Japan 2013

My View From the Plane

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The check-in went smooth at RDU and we boarded the plane on time...YAY! But, of course, things just can't go that easy - it's called a DELAY due to equipment malfunction. Now, I wish that someone could explain to me why they don't check all of the functions of the airplane before we board. It would only make common sense to make sure that everything works before we get on, but no, they wait until we are all on and seated to start their checklist. Well, our plane's fuel instruments seemed to either need replacing or, hopefully, just reset. If it was going to require replacing, we were informed that it could take several hours; yes... hours. The reset would take only approximately 1-1/2 hours for completion but they wouldn't know which was necessary until some specialist came out and evaluated the situation. Keep in mind that we were scheduled to leave RDU at 7:00 am with an arrival in San Francisco at

9:51 am. Our connecting flight to Osaka, Japan was scheduled to leave SFO at 11:15 am, so you can begin to see the complications forming. So we sat on the plane and waited for information on the status of our flight, keeping our fingers crossed for only a very quick reset. Luck was on our side and it did require only a reset, but we were now leaving RDU approximately one hour late. If you do the math, you will see that timing was going to be very, very tight in making our connecting flight. Our pilot assured us that he would do everything he could to make up flying time by possibly flying a little faster and at a higher altitude. Apparently there were several other connecting flights that were also going to be affected by this late take-off and the airline was checking into all possible scenarios for those of us that would need changes made if we missed our flights. I would also like to comment now about the ridiculous ways that the airlines are now making money from travelers. Each seat had a wonderful individual tv screen that would enable us to watch Direct TV programming during our flight....BUT, you have to pay $7.98 for the service (oh, but it's only $5.98 if your flight is only a 2 hour flight - what a bargain, huh?). My question about this service is, if the airline is subscribing to Direct TV, what difference does it make if you can view it for 2 hours or 6 hours??? So, I resigned myself to either reading or sleeping as I was not going to contribute to the outrageous additional fees that airlines are now charging for everything. The pilot was gracious enough to "give" us the service for free on our flight for being such understanding passengers during our delay - like we had any choice...where exactly were we going to go since we were already locked on the plane? I must give kudos to the pilot; he kept us informed about our delay status and was able to make up some of our lost time, but it was still going to be a very quick walk to the international terminal to get to our connecting flight. We arrived at SFO about 10:35 am but didn't manage to get off the plane for almost another 15 minutes. We were all ready to run for it.....only to discover that our connecting flight to Japan was delayed for about 3-1/2 hours!!! This was not a good sign! By now we were all very hungry - oh, I forgot to tell you that they no longer serve ANY food on a flight for free; nope, not even peanuts! What do they expect you to do for a flight that takes 6 hours and requires you to be at the airport at 5 am? Again, you're not left with too many options - either brown bag it or pay their outrageous food prices for airplane food. Anyway, we were all going to get some lunch but I noticed that everyone in line for the restaurant right near our gate all seemed to have food vouchers from the airline. Oh happy day - maybe we were actually going to get something for free again!!! Sure enough - we checked in at the gate and they were giving all passengers on the flight to Japan a $10 voucher for lunch. So at least we got to eat and relax before our flight was ready to board. After finally getting on the plane bound for Japan (which didn't actually take-off until approximately 3:30 pm), it was actually a pretty smooth flight. There were no problems other than it is extremely uncomfortable to have to sit in an airplane seat for 12 hours...I was hoping that, since this was a larger international plane, the leg room would be slightly larger and the seats would recline back further - WRONG!! Unless you PAY for priority seats (those are ones that give you more leg room) or are in first class, you have the pleasure to sit in ordinary sized plane seating. Needless to say, I was very uncomfortable and could not sleep. Watching most other people snoozing away in basically an upright position, is very frustrating when you have been awake for close to 24 hours. But I made it, safe and sound, which is most important. One piece of our group's luggage did not arrive; luckily it was not mine. I believe we landed in Osaka, Japan at about 6:00 pm on Thursday, June 13, and I was very, very, very tired. To be continued.......

These photos are all taken over parts of the western US and the mountains going into California: