomas is the only airport in the world that requires 90 minutes to check bags for American Airlines instead of the standard 45 or 60.), Chris went ahead and noted check-in deadlines on all of the calendar appointments for the flights. Our calendar appointment reflected a 45 minute window. We were at the airport 50 minutes beforehand. We claimed contract of carriage nonsense and got them to agree that we should not be listed as a no-show. (Fun fact: per the Singapore Airlines website, only at Changi airport in Singapore is there a 45 minute check-in deadline. Dhaka has a 55 minute check-in deadline, which we definitely missed - but we didn’t know that/nor were we emphasizing that. We were technically checked in well beforehand and were pushing ‘the airline failed to provide us with a boarding pass before the gate closed’ angle. Since the gate agents who were still there were more in charge of operations and not reservations, they helped as much as they could, made notations on our account and recommended that we either call the 24/7 help number or go to the office in Gulshan the next morning to try to get onto the flight the following evening. Economy was already overbooked, but they basically said that if we came early enough, they could get us on. We assumed that they meant people would get bumped up and not off on our account. They also mentioned that they kept our “connecting flight open” even though itineraries are typically cancelled if you miss the first flight.)

So, back to Monipuri Para we go. Eye rolls from everyone around except the driver who lovingly noted, “I thought I’d have to wait another year or two to see Dulabhai (brother in law = Chris) again!” #Adorbs

Chris gets on the phone, and I continue my eating spree.

Once he finally gets through, the reservation agent sees no notations and says that we are listed as a no-show and does not seem to understand the actual circumstances Chris describes. We pore through every option possible - including trying to get to Singapore on a different airline and try to make the connection to Perth, since we had a long Singapore layover to play with. Chris is losing hope. On hold forever, and now it appears that we may have to drop $1500 for a brand new flight to Perth. And even if we get there, we might not get to see it. So, 2 tours essentially get dropped. On top of that, we get an email from our Antarctica tour operator - the whole point of this entire trip - saying that our overnight tour was cancelled - first time ever - due to low enrollment. The charter plane company only runs tours if they have 5+ people going. The current offerings are: 1) full refund; 2) switch to a Patagonia tour if available; 3)possibly downgrade to a day tour, with a refund for the difference, accompanied by a Chinese Film company.

(We’re not doing 2 - not equipped for it. We’re playing with 3 and 1. 3 - the downgrade is annoying; we really wanted the overnight in a scientist tent. But the Chinese film crew part is amusing. 1- this isn’t what we wanted. We planned this entire trip around the Antarctica portion and would have done several things differently had it only been a day tour. It may also be the financially responsible thing to do, given our condo that is still on the market. But, this was supposed to be the “Every Continent” trip... and I talked about wanting to go to Antarctica on our first date. Bah. This part of the story is still developing. But this affected the calculus of what to do for Perth - if we have a large refund coming back, an expensive fare doesn’t hurt as badly.)

While he is on hold, I suggest we finish watching the last episode of The Crown we were on, since there is nothing else we can really do until Singapore finalizes the options. Not interested. Then, they keep him on hold. That’s when I knew it was bad. I suggest that I also call. While I’m on hold, I tell the airline how I feel on Twitter.

(@ChrisBrunoPromo is the handle Chris uses to sign up for/complain about things.)

About 5 minutes later (correlation, under no illusion that it’s causation haha), I get through and hand the phone over. Chris explains the story. The rep didn’t question a thing. Not only did he rebook us for the flight the next evening, he confirmed us for it - so, we would not have to fly standby - and waived all of the change fees. His name is Hamdy by the way. So, everything works out.

At our wedding ceremony in May, amongst many ridiculous things, one of the readings was an excerpt from the television show, Friday Night Lights.

“That’s what character is. It’s in the trying.”