Thursday, 24 November, 2022 – Happy Thanksgiving. Elias is in the air, on his way to Tokyo from Bangkok. He texted late last night to tell us:
Elias: I got another call saying my flight had been cancelled tomorrow. I called Expedia and it turns out my layover in Tokyo is technically under their assumed amount of time needed. They said they could change my flight but it would be 9+ hours of layovers or I could roll the dice and talk to the airline when I get there tomorrow morning. So I’m going to go even earlier than I planned and talk to both airlines to see if it’s possible to keep my 55 minute layover since they’re leaving from the same terminal and it’s only 20 minutes under the “needed” time.
So, while we were having Thanksgiving dinner, Elias was getting to the airport. He texted again at 6:00 a.m., Bangkok time.
Elias: Checked in at the airport. I got the bag checked but there’s no United desk here so I can’t talk to anyone about the flight leaving Tokyo. I’m going to talk to the flight attendants on the flight and hope they’ll help me get off quick but besides that there’s nothing to do but run.
I looked up the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, just to see where he spent several hours this morning. It looks pretty huge, and fancy, as airports go. There’s a pretty garden and lots of sculptures.
Still, sitting in an airport, no matter how pretty the airport is, amounts to simply waiting to go somewhere else. I hope he at least got to eat this morning.
Here’s the itinerary he is supposed to be following:
I told David I want to stay up until we know Elias either made his connection or got a different flight. So, we should know about 3:00 a.m., Kansas City time. I won’t sleep well anyway so we might as well stay up, right?