Any kind of travel can be difficult, but international travel is especially different. Not only are the security concerns stricter, but there are certain to be some bumps along the way. Please don’t take this is a complaint, but rather something which always make for good storytelling.
After Doug Cheeves dropped us off at Intercontinental Airport, the fun started to begin. It’s obvious the person running the Delta Airlines gate Saturday morning, didn’t have much experience or much of a sense of humor. When we checked our luggage, we were told we would have to get our seat assignments from the attendant at the gate. While it seemed like a minor inconvenience it turned out to be a bigger pain. I can now tell you there are 67 rows on a Boeing 747-400, seven of the eight member teams ended up on the last two. Ed Lynch, whom the gate attendant finally ran his ticket , was isolated from our group getting to sit in the 23rd row. Of course all of us were happy to have seats to begin with, but we are still puzzled why Delta couldn’t seat us when we first arrived to the airport and then couldn’t keep us together.
Dr. Ed at least got to view whatever movies the air carrier was offering, those of us in the back didn’t. After we pulled out of the gate, the flight attendants realized the large screen to view the safety video, and later the movies didn’t work. We could see the small video monitors which were about 50 feet in front of us, but it was very difficult to make out what was on the tiny screens. About the best way to describe the situation is to imagine back in the 60s when there were Drive-In movie theaters. When you passed them on a road at night you might get a glimpse of the screen, but there was no way you could make out what was happening in the film. Delta graciously announced to those who were sitting in the rear 25 rows, we would be getting a “voucher” of some sort to be used in a later flight. When we got to the service desk in Nagoya, Japan the voucher was for a “complimentary” beer or glass of wine. Being good Methodists, we passed on their generosity.
As for the trans pacific flight, the pilots warned us it would be bumpy as there is a lot of turbulent air between Detroit and Nagoya, Japan. The flight plan took us over Canada, a little north of Anchorage, Alaska, and then down the Aleutian Islands on the way. But we learned from one of the veteran flight attendants, after the merger between Northwest and Delta, the pilots had been instructed to fly through the turbulence as much as possible to keep on course to save on fuel and money.
The 3 1/2 flight from Nagoya to Manila was pretty much uneventful. No the video monitor still wasn’t working, but by now most everyone was tired and trying to do their best to catch a few winks. Sunday June 27th will go down as the shortest day of our lives as we lost most of it when we crossed the international dateline. Manila is 13 hours ahead of Houston, so now as I am posting this, it is early Monday morning in the Philippines, but early Sunday afternoon back home.
Carleton Cole
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