Story Thread: Tales of our Travels

[Timona 3,970]

I'm starting this thread to hear unique travel stories from our VJ members. At the end of the day, maybe we should gather them, make one drawing illustrations of each story, publish and share profits. Copyright ©️ already  reserved by me . 😎

 

I was connecting in Istanbul and met this guy from Guinea. He saw me sitting down and using my phone. So, knowing I'm African, he approached me and started speaking his local dialect. After he was done, I told him I don't understand what he's talking about. So we went to Google translate and it was then that he spoke in French and Google told me he's asking to use my phone to talk to his travel agent back home. He was on his way to Brazil (I learnt this later).

 

So here goes. 

 

There's Wi-Fi at Istanbul Airport. However, it's only free for an hour per passport. You have to swipe your passport at a kiosk and it gives you a password to input on your phone. After the one hour, you either swipe another  different passport and get another free hour or pay. So, I'd just swiped my PP and got my hour. I had just used it for 10 minutes when this guy approached me. Thinking it was quick call, I gave it to him and he called his guy. The dude ran my remaining 50 minutes talking to his agent. In between the talking, I learnt:

 

1. Where he was from

2. He had used a travel agent to book his flight and had just landed from the first leg. However, when he tried to board the second to Brazil, he was informed it was canceled, hence the need to contact his agent. 

3. He had contacted the agent via his own phone, after getting his 1 hour of free Wi-Fi and had run it off. Agent kept on promising 10 minutes to fix the issue.

4. He then got to me and the "Give me 10 minutes to fix it" continued till he ran mine out too.

5. That is when I realized that this guy had been played buy his own country men. He was so exhausted. 

6. My time was up and I had to go catch the next flight. So, I excused myself, took my phone, directed him to customer service and left. I hope this guy got back home safe, or rather to Brazil. 

 

But what would a West African be doing in Brazil? Beats me. He told me he was going for a job, if I remember correctly. This was odd. Looking at him, I'm not profiling, but he didn't look like he was going for a job but escaping and was gonna wind his way to the Southern US border. I've met a few W. Africans who came in via that route.

 

Why do people use travel agents?? 

 

The end. 

 

What's your story?

Edited May 24, 2022 by Timona

[mam521 1,798]

We were sitting in Dubai airport, waiting for check in for our flight to open.  We'd already been delayed when we went to the UAE and then had a 24 hour delay leaving the UAE, so this was an unsurprising event considering the circus that lead up to it for us! 

 

Thai Airlines had given their last call and were finishing up closing out the check in for a flight to Turkey when a man, probably in his late 30's or early 40's, kinda short, kinda built, Turkish, strolls up with a heaping baggage cart.  The TA employee proceeds to tell him that check in for his flight has closed and he will have to contact customer service to rebook. 

 

Dude isn't satisfied with this answer, gets full on belligerent with her and expects her to reopen the gate.  Not going to happen, especially with such a terribly bad attitude and even if she could have, that cart of luggage wasn't making the plane. He laid into her, yelling and putting on quite the strong man performance. 

 

Another TA employee was standing there and attempted to assist his colleague.  The guy goes OFF.  The second employee steps back to call security, meanwhile the first employee has this man YELLING at her and at one point, he SLAMS his passport on the counter, where it slides off and rather conveniently falls into the trash can.  The TA employee extracted it from the trash can and put it back on the counter. 

 

Dubai Airport security show up.  They calmly tell the man to settle down.  He continues to argue with them and refuses to calm down.  They call the Dubai police.  The pair of uniformed Dubai police officers stroll in, having a little chat and a chuckle on their walk over to meet Security, the raging man and the verbally assaulted Thai Airlines employees.  The man sees the Dubai Police and all of a sudden the waterworks start - the Thai Airlines employees were so mean and they refused to help him and they disrespected his country because they'd thrown his passport in the trash...he literally put on a crying, hot mess show.  Oscar worthy.  

 

Needless to say, the Dubai police detained him and I suspect he was never again welcome in the Emirates after that. 

 

It was an interesting show to punctuate the end of our journey to the Emirates, to say the least.  Airport people watching really can be the best!  

Edited May 25, 2022 by mam521

[Redro 4,602]

Me Very happily leaving Incheon Airport: >>> in Korean<<< (Anheyonghaseyo!) Hello!

Person scanning my items: (odi gayo?) Where are you going?

ME (in Korean): Chonguk (Heaven)

Person scanning items: 🤯 where?

Me (Proudly in Korean): Chonguk (Heaven)

Person scanning items: >> Looks at three muslim men standing behind me<<<... again English?

Me: China? 

Person scanning items: Choonguk! 

Me: China! Choonguk!

PSI: Let's me through

Edited May 26, 2022 by ROK2USA

[milimelo 4,259]

In Addis Abbas airport sending husband with our cat back to the States to drop the cat off. I packed a ziploc bag of cat litter for husband to make makeshift litter box on the way to final destination. The litter is the US Fresh step unscented litter. Before you get to the check in desk you have to go through the X-ray for all luggage. Husband got flagged because of litter. Ethiopians claimed he was trying to take rare earth minerals from Ethiopia. No matter how many times we tried to explain it was cat litter they were not letting it through. I think my husband ended up opening the bag and tossing it in a trash can. The cat flew fine and we were reunited with her three months later. 

[TBoneTX 43,433]

19 minutes ago, milimelo said:

I packed a ziploc bag of cat litter

Had you used "used" litter, the Ethiopians might have been easier to convince.

[Adventine 3,187]

In Manila, waiting at the gate for my flight back to the States:

 

An older, heavyset American man seated near me starts a video call with who looks to be his Filipina wife. He doesn't have headphones on, and he's yelling, so everyone in 50 foot radius can hear the entire conversation. 

 

American: What the f-- is this?? (waves a stack of Philippine pesos at his screen) I didn't need this at all. Useless!

Woman: What's wrong, what's the matter?

American: I didn't need these [waves the pesos] at all. What a waste of money! (proceeds to open his wallet to show to the screen). Look! Look! It's empty! 

 

Argument proceeds like this in circles for a few minutes. Finally, a short Filipino man gets up from his seat, goes over to the American, and starts yelling too:

 

Filipino: Would you shut the f-- up!

American: [stunned silence]

Everyone at the gate: [stunned silence]

Filipino: Just shut the f-- up, man! Everyone can hear you! You're too loud [body language looks like he's about to hit the guy]

American: [still in stunned silence]

Filipino: [walks back to his seat]

American: [proceeds to keep talking to the woman on the video call, but in a much smaller voice]

 

The best part of this story? At the Atlanta POE, I ended up in line with one of the people who had the exact same itinerary as me (PH-US) and who had also witnessed the entire scene in Manila. He told me the two guys ended up seated beside each other on our 12 hour flight back to the States 🤣

[Timona 3,970]

Was in Colombia and this delivery guy, after interaction, realized I don't speak Spanish past conversational. He then proceeded to try to swindle me by switching numbers..it was 439. He changed it to 493. I caught him because I had already been told how much to pay upon delivery and it was also pasted on the delivery itself.

 

So in broken Spanish and using hand gestures, I tell him NO. The dude argued with me like I wasn't understanding numbers. Called a friend who is bilingual and explained. I hand phone to the guy to speak to friend and when he's done, he hands it back to me. My friend tells me the guy says I don't understand anything and that he's put the correct figures. This went back and forth for 5 mins of which the dude tried another tactic of claiming he's busy and I'm wasting his time and he needs to go. This was to get me to pay.

 

Mark you, I'd asked him numerous times to restart but he didn't want to re-punch numbers, something which would have taken him 20 seconds. I was also getting frustrated. So I explained it to my friend calmly again. She got wind of it and yelled at the guy to restart. He finally re-punched 439..

 

Surprisingly, after I paid, he wasn't in a hurry so as to leave as he'd claimed. He started talking to some cute damsel who was standing 6 feet away, waiting for a cab. In between, I heard him talk ####### about me to her. I didn't care. He talked with her for 5 minutes while I just stood there.

 

Regardless of which language we speak, 439 is not 493..🤣🤣🤣

[Allaboutwaiting 2,500]

On the train to Linate Airport an Argentinian friend and I started talking to an Italian girl that was returning to NYC after visiting her mom in Milan.

For some reason during the conversation we asked at what time her plane would depart and arrive to destination but the times she gave us seemed quite off so we asked: Are you sure? 

She then checked her flight information and immediately called her mum screaming and almost crying: "Mamma! L'ho sbagliato, l'ho sbagliato!"

 

She messed up the times and thought she was departing at 4pm and arriving at 1pm when in reality it was the other way around. It was way past 12 when we were on the train. 

 

As soon as the train arrived to the airport we all ran towards her airline counter to check if she could make it but obviously she didn't.

She stayed there sorting it out while we went onto dealing with our own check-in process. Once finished we met her again around the gates area; she obviously had to buy another ticket and would fly that same day a few hours later. We wished each other good luck, hugged and said our goodbyes. 

 

A year and a half later I received a random voice message from the Argentinian friend I was traveling with. It was not his voice but a woman's one saying they were missing me. 

Turns out my friend kept in touch with the Italian girl we met on the train and eventually visited her in NYC.

[Timona 3,970]

13 minutes ago, Allaboutwaiting said:

A year and a half later I received a random voice message from the Argentinian friend I was traveling with. It was not his voice but a woman's one saying they were missing me. 

Turns out my friend kept in touch with the Italian girl we met on the train and eventually visited her in NYC.

 

When did your friend even get her number if you were all together?? You didn't see him ask? He's slick 🤪

 

Did they date?

Edited May 26, 2022 by Timona

[Allaboutwaiting 2,500]

1 minute ago, Timona said:

 

Sherlock Holmes at work! When did your friend even get her number if you were all together?? He's slick 🤪

 

Did they date?

If I remember correctly we all exchanged numbers before our farewell. 

I just didn't care about keeping in touch. 😆😁

 

They didn't date but this friend is a confirmed Casanova.

[Rocio0010 5,573]

August 2009, first time EVER in the United States. Connecting flight landed into Atlanta Airport. I had roughly two hours for the connection -counting customs. I thought “cool!! This gives me plenty of time!” (Again, first time at a huuuuge airport). Went through customs, all fine. Started looking for signs for my gate. Found them, looked at my watch and I thought “cool, I still have an hour and a half to walk through the airport!”. Meanwhile, I did notice a train and I thought oh well, lazy people don’t want to walk”. I started walking to my gate, and walked, and walked, and walked…. “Well, here are my steps for this morning!”, then I noticed the clock was ticking and I wasn’t getting anywhere close. I heard the announcement about the concourse, but I thought they were talking about a Concord plane. Then I thought to myself “that’s weird, I thought they announced the flight number and the destination of your flight, not the plane model!”. I clearly never connected the dots. I start running towards the gate, I had 20 minutes left. I got to the desk 40 minutes after my departure time, crying and sweaty. The lady said “the plane has already taken off” “WITHOUT MEEEEEE???”. Thank God they managed to put me in another plane with no penalty. 

[Rocio0010 5,573]

On 5/26/2022 at 1:51 PM, Timona said:

 

When did your friend even get her number if you were all together?? You didn't see him ask? He's slick 🤪

 

Did they date?

Oh he’s Argentinian … they’re fast

Edited June 21, 2022 by Rocio0010

[Timona 3,970]

2 hours ago, Rocio0010 said:

August 2009, first time EVER in the United States. Connecting flight landed into Atlanta Airport. I had roughly two hours for the connection -counting customs. I thought “cool!! This gives me plenty of time!” (Again, first time at a huuuuge airport). Went through customs, all fine. Started looking for signs for my gate. Found them, looked at my watch and I thought “cool, I still have an hour and a half to walk through the airport!”. Meanwhile, I did notice a train and I thought oh well, lazy people don’t want to walk”. I started walking to my gate, and walked, and walked, and walked…. “Well, here are my steps for this morning!”, then I noticed the clock was ticking and I wasn’t getting anywhere close. I heard the announcement about the concourse, but I thought they were talking about a Concord plane. Then I thought to myself “that’s weird, I thought they announced the flight number and the destination of your flight, not the plane model!”. I clearly never connected the dots. I start running towards the gate, I had 20 minutes left. I got to the desk 40 minutes after my departure time, crying and sweaty. The lady said “the plane has already taken off” “WITHOUT MEEEEEE???”. Thank God they managed to put me in another plane with no penalty. 

 

I've only been through ATL once, and it was a domestic flight. It was easier to locate my terminal. That was back in 2018. 

 

I hear about those trains and all the missed flights. Nonetheless, I always try and make sure my international flight doesn't go via ATL. I avoid the drama!

[Rocio0010 5,573]

1 minute ago, Timona said:

 

I've only been through ATL once, and it was a domestic flight. It was easier to locate my terminal. That was back in 2018. 

 

I hear about those trains and all the missed flights. Nonetheless, I always try and make sure my international flight doesn't go via ATL. I avoid the drama!

I have always avoided that airport as much as I can. I have PTSD for that airport specifically. 

This time we'll do Columbus- Houston International. That one is also a big one

[Timona 3,970]

1 minute ago, Rocio0010 said:

I have always avoided that airport as much as I can. I have PTSD for that airport specifically. 

This time we'll do Columbus- Houston International. That one is also a big one

 

Hey...bring me something. I'll wait for you at Bush.

 

BTW, they now have facial recognition system. I passed Bush (IAH) 2 weeks ago. The only thing the guy asked me was "are you a USC?" I said YES. I then fished out my PP but he was like "No, I don't need it. Just stand infront of the camera for me. I'm done. You can go." I was like "are you sure you got the right person?" He was like "yes, it's all in the system." 

 

I was really so shocked and started questioning the level of security and AI that this government has. We gotta be careful now. Hahaha