At Gold Coast Airport - the suckage factor continues...

At Gold Coast Airport
Originally uploaded by ZeeDesertRat

So, sitting here at the Gold Coast Airport – which by all standards should be considered a regional airport, I’ve discovered other facts of life that I must accept.

First and foremost, I was not upset by the fact of staying in Gold Coast for an additional day even though there was absolutely no business reason to do so – that’s the way our marketing department had scheduled my time, and I am, of course, a team player. That being said, I believe our marketing team does not use our corporate travel company, BCD Travel. That said, my hotel expected me in Sydney last night, not tonight, and naturally cancelled my entire reservation through 15th June. That in itself was not as so dramatic as it sounds because after a quick phone call I was able to resolve it. The conversation went like this “no worries mate, no worries mate, no worries mate, no worries mate, blah, blah, blah, yes we have your room sorted out through 15th June, cheers mate, thanks mate, no worries mate, mate, mate, and mate. That’s not a literally transcription of the conversation, but it is close.

Moving on however I ran into what I’d categorize as a larger problem – being that I missed my flight the day prior and had no ticket to get back to Sydney from Gold Coast. So whose fault is that? I’ll be the first to say that it’s probably my fault considering I booked this travel while in the United States, put it on my Outlook calendar in the United States and probably did not take into account that 2:00 PM on Thursday corresponds to 9:00 PM on Wednesday in Phoenix. I suppose it’s really not all that confusing considering it’s only minus seven hours from Phoenix during their summer, Australia’s Winter, and you need to subtract a day and account for potential daylight savings time issues in Australia, OR add seventeen hours to Phoenix local time, which then adds a day, in order to find out exactly what time it is here. Considering this amount of simplicity I am quite surprised at how often the subject of “what time is it there?” comes up over an international telephone call. Really people, just do the math.

Again, moving on, the dilemma was resolved fairly quickly with a $97.00 airline ticket, which I’ll expense to my company. Delighted with my most recent accomplishments I waited for the actually check-in time where a new level of suckage needed to be overcome. Please keep in mind that I am traveling with two checked bags and one carry-on bag containing two laptops, lots of power cords, magazines, my leather jacket, and my receipts to be expensed. Notice how I keep those receipts with me at all times. So, considering I’m traveling for over a month’s time I find that to be justified. Regarding their weight, I have my red bag which recently weighed comes to 19.4 kg or 43 lbs. My black back was 24.9 kg or 54 lbs. I haven’t yet been asked to weigh my carryon. So, all that said, Australia has a weight limit to the checked luggage you can bring onto a plane. I still don’t know the amount for one bag, but the second bag would be charged at $10 AUD per kilogram, or in my case now $190 AUD. So speaking with the attendant I negotiated down to $150 AUD so I could get my second piece of luggage onboard my $97.00 AUD flight.

What a bunch of crap.