I recently attempted a weekend trip to Iguazu Falls, Argentina and failed miserably. So many things went wrong that ultimately led me to ditching the itinerary in Sao Paulo and returning to New York. But what let up to that point?
A comedy of errors on this itinerary resulted in me getting pretty much no sleep, which led to exhaustion and my eventual decision to fly home before making it to my intended destination.
It all started Thursday morning as I attempted to check-in for my flight with LAN. The problem first arose when the LAN website indicated that my confirmation number was not valid. As such, I called LAN to see what was wrong. The agent with LAN told me that my SCL-GRU segment of my itinerary was showing a significant delay, and I would mis-connect in Sao Paulo for my flight to Foz do Iguazu.
He offered me two options — to overnight in Sao Paulo and get to Iguazu on Saturday afternoon. I declined this option, as it would only leave me a day in Iguazu. The second option was to take an earlier flight from JFK to Santiago and on to Sao Paulo on the LAN 787 Dreamliner, then have a ten-hour layover in Sao Paulo before continuing on to Iguazu on the same flight. In order to do this, I had to leave work three hours earlier and confirm standby space on an earlier flight from DCA-JFK. After speaking to American about changing my DCA-JFK flight, I decided on this option.
I figured that I could ultimately deal with this undesirable itinerary as long as I was able to sleep on my flight to Santiago. I didn’t think this would be much of a problem since I’d been assured a bulkhead seat by the phone agent (I had a bulkhead seat on my original flight booked for six months).
Again, when he changed my flights, the LAN agent assured me that I had confirmed a bulkhead, window seat on the 787, seat 12L. At 6’4″, an exit row or a bulkhead seat is a necessity for me traveling long-haul in economy — I just need the extra leg room, otherwise I’m miserable. Continue Reading →