Pack Your Bag With Entertainment!
It was supposed to be a simple flight/train trip to Cologne for a visit to fotokina. Just 35 mins after take-off, captain said there was a smell of something burning so flight returned to Hong Kong, "that's why you want to fly with Lufthansa". That's fine for me, except that Lufthansa had a really terrible arrangement to redirect customers to various other available flights and transfers.
There was no queue management at all at the gate after "arrival". People sort of queued up at the counter waiting for staff to arrange alternate flight and transfers, all of a sudden a staff shouted with hands raised to announce outside the queue "there are 10 tickets available now from HK to Doha to ... to Frankfurt, anybody want this?" Yeah, you look like a hero! People flocked over there and the queue was gone, besides, not everybody heard the offer clearly and there was no alternatives offered.
Obviously Lufthansa staff have little training on crowd management. Their communication with other airlines seems also very ineffective, endless waiting on the phone lines and slow computer system, despite their crew's hard work. Anyhow, 11 hours after the original flight, I was able to get a FIM (flight interruption manifest) for Cathay Pacific to Amsterdam and transferred to KLM arriving Cologne..... with my luggage LOST!
11 hours delay + 11 hours flight time + 11 hours to get back lost luggage. I still consider myself lucky really, imagine being caught in other terrible/terrorist/congestion situations, phew. Luckily I packed my hand carry with entertainment. 3 books (Murakami's After Dark, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, Inside Steve's Brain), 4 cameras (LCA+, Natura Classica, Polaroid, Canon IXUS), iPhone with games, iPod with music and a power recharge. What I gained from this? Back pain and quality time with books. I'm also glad that my quota is full this year, each year I have at least two mishaps during trips, last time a flight detour due to typhoon landed me in a nice hotel in Japan. Lucky me!
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I'm glad you managed to get around safely though and yes, I know how it feels like to have a hand luggage packed with stuff. I got caught in Hong Kong just earlier part of this year when my flight from San Francisco was delayed and thus causing me to miss my connecting flight. Cathay Pacific was kind enough to put me up at the airport terminal hotel but needless to say, I wasn't too happy - given jet lag and all.
Didn't get a chance to leave the airport though