Delayed. Twice.

There are a multitude of things that I want to write about our plane travels.
The way Michael and I look at each other as we head to the check in desk dragging the surfboards behind us - 'Do you think they'll charge us this time?'
Or the time I was called into a smoky room in Indonesia, by a man in uniform and told that the surfboards were too big to fit on the plane - they squeezed them in.
But it wasn't until our travel took us through US that we had our worst airline experiences.

TWICE, in the space of 7 days.

We flew from El Salvador to Philadelphia with Delta ($170 for the surfboards, thank you very much - a new record in obnoxious charges, especially considering the most we've been charged by ANY other airline, and only on one occasion, is $50). Our connection was in Atlanta, and according to the itinerary we had 1 hour and 28 minutes to clear immigration, collect our bags, and re-check them on the domestic leg of the flight - hmmm.
I asked the Delta staff if this would be possible, and they assured me that Atlanta airport would process us rapidly and speed us towards Philly in the blink of an eye.
We landed, ran to immigration, ran to our bags, pushed our way through customs, rechecked our bags with a guy called Hagen - a special moment when he and Michael bonded over a shared name. And decided that they must be cousins. And he promised to get our bags to Philly.
We made it to the gate, we made it on the plane and we took off. And then the cabin wouldn't pressurize, and so we turned around and headed back to Atlanta. They finally canceled the flight 5 hours after the scheduled departure time, and we shuffled off to the Holiday Inn for some sleep. It was 2am. We had 3 hours to sleep before we had to get up and head back to the airport for our re-scheduled departure to Philadelphia.
Delta bought us dinner, breakfast and a night at a hotel - which is more than can be said for United....

Our Philadelphia to DC flight was running behind schedule, but we were assured on numerous occasions by the Philadelphia ground staff that everyone would make their connections. We didn't. More running through airport corridors, a dramatic collision as I rounded the corner, and we arrived at the gate for London, to see the airplane sitting there & the doors closing. Our seats had been given to standby passengers and they were not letting us board. This time we got to spend the night in DC, except this time United didn't pick up the tab. In fact they did absolutely nothing, except re-book us on the next flight. Our initial flight was delayed due to weather, and according to United this is out of their control (yes, I understand that) and therefore they are not responsible for the missed connections (not so sure I understand this part).... We were told it was the fault of the ground staff in Philly - who should not have promised that we would make our connection.
So, a night at Marriott this time, Wendys for dinner and a feeling that the US airlines are really going to have to get their shit together soon.

Random update...

Sorry sorry sorry... I know I just haven't kept up the blogging pace since we've been in Central America. I don't know what happened. I just can't seem to focus on writing anything down, probably because I'm too busy at the beach, or having a cool drink in the shade.
We're in El Tunco at the mo, on the coast of El Salvador. It's a small town, with not much to do except surf or hit the beach - which suits me fine. Pauly Paul (Michael's dad) is here for the next week, and tomorrow we're going to head inland and explore some coffee plantations.
We're coming towards the end of our travels, and recently Michael and I have found ourselves thinking about all of the things we've seen, all the places we've been and all the long and painful bus rides we've taken. For the record, the worlds worst bus rides were in Laos where an average speed of 25km per hour (15 miles an hour), along with the bags of rice and chickens makes covering distances tedious.
On August 7th we are flying to Philadelphia to spend some time with the Lil Red Yeti. After that we're flying to London, where I will finally get to meet the very cute India (my niece) and hang with the rest of the family. We're going to spend a couple of months in Europe (wouldn't you?) before we finally board the plane that will deliver us to Los Angeles in October.
We're excited for this last stage of our trip. We can't wait to see family and friends, and we're ready to stick in one place for a while (I am so over the unpacking /packing thing)... See you soon!