travel trevails

Hey all, here's the long version of what happened to us on our flight out on May 30th:

2pm: Tammie and Julie pick us at a home and Julie drives us to the airport. No rain storms or closed roads like we had in 2004, when we almost missed our departing flight because it took us almost 3 hours to get to the airport. Sounds good so far, right? It only gets better....

430pm: Jill, Allie and I are sitting in the Northwest Worldclub at Detroit Metro, chatting and eating free cheese, free carrots, free cookies and drinking free lemonade. Don’t get any better than that. All this courtesy of my friend Jim Manolakis, who has worked for Northwest for 20 years and always hooks us up at the Worldclub when we travel. Jim had no idea what impact he would have on our lives that day, and neither did we.

435pm. I casually check the board for our 530pm flight from Detroit to Los Angeles (LAX), the first of two flights we would take to get to China. What could go wrong, right? There is a 730pm flight that I had wanted to take, but Jim cautioned me against that as we would be cutting it close to make our connecting flight from LAX to Guangzhou China. So we booked the 530pm flight from Detroit to LAX, thinking that our biggest problem would be a boring 4 hour layover at the biggest dump of an airport I have ever seen this side of Hollywood. When I check the board, I think “You’ve got to be kidding” (with a key word left out in case there are children reading at home). Our 530pm flight is now schedule to depart at 825pm. 825pm! Don’t they know we have a little girl to get? I talk to a Northwest agent with the personality of a fly and she tells me she will put us on the wait list for the 730pm flight, the one that would be cutting it close. Doesn’t she care? This isn’t some business meeting that I can reschedule. This is my life, my family, my baby. .So I call my friend Jim, at home, in a half panic, probably closer to a full panic. Jim tells me he saw the blog and asks me how it’s going. It’s not going. Not at all. I tell him the situation and then he goes into his magical computer and tells me that it looks like we were put on the wait list for the 730pm flight and then taken off. What else could go wrong? Anyway, Jim puts us back on the wait list for the 730pm flight and tells me he will do whatever he can to help. The Northwest agent tells us we should be able to make our connecting flight at LAX on China Southern Airlines at 1150pm, even if we leave at 825pm, although our bags may not make it.. Who needs clothes if you get your baby?

6pm: After an hour and a half of walking up and down the concourse, we get whisked off for a gourmet dinner, taking the tram to McDonalds. On the tram, all I can think of is how many people have touched the poles you’re supposed to hang on to and that it’s a wonder more people don’t die from germs from the airport. So we get our beef and chicken in the form of a quarter-pounder (with cheese, in case you were wondering) and chicken nuggets, which were also used by the Red Wings a few weeks ago at their last morning skate. What a nutritious, delicious meal to have when you’re a bundle of nerves and wonder if you’ll ever get to see your new baby.

730pm: We go to the gate hoping to get moved from the wait list to the actual flight. The guy at the counter pumps away at the computer and looks into space like I am invisible as I stand there like a 7 year old waiting for a free puppy. He has this key chain around his neck with “Detroit Catholic Central”, so Maher and Bob Orlowski, if you read this, this is your tuition dollars at work. Makes you proud to be a Shamrock. It's like the Seinfeld episode where they all wait at the Chinese restaurant, only to get passed up by everybody until they walk out and a moment later the host says “Seinfeld, four!” Isn’t it ironic? Anyway, they guy at the counter finally looks me in the eye and tells me the flight is full and we cannot get on.

8pm: What can we do but go to the gate and get on our original flight? Target departure time is 825pm. Whatever (use your valley girl voice here, friends). Jill starts talking to a contingent of Chinese teenagers who went to some kind of academic competition at Michigan State, some of whom actually speak English. This is the most ironic – Jill talking to Chinese kids (Terry, at least she didn’t use her skills from 1972) and an academic competition at Michigan State (Kaki, Kali, Elizabeth, Aron, Jan, Beuller, anyone?). The fun is just beginning.

845pm: We board the plane, and it’s not looking good on time. We don’t actually leave until 930pm, in part because the flight attendants were passing out $25 vouchers to be used on another Northwest flight as a way apologizing for the delay. All I can think of is that now we will miss the connecting flight due to the delay for the apology for the delay. I alternate between deep breathing, saying there’s nothing I can do about it and screaming at the flight attendants to forget the vouchers, just move the plane! Serenity Now my ass.

1110pm Pacific Time: We have, in theory, 40 minutes to get off the plane, go to the international terminal, check in at the China Southern gate, go through security, go to the gate, take a shuttle and board the plane. It’s like trying to fit Dom DeLuise in a thimble. In reality, although we don’t know it at the time, we have 20 minutes to do all this. As we descend, I think of my game plan. I could tell everyone near the exit that I have a sick child, and that we need to hurry out. This is until Allie blurts out “I’m not sick, Dad”. On to the backup plan. I tell Jill just to follow me and be aggressive, like Nate Newton leading Emmitt Smith into the red zone. Only this Emmitt Smith has a four year old with a purple blanket and a baby doll. (For those of you scoring at home, I couldn’t use Barry Sanders as an example because he didn’t need his blockers.) As I rush down the ramp, Jill is detained by the flight attendant who tells her that she must stop so the passengers in first class can get off. What is this, India? When one the first class passengers pauses, Jill, in true Gove athletic fashion, bolts ahead onto the ramp. As I wait at the gate asking someone who speaks broken English how to get to the international terminal, Jill, Allie, blanket and baby doll are met immediately in the ramp by a reddish-blond haired woman named Toby, who asks Jill if she is “Mrs. Chafetz”. After she thinks about it for a few minutes (ok, maybe not), Toby whisks Jill and Allie down the ramp to the gate, where I am standing there near a woman named Andree. Toby and Andree work for Northwest and have been sent by Jim Manolakis to help us. You’ve got to be kidding, only this time in a good way. Toby says that Andree will help us get to the international terminal, but that it doesn’t look like we will make our flight. That will be the theme for the next 30 minutes. Andree, Jill, Allie and I rush through the Northwest terminal outside to take a quick shuttle to the international terminal. Andree tries to flag the shuttle driver down, but he doesn’t see us. Could this be the difference between making the flight or not? Andree is our new best friend. We all walk-run from area 2 to area 5, about 10 minutes. Jill and I each have 40 pound backpacks and Jill has a 32 pound child in her arms. I have a child seat in one of my arms. Andree isn’t carrying anything but running is not the easiest for her. Jill says in her naïve skinny-ass way “we’re all getting our exercise for the day” to which Andree replies “this is my exercise for the year.” Finally, we make into the international terminal, which looks a lot like the domestic terminal at an airport in China. All I can think of is where would we be without Andree. Lost. She asks someone where the China Southern desk is and we are told it’s in area 3, which is the farthest one. Isn’t it ironic?

1128pm: We get to the desk and Andree tells the woman at the China Southern desk that we need to get on the flight for Guangzhou, departing at 1150pm. I look at my watch, willing time to stand still. The woman at China Southern looks in the computer, makes a call on her cell phone and tells us we cannot make it. I plead with her, telling her we are going to China to adopt a baby and I need to speak to a manager. She tells me “I am the manager”. She is likely Chinese herself. She knows our urgency. She asks for our passports and boarding passes, goes into the computer, makes a phone call and gives everything back to us with seat assignments. She will get us on. While we were at the desk there was airport worker with a beard and a LA Dodgers cap in the background and then all of a sudden he disappears.

1140pm: We still have to go through security. The line is a mile long. What’s going to happen here? Another woman from China Southern and Andree lead us through a special gate. We literally run through a line of people, cut to the front of the line and dump everything in those plastic bins. I hope they’re Rubbermaid, Elizabeth. The woman from China Southern and Andree are still with us. I give Andree some cash and thank her profusely. We scoop up everything and run to the gate. Jill and I give Andree a hug and we go down a ramp to a shuttle bus to go to the plane.

1150pm: We are sweating as we get on the back of the bus. Everyone is staring at us. The guy with beard and a LA Dodgers cap is at the back of the bus as we walk on, like Ray Liotta when he walked on to the field in Shoeless Joe.... Jill tells him why we are going to China. He says “I know, I made them wait for you, I was adopted too, good luck”. I sift through my pockets to make sure I have passports and seat assignments. I drop a seat assignment card near the back of the bus door. I pick it up, shove it my pocket and the bus moves. We are on our way to the plane. We get off the bus and go into a small building to take a ramp up to the plane. The guy with beard and a LA Dodgers comes into the building with us. I ask him his name. He tells me it is Brent. I give him some cash and he tells me he cannot take it. But he does. I shake his hand and tell him I cannot thank him enough. We get on the plane, our seats all in row 13. We are lucky.

Allie thought this was “fun” and “exciting”. It is a memory we will always cherish.
It is not true, however, that we are changing Emily’s name to Emily Hope Xiangni Toby Andree Brent Manolakis Chafetz. I mean, how many kids have an English name, a Chinese name, a Northwest name and a Greek name?

Love to you all, the three Chafetzes (soon to be four)