We got on our airplane in Salt Lake City at 7:45 am on the 18th. They escorted us off the plane at 8:15 am for mechanical problems. They didn't know when they would be able to fix the problem. So we went back to the counter inside the terminal to see what we could do. This was American airlines. They could not find a flight that would get us to LA in time to make the connection for our next leg from LA to Tokyo (Narita airport) so they put us on an Alaska Airline flight to Seattle to catch a Delta Flight to Tokyo (Narita airport) which would get us there in time to catch our last leg of our original itinerary which was from Narita to Busan (final destination). So we left on Alaska airline. We sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes before leaving. When we arrived at Seattle, we had to run to catch the Delta flight. And guess what, they would not let us on, because they had closed the gate. We could still see the plane sitting there, but they would not let us on. Then they told us we would have to go over to American Airlines to get them to help us. We did find an agent at one of the American Airline counters that was really nice and tried to help us. But because our last flight was with Alaska Airline, they would have to help us. This we found out after about 2 hours. Alaska found us a flight from Seattle to London to Tokyo. We were so tired by then, that we just said sure. It at least got us closer to Busan! So the flight to London left at at 6:35 pm on the 18th. We arrived in London at 11:00 am on the 19th. Our fight to Tokyo left London at 1:50 pm and we arrived in Tokyo at 10:30 am on the 20th. In Tokyo, we went to the gate to catch our original flight from there to Busan, but our ticket was for the 19th not the 20th. So they made us go through customs to be able to talk to an American airline service agent.
Our passport now has a Japan stamp.
So we finally found the counter agent for American Airlines and had to explain everything that we had gone through thus far. They got us on a flight on Korean airlines that was leaving at 1:00 pm. Again we had to hurry to make the flight. They also told us that our luggage was in LA. WHAT!?!?
And we would have to talk with the baggage claim people in Busan to get it sent to us. So we arrived in Busan at 3:10 pm. It took us about 90 min. with the baggage people to explain all that had happened. And we did not have the phone number to the mission office or President. It was in my luggage!
We had to call Missionary Travel (it was midnight back in SLC) to get the phone number. By the way, the President didn't even know that we had arrived, so we had to call and let him know also. So today is Monday, the 21st. We still don't have our luggage - have been wearing the same clothes for 3-4 days. But we did get a good night's sleep last night. We were dead tired!! It's hard sleeping on a plane.
Looking back, we should have stayed in SLC and left another day with our original flight itinerary.
Love you all!
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