I think I spent just under 28 hours at airports and in airplanes in order to make it back to Asia.
My first flight left CVG (Cincinnati) at 11:10am on Thursday the 19th. They said to be at the airport 3 hours early. I got there 2.5 hours before my flight and the airport was empty. It took me 10 minutes to check in my bags and confirm my documents. Then it took maybe 8 minutes to go through security. They even had to search my bag because of all the chocolates I had in it ;). So less than 30 minutes to get to my gate. I had 2 hours to spare. I decided to eat a bagel before heading to my gate. The flight took off on time. Next stop Atlanta.
My second flight was from ATL to ICN (South Korea) a 14.5 hour flight. Due to a late arriving plane, my flight was delayed 30 minutes. I was hoping that we could make up that time in the air. On this flight I had the whole seat row to myself. Perfect for sprawling out! I started the flight with a movie, but got bored so I decided to use the plane’s wifi and free messenging to chat with people in Asia and America. Then I decided to lay down thanks to having the whole row to myself and take a nap. Not the most comfortable place to sleep but definitely more comfortable laying down than sitting up. After my nap I started one of the books I downloaded. I read about 60% of the book before my eyes got sleepy and I decided to take another nap. When I woke up I finished the book and played some games on the inflight entertainment. Then before I knew it, we were only and hour and a half away from Korea. I decided to watch one of the movies I downloaded to my phone.
We touched down in Seoul at 6:30, 30 minutes later than expected (guess we didn’t make up much time in the air). I got off the plane at 6:44. I was greeted by two Delta agents. My connecting flight was leaving in 45 minutes and the gate was going to close at 7:10. We were in a hurry. Phil, one of the agents, escorted me across the airport. After 14 hours of sitting on a plane, I was sprinting through the Korean airport. My legs were burning! Phil was super nice and were we able to take some shortcuts through the airport. Even got to jump the line at security. I made it to my gate at 7:11 😳. Thankfully they were still willing to let me board. They checked my ticket, my passport, and my documents to confirm that I could have entry into the country. Everything was in order but they weren’t letting me on the plane. They received a phone call and Phil informed me that my baggage wasn’t on the plane yet and so they won’t let me on the plane. What?!? I just started praying. God please let me on this flight. If I didn’t get on this flight, the next flight wasn’t until the 25th. Thankfully another phone call came and I was able to board the flight and my bags would come later.
I was on the flight. My heart racing! I was so thankful to be on the flight. And now my mind was racing through what it was going to be like landing in the country without my bags. What was the process going to be like? How was I going to get to the hotel? Do I tell them about my bags? Needless to say, my anxiety was all over the place. I decided to sleep for the 4 hour flight while listening to Christian music. I didn’t know what to expect and I was nervous about not having my bags, but I knew that God was in control. He got me on the flight. He would get me into the country and to the hotel. And the bags would come. I cast my worries on Him.
After arriving in the country, I filled out the health declaration form, letting them know I haven’t had any Covid symptoms in the past 14 days. Then I waited at immigration to get my visa on arrival. After I got my visa I went through immigration and they kept my passport! They passed my passport on to the driver escorting me to the hotel and then they passed it on to the hotel. It was just weird to not have my passport on me. I went to baggage claim to see if by some miracle my bags got on the plane. When I didn’t see them I contacted an airport employee and filled out the missing luggage form. Everyone was very helpful.
After filling out the form it was time to wait for my car that was taking me to the hotel. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long. The nurse found me and gave me the blue PPE suit everyone has to wear that included gloves, booties, glasses, and a mask. Basically you are covered head to toe in blue. After I had on the blue suit and booties and mask (I broke the gloves and the glasses didn’t fit my head) we walked to the van that was taking me to the hotel. From there everything was smooth. The street were completely empty so it only took 30 minutes to get to the hotel. Once at the hotel they told me my room number and then I went to my room to begin my quarantine.