MAKING THE CONNECTION

  
 

 

 

  
 

 

I thought that taking a flight from Miami to the Aviation Summer Kamp with my little brother Anthony in tow the whole way was tough, but at least we got to go straight there. Mom came with us as far as the gate, and a counselor from the Aviation Summer Kamp was waiting for us when we landed. Anthony hates to sit still and be quiet, so I spent the whole flight trying to keep him from winning the "World's Most Annoying Passenger" award. I don't want to think about what would have happened if we'd had to make a connection somewhere and I'd had to drag him all over a strange airport while we waited for our next flight.

It isn't always possible to get a direct flight from one city to another. Sometimes travelers have to change planes in a third city. This is called making a connection and it sounds harder than it is. It's really just a matter of time management and finding the right information.

Here's an example: A couple of months after camp ended, Arum found a great art book about Oaxaca, Mexico. She got so excited about it that she convinced Teresita to travel with her to the ruins of Mitla and Monte Albán in Oaxaca. Unfortunately, Arum couldn't get a direct flight form Los Angeles to Oaxaca. She could only get a flight from Los Angeles to Houston to Oaxaca or from Los Angeles to Mexico City to Oaxaca. Since Teresita lives in Mexico City, they both decided to meet at Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City and fly together to Oaxaca from there.

  
     
  Here's what Arum had to do to make her connection in Mexico City:  
     
 
  1. When she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on the day of their trip, she looked at the departures screen and made sure that her flight to Benito Juarez Airport (MEX) was on schedule. If her flight had been running late and it looked like she wouldn't make it to Mexico City in time to make her connection, she would have gone to the ticket counter, showed the ticket agent her ticket for the connecting flight and asked him to book her on a later flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca Airport (OAX). Arum would then have called Teresita from the airport and told her that the plan had changed. Teresita could then either pay a fee to have her own ticket changed to the same later flight or go to Oaxaca by herself and meet Arum there.
  2. If Arum's flight had started out on time but become delayed along the way due to bad weather or heavy air traffic, then she would have told the flight attendant about her connection in Mexico City. The flight attendant could then have contacted airline personnel on the ground to see if Arum's plane could wait or ask the ground crew to book Arum on a later flight. (If Teresita had her cell phone on, Arum could have called to give her an update. The fees for calling from the plane are about $5 per minute, but it's usually worth it.)Meanwhile, Teresita was watching the arrivals screen to make sure that Arum was on her way.
  3. Before landing, the flight attendant told the passengers that their flight would land at gate C30. Arum read on her boarding pass that she would leave for Oaxaca from gate A10.
  4. Arum opened up the airline magazine and looked up AIRPORT MAPS. On the map of Benito Juarez Airport, she saw that gate C30 was in the international terminal and gate A10 was in the domestic terminal. Since she would have only an hour and ten minutes to land, go through immigration and customs, find Teresita, go through security and walk all the way to the gate, she decided not to stop at any snack stands or gift shops along the way.
  5. Arum got off the plane at gate C30. Since Mexico City was Arum's first port of entry into the country, she had to go through immigration and customs before she could go to meet Teresita. She would not have to go through immigration again in Oaxaca.
  6. Arum went through immigration, where she had to show her passport and turn in some forms that she had filled out on the plane. That took about twenty minutes.
  7. Then Arum had to go to the baggage claim to pick up her checked bag. That took another fifteen minutes
  8. From there, Arum had to take her luggage through customs. Since she had no fruits, vegetables, meats, firearms or more than $10,000 (110,000 Mexican pesos), she told the agent that she had nothing to declare and went through customs very quickly.
  9. Arum met Teresita outside customs.
  10. Arum found a customer service representative and asked whether there was a tram that would take them to terminal A. It turned out that Benito Juarez Airport did not have a tram, but the customer service representative told Arum and Teresita the quickest way to walk to the domestic terminal.
  11. At terminal A, Teresita and Arum both checked their bags for their flight to Oaxaca.
  12. Since Arum was arriving from a foreign country, she had to go through security again. Teresita hadn't gone through security yet, so they went together.
  13. Teresita and Arum double checked the departures screen to make sure that they really would be leaving from gate A10.
  14. Teresita and Arum followed the signs for gates A1 through A20.
  15. When they arrived at gate A10, Teresita noticed that the gate announcement read, "Villahermosa," instead of "Oaxaca." They looked at the departures screen again and found that their flight had been reassigned to gate A8.
  16. When they reached gate A8, the flight was already pre-boarding. This means that the first-class passengers, passengers with disabilities and passengers with small children were getting on the plane, but everyone else was still waiting their turn.
  17. Arum and Teresita boarded their plane. If they hadn't planned such an efficient route then they might not have made it.

  
 
Arum and Teresita spent three days looking at the ruins. They even sent me lots of pictures. Teresita even sent me some pages from her travel journal. I think the next time Arum gets a bright idea to go someplace I'll come too.
  
     
MAKING THE CONNECTION