Day 1. The Flight - LAX / Second Leg

Now it's just getting stupid. My flight landed in LAX 20 minutes late due to a hydraulic failure which wouldn't let the gear go down. The pilot came on the intercom and told everyone that it was an issue that they had had on that plane before, and that it would soon be in opperation. I don't think any of us were too sure that was true, but we didn't really have any options but to wait. We circled the airport for about 15 min until finally they were able to HAND crank the wheels down...

well, that's what SHOULD have caused the delay.



All I REALLY know is that the flight was 20 minutes late landing, and then the terminal bus was forever in arriving. You can see in the picture the layout of LAX.

The international departure gate is THAT far away. So like I said, the flight took forever to arrive, and then the bus took forever to arrive as well. Before I knew it, I was arriving at the Cathay Pacific check-in with only 40 minutes before my flight was supposed to depart at 11:20.

Here's where it gets good.

THEY CLOSE THE GATE 1 HOUR BEFORE THE FLIGHT DEPARTS.

.................

So NOW my NEW flight was leaving at 1:30 Pacific time. That's 2 hours MORE I was going to have to wait. The kicker: The flight that I wasn't allowed to board because I was ONLY 40 minutes early instead of 60 minutes early?... ended up boarding at 11:40. Yup, that's an HOUR after I arrived at the check-in I wasn't allowed to be a part of.

Shoot me in the face.

... or stick me on a plane designed for little Asian people and put me behind the ONE other tall lanky dude WITH the malfunctioning seat that leans farther back than it should,,, AND let that guy be the one who reclines as soon as the wheels tuck after takeoff. Hahaha... that would almost be worst than being shot in the face....