Getting to Hong Kong

We are in Hong Kong safe and sound. The trip to get here was an adventure all by itself. I'll recount our Dallas experience.

When we arrived in Dallas at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, we were told that our flight would be delayed by an hour. Dave wasn't feeling 100% again and with all the news stories about the "global pandemic" of swine flu, we decided we should make sure he wasn't running a temperature before getting on the next plane. The last thing we wanted was to get quarantined. Plus, we had time to kill.

We went to a traveler's aid area. Dave reported to them that he wasn't feeling well and wanted to make sure that it was okay to get on the plane. The nice person said they'd call a paramedic to come check him out. That seemed a little over-the-top, but we said okay - afterall, they probably didn't want to be in the business of taking peoples' temperatures. Next thing we know, we see an ambulance racing up with lights on. The paramedics were beginning to pull out the stretcher when Dave ran out to explain all he wanted was for his temperature to be taken. He checked out just fine...so we worked our way back through security feeling silly, but confident that we weren't going to make plane full of people sick.

When it became clear that we weren't going to get out of Dallas with our planned itinerary, we arranged to go to Tokyo (see previous post). There were two flights scheduled to depart to Tokyo that afternoon. We got booked for the 2 p.m. flight, then went to the American Airlines lounge. As we were munching on free snack mix and relaxing a bit, an announcement came over the loud speakers "Saunders family, come to the front desk." We gathered our things and went to see what was going on. A person from American Airlines was on the phone - "Hurry! The plane is leaving! Go to gate 31...and run!" We were confused, since our flight wasn't leaving for a couple of hours, but we ran. At the lounge door we were met by a woman in a golf cart who had been sent to pick us up. We were whisked through the airport and taken to the gate.

Then, an argument began amongst the personnel at the gate. One person insisted that we must get on this flight to Tokyo instead of the 2 p.m. flight. Another said to us "Don't get on! This one might be cancelled!" If anyone recognized us from the ambulance ordeal earlier, they probably thought we like to bring on the drama! Ultimately, we didn't get on that plane.

Luck was on our side...the flight we didn't take did get cancelled; the poor passengers on that plane had to disembark and hope for a spot on the 2 p.m. flight. Unfortunately, it didn't leave until 4 p.m., which meant we'd miss our connecting flight in Tokyo.