Part III of my travel report

7. Oxford - London - Washington D.C. - San Francisco - Stanford (3rd April)

Left oxford on the airport coach at 6.30am and arrived at Heathrow central bus station a little before 8. Picked up my bag and started my way to the checkin desk. At this point, i thought, hmm.. my bag feels funny. It doesn't carry right. Never mind. I need to check in.
Got to the UA flight area and they have these fancy check-in machines for checkin. Got it done and proceeded to checkin my bag. Horrors. My bag is not my bag. It looks like my bag, same design, but it isn't. Shit. I told the lady about it, and she said.. well, you could bring it back to the coach station info desk and see if the other person swops. GREAT. So, i got back to the bus station and gave the bag to the info desk. The manager came and i filled in a form (re: lost bag), and then i said to ransack that bag to look for contact info. THANKFULLY, there was a piece of paper with contact details. AND thankfully the other person picked up his phone. The manager, Stuart was great. He really helped with the phone calling and message relaying.
He had already checked my bag in... he was flying out to Johannesburg. Great, so he had to offload my bag off the airplane and he had to get out of the departure gate (he was almost on his way out...). So, at least our bags reunited. He missed his flight and i missed mine. By the time i got back to UA desk, it was 10 mins past 10 (my flight just left..) And i told the lovely ladies at the desk about the whole shitty morning. So, we hunted for alternative flights. Quite a number of flights bound for the US from London that day, and in the end, many of them were jam packed with people. Got myself booked on a London-Washington DC flight on standby and from there connect to San Francisco.
So, it all seems simple enough. Get onto the first flight (which is full) and then i'm on my way back. At the gate, it was FULL. Got security screened, no thanks to my unusual situation and then waited to be called and given a seat. Lots of people were waiting for seats... flying on standby is always a waiting game.
FINALLY, after a while, i got called and was assigned a seat. HURRAY. It was by then close to 1pm. I got on the plane and to my surprise, there was my seat. Row 11J - BUSINESS CLASS. Ha.. this is a blessing in disguise. So, i settled into my business class seat. And started exploring the seat and the various delightful contraptions, like angling the seatback, lifting the footrest blah blah. FUN. My neighbour was clearly amused, he's probably a seasoned business class traveller. Ha. So, it was fun. We took off. And first came the drinks. There was champagne. Golly. There was a baby seating behind me in business. FOR ONCE. no crying.
After the drinks came the warm nuts. OMG. Nuts in a porcelain bowl warmed. This is so crazy. Then after a while, the attendants came round taking our orders for the main course - choice between some beef thing and salmon. Now, the meal service was posh. We got a tablecloth laid out on our tables, then a tray with utensils and what not. Then came the bowl holding the appetiser, which was very posh. Sliced duck with goat cheese and others.. Being the ignorant passenger, i tried to return the entire tray post appetiser but that was incorrect. Just return the bowl. Keep the tray for MAIN COURSE. Then came that, followed by dessert which was either a selection of cheeses or icecream. OH come on, of course it's ice cream. Two big scoops. Crazy huh.
Watched inflight... then came a light snack of sandwiches. Very british. OK, we landed at Washington Dulles Airport around 3pm. Cleared customs, and got into this tiny winny transfer area. Luggage belts zooming in and out with bags. We had to pick up our bags and re-clear customs. My bag ain't there. LOST. Crap. Queued at this 1 desk - where the poor guy was being hounded by irate passengers about their missing bags and lost connections. Clearly, my bag was not in Dulles... after a long time.... close to 5pm (when my next flight was due to leave), i gave up waiting for them to search for my bag and he gave me a slip allowing me to clear customs. GRRR... now comes the security screening AGAIN. At first, i thought i had missed my flight. So i went to UA desk AGAIN to re-book. Then the lady said..no the flight was delayed. Run for it. You never know what happens, always run to your gate then decide. CRAP. So, after clearing customs, i ran barefoot across Dulles Intl AIrport with all my stuff... trying to hunt down my gate. CRAZY person. Got to my gate. Delayed by 1 hour the flight. SO, i made it.
Got on the awful domestic flight. Air-con was kaputt. WARM. Then we got trapped on the runway for another hour because of the thunderstorm in the Washington area. Sitting in the plane while a thunderstorm was happening was kind of peaceful. Coz of the noise from inside... insulating you from the light show outside. After eons, the plane took off. By now, i'm kind of in a daze. Drifting in and out of sleep, lost track of the time zone and the meals. No food served on domestic flights. DUMB. Ok, finally landed at San Francisco at 11pm. Trudged to the luggage desk and reported my lost bag. AND what do you know, my bag isn't lost. It was routed via Chicago O'Hare. HUH.
Evidently my bag didn't make it onto the Washington flight, while i did. SO, they flew it to Chicago first and then to SF. It would be arriving in SF 2 hours later. WHY didn't they tell me that at London!!! So i didn't have to wait like siao at the freaking horrible Dulles Airport. In the end, they said they would deliver the bag to my doorstep the next morning. GOOD! Got on the van back home and finally made it after a very very long, exhausting day. All because i picked up the wrong bag that morning.

Silver lining to all this: i got to fly on business (all the more impressive since this was a redemption ticket in the first place.. so FREE on business).