We've found when we have multiple legs of a trip in a regions (Europe, East Asia, SE Asia, etc.), that you have more options and get better pricing when you fly round trip from the U.S. to a major hub in the area you're visiting to begin and end your trip. Then you can take short-haul flights to get you between wherever you ultimately want to be spending your time, usually more effectively for your schedule and more cost-efficiently as well. When doing our initial research, a flight in and out of Amsterdam made the most sense and allowed us to fit in our couple of days of nostalgia.
On Tuesday morning we got to the airport in plenty of time, and checked in without problem. However, the dear Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel still had a few more tricks for us before we finally got to our destination. We're going through the TSA Pre security check and Wife's passport is denied. They ask for her driver's license. That's denied too. What the &$@!#? We're told we have to go back to the airline check-in to figure things out.
Thank goodness we have status and are going through the priority line at the airline. They look at Wife's check-in profile and all the information in it is MINE! How did that happen? Why wasn't it seen when we checked in online or when we dropped our bags off? The agent puts in the correct information. Back up to Security. Nope. It's still rejecting Wife's information. The agent calls in a superior who goes off somewhere while we wait and wait, thanking the stars we came to the airport early. Finally he comes back and says Wife's basic information is correct but her PASS ID number is incorrect (or not present) so she cannot go through the TSA Pre line. She has to go through the regular security line. If you know Wife, you know she is royally pissed. Thank goodness the TSA senior agent says he'll bring her to the front of the line.
That ordeal over, before we board our flight, the airline agents at the gate call us up. Yup. The information on Wife's record is wrong. They scan in her passport (yet again) and we can board the plane. Our flight to Salt Lake City and transfer to our 10 hour flight to Amsterdam go smoothly. All is well until a couple of hours before we land. I need to dab some saline gel on my nose to keep it moist. I barely touch the nose and it starts bleeding again. Just as fast as before.
Fortunately, I know the drill now. I have a spare clamp I brought from the emergency room and I'm using it, tissue and my hands to apply pressure. This I do for the rest of the flight, all the way through getting through the airport, and getting to our hotel. Roughly three hours in all. It's stressful and uncomfortable. (Try not breathing through your nose for an extended period of time. You feel like you have emphysema.) One of the attendants on the flight told me she has had this kind of problem for years because of the dryness of the air in airplanes.
Finally getting to the hotel, I took the clamp off and found the bleeding had stopped. We were both pretty exhausted and kind of collapsed.
2 comments:
oh no!! So it DID happen on the plane!! That's terrible
Oof, that's a lot to deal with. The nosebleed sounds so uncomfortable.
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