Bali: You Could Die Before You Get There

Photo by Jeshoots

American Airlines fight #61 from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Denpasar, Bali left on time at noon. I had been up all night to make the 6:00 am connection from Minneapolis.

It was a full flight, cramped and uncomfortable.

I was psyched to survive the painful 12-hour non-stop to Tokyo.

What was supposed to be a 27-hour flight became the most exhausting and challenging trip I have ever undergone.

About an hour over the Pacific the captain announced the need for a doctor. He asked twice. Shortly, I noticed the plane was turning. The route map on the front seat went blank.

The Captain announced he would land in Seattle for a medical emergency.

A flight attendant had become ill.

300 passengers awaited news of their fate.

AA fight #61 was canceled. It was 6:30 pm Pacific time.

Luckily, I had no luggage so I didn't need to figure out where it went. Many of the other passengers ran in a panic to the AA ticket counter.

After waiting in line at the ticket counter the only instructions received I was booked back to Dallas/Ft. Worth at 9:00 a.m. the next morning.

Any changes to the original booking would have to be done by reservations.

Do you want to spend the next 14 hours on back-breaking seats? Then Seattle Sea-Tac International airport has some suffering for you.

RoomStorm.com was a way of helping stranded customers. It is an AA discount service to a select number of participating hotels. Gone was the food and accommodation voucher.

After I checked the hotels I was shocked to see the average price was over $200 US per night.

When I checked the price with and without the QR coupon prices were the same. Regardless, who knows what their short notice availability was and the taxi cost? Bottom line I never understood how the QR code worked.

I was exhausted and not of the mind to sort out those details on top of trying to figure out how I would get home.

I saw passengers weeping.

The passenger next to me was trying to visit his family in Vietnam. On hold to reservations, his call dropped. He had one choice to return to New Orleans, his origination, and start over.

If I returned to Minneapolis it would mean more hotels.

Lacking sleep for the past 24 hours, I found my way to the shuttle area and tried to find a place to stay. Somewhere to use a phone, the rest would have to wait.

Salt to the wound, bad weather canceled 1500 other flights too.

I found my way by taxi to an over-priced, US 150 per night dump called Ramada by Wyndham Sea-Tac airport north. (Never stay there!)

I lay on the bed with the hotel phone glued to my head. I was on hold (4 hours) to AA reservations. I had not eaten. No sleep. I fainted twice until the in queue robot voice woke me.

Afraid I would lose the call I got a trash can and peed into it.

Breakfast bars kept me alive.

The next day I realized the folly of my foggy brain and changed my return again, which meant I was stuck in Seattle, at my expense, for the next two days!

I made a new hotel booking through Priceline for US 50 per day less.

This is a flight not a hotel disaster story so a few words on the Econo Lodge Sea-Tac North hotel.

The air-con, microwave, phone, and TV didn't work.

I reported them to Priceline and with luck, a refund is in order.

Not knowing where to eat and no car left walking options only. The (3) miles from the airport's north location was a seedy area. Street people and other weirdos were abundant and I wouldn't recommend walking at night.

The hotel and food bills were mounting. I was fortunate to have the money. I called (4) Seattle taxi companies.

Only a Yellow taxi answered the phone. I reserved a 2:45 am pick-up. Dispatch gave me a booking number but when I asked about a guaranteed pick up the dispatcher cut me off. I got a receipt in my SKYPE with a track your driver link.

At 2:30 am I tried the link and it didn't work. I called Yellow again and they said no driver responded to the order. It seems in this post-Covid economy what is guaranteed?

At 2:45 am there is no other way to travel the 3 miles to the airport. Buses don't run. Hotels that offered a shuttle didn’t run at that hour. I also didn't have a US phone so trying to go by another service like Uber was not happening.

As I covered my hands in despair a driver rang my SKYPE and he was OTW!

On the way to the airport, the driver told me he was the only one who worked that late around the airport area!

At this point I was hating Seattle.

At 5 am, the AA check-in hassled me about a not needed transit VISA through the QATAR airport. The information was on QATAR Airline's website and government sites.

Why didn't AA have the information in their system?

A serious problem considering they could have denied me boarding.

Flight #8130, Seattle-Jakarta-Denpasar was another long-haul. Surviving coach seats on long-haul flights is an achievement in transcendental Yoga.

I arrived in Dallas/Ft. Worth 9:30 a.m. My flight to Qatar boarded at 6 p.m.

What to do for the next 9 hours? All the rest areas were full.

That left the dream seat—a cement block with arms so you can't lie down.

There was always the hard carpeted floor.

More tensions mounted due to the airport's public WIFI didn't work. To access the internet I had to park my tired butt in a restaurant.

At Qatar Airlines check-in they hassled me about downloading an Indonesian health tracking app. It wasn't needed. How do I do that? No internet!

Qatar Airlines was able to finally assign my seats. AA fumbled with the task for two days. 15 hours later, Qatar Airlines flight #8130 arrived in DOHA late.

With only a minute to spare, I did my O.J. Simpson with my heavy pack back and carry-on to the gate.

How many times did I see my life ash before my eyes on this trip?

Another 9 hours later, I breathed a sigh of relief when I entered Jakarta Int'l airport.

The trip from hell wasn't over.

Upon reaching my destination the local airline lost my check-in carry-on bag.

As I was about to explode in anger, my bag showed up.

The trip ended after (5) days of non-stop travel, (9) boarding pass, (14) time zones, and (3) days of no sleep. I was concerned that my cooked brain and broken body had a low immune system.

I was prone to whatever bugs ew around an airport and many long-haul flights. 72 hours post-arrival my body felt like a tackling dummy.

The only thing to have done was to buy travel insurance.

The insurance would have covered my hotel. But, the premium was US 200.

AA would only rebook. It says in fine print on the AA website that nothing is guaranteed.

I hoped the ill flight attendant was all right. What started the Murphy's Law travel agency was not her fault.

Up there at 36,000 feet we're all in it together. One passenger goes down we all do. Odds are you have one in 600 chances of your flight being grounded due to an emergency.

Would I ever reach paradise?

From the book SOLO - 10 Years in Bali. Now available in ebook or print on Amazon.com