El Salvador/Spain - Houston, we have a problem…

June 26-27

Hello everyone!

So one academic year of working in El Salvador has been ticked off. Time to head off for the summer to see friends and family, have some wonderful adventures…and buy replacement underwear…

A particularly interesting section for me on this trip

No pictures of underwear forthcoming, don’t worry! This short tale - which felt a lot longer in real time - will try to explain why I needed to do some emergency shopping soon after my arrival in the UK.

Yes, something did go very wrong

The year before, I was leaving Malawi for the final time. The small African country’s flight options are limited. To get to the UK, for example, you had to fly via Ethiopia or Kenya, each flying four or five times a week. El Salvador, having a small but busy airport, should be much easier and quicker than getting back to the UK. In theory.

All smiles before boarding!

There are many options, possibly due to the fact that many Salvadoreans now live in the US. There are flight to Los Angeles and San Francisco on the west coast. Miami, Washington and New York are just some of the options on the eastern seaboard. Then right up the middle, where apparently everything is bigger, is Texas. That was where I was going. For two-and-a-half hours, at least.

Direct flight options are in green. Note the one outlier
to the right, that becomes important later on.

This takes 3 hours. Mexico is a lot
bigger than I thought it was.

I’ve been told travelling via Houston is fairly unique and much less stressful. This is because it’s apparently the one transition airport in the US where you don’t have to collect your bags. This made the layover time more plausible. On the way here last August I flew via Washington, and the combination of customs and baggage meant that three hours was quite tight. I don’t have seven bags and a bike this time, mind…

The pale blue case and blag back in the back right of
this picture are the two bags I was taking with me

I’m flying on a Monday. Other friends had had problems with their flights over the weekend but things were going smoothly before our scheduled departure at 1:35pm. This United Airlines flight was leaving from the new terminal building, constructed in 2022. My previous trip last December didn’t use this wing. I needed to put my bag through a scanner on two separate occasions. The first one seemed very relaxed but the second required laptops out and shoes off.

An internet picture of the new terminal wing

There are other people I know from work on this plane. We’re excited to return to familiar shores as we board in plenty of time. Sit down in the seat. Use that last bit of phone data. Then hear an announcement from someone on the flight deck. It’s along the lines of this: “We are just doing some temporary maintenance and paperwork, this will all be done soon.”

Can any good ever come out of 'temporary maintenance'?

Yes, the word ‘temporary’ isn’t really what you want to hear. I also wondered why we had been boarded if they still had work to do. No matter, we’ll be going soon, and we’ll still have two hours to get through the Houston customs. We don’t need to collect our bags. All will be fine.

A stock picture of the customs line at Houston.
I'd say the length of this is optimistic.

Probably 15 minutes pass. Another announcement from someone on the flight deck. It’s along the lines of this: “Maintenance has been finished, just doing the paperwork, we’ll be done and leaving in 15-20 minutes.” You would think they would be doing the paperwork at the same time so we can leave as soon as possible, but hey ho, they know what they’re doing. We’ll still have over an hour-and-a-half to get through the Houston customs. We don’t need to collect our bags. All should be fine.

We wait for half an hour. This is longer than 15 to 20 minutes. When I left Malawi, I thought I’d left the culture of saying one optimistic time and then the reality being very different. We’re getting close to our layover time being only an hour. This may not be enough time. A friend and I start messaging on the plane about possible things to do in Houston. All may be fine…but it may not.

So much to learn!

After half an hour, another announcement. This time it’s the captain. It’s along the lines of this: “There is a possible problem with the temporary maintenance, we are checking whether we’re allowed to fly or whether a new part needs to be flown down from the US. We don’t know when we will be leaving. For now we will stay on the plane.” I’ll give you the abridged version. We left the plane soon after, at about 3pm. 

None of us were wearing a smirk like
that when disembarking the aircraft

It’s frustrating, but these things can happen. I’d rather be on a plane which they knew was functioning properly. However, it quickly became clear that the ground staff, both for United and the airport, weren’t prepared for our sudden and unexpected ‘arrival’ back in the airport. For one, rather than returning to the gate, we were sent to the first section of arrivals. The problem here was that the normal path taken at this point is to immigration…which we’re not allowed to pass through to get back to departures. 

Wanna play spot the person in charge?

I don’t think many flights transit through San Salvador airport, however they do have the option of treating us as ‘connecting’ passengers. Eventually it’s arranged that we can head back to our gate…via another security check. Because obviously I’ve managed to acquire some contraband or fashioned a weapon since going through this check hours before. Why they didn’t reconnect the bridge to the gate, I’ll never know.

Trainers had to come off. Cheers, Richard Reid.

It’s now approaching 4pm. To give you some context, we should have been less than an hour away from landing at Houston at this juncture. We make two lines at the desk for our gate, waiting for our turn to speak to a United agent who has an iPad in front of them. I hadn’t realised until this point that there was no computer or printer here. These two members of staff are trying to help reroute people who have connections. This will take time.

This photo includes the third lady mentioned
below, which ruined the line system

A little while later, a third lady arrives with an iPad. She decides to situate herself a bit further away from the other two United agents. Inevitably, this means that some chancers break from the line and go straight to her. The two relatively orderly lines soon become a scrum at the front. Not that people should be pushing as the first people’s problems still haven’t been resolved.

The non-line line

Soon after, an announcement is made that the original flight has been cancelled and will now go at 10:30 the next morning. It transpired that they did need to fly in a new part for our plane’s tail. By the time that could be brought and the plane fixed, which they claimed would be at about 9pm, the flight crew would have clocked off for the day. Though it seemed obvious that the flight would be cancelled, this was an important step. This meant two things could now happen. Firstly, people could be offered hotel accommodation. Secondly, more United agents would be virtually collaborating to help rearrange people onto different flights. These started appearing on their United Airlines apps shortly after the announcement. I’m sure you can work out why I said ‘their’ and not ‘our’ or ‘my’. My flight route changed…losing the London part of the journey. Maybe I would need that list of things to do in Houston, after all…

Donde esta Londres?

Someone from my school got one of these new arrangements and it made us all realise that direct flights from Houston to London were fully booked for quite a while (Saturday, I found out later). They were offered to go: San Salvador → Houston → Denver → London. Their main query was the fact that the Denver to London flight was leaving 20 minutes before their Houston to Denver flight was landing.

Not even going at this speed would have got them that connection

At about 1730, when I was next in line, United announced that they are moving this operation from gate 19 to gate 18 because another flight will be leaving from gate 19. No other gates seem to be in use at this time. After loudly making sure that I would be seen next, I leave my colleagues who have already been seen (they stay at gate 19 to use the charging ports) and head to gate 18. It is at this point that my rearranged flight option finally emerges. 

Gates 18 and 19 are at this end of the airport

My discussion with the United agent revolves around this new itinerary. They have offered for me to go on the rearranged flight from San Salvador to Houston. I would then fly up to Chicago before heading east to London, arriving on Wednesday (this is now late afternoon on Monday and I was due to land Tuesday lunchtime). The issue is the Houston to Chicago section. The layover was 1 hour and 40 minutes, which is already a short time in which to clear US customs (it took me over an hour on both occasions in 2022). However, there is now an added problem.

Chicago is nice. Its airport is enormous.

Remember I said earlier that Houston was great because I wouldn’t need to collect my bags? Well, this is only if it’s a direct and international transfer. It doesn’t apply to domestic travel. Houston and Chicago are of course in the same country. So I would have 100 minutes to get through US customs, collect my bags, move from the international to the domestic terminal, check-in again with a bag drop, clear security and board. In 100 minutes.

Tick tock...

The discussion ultimately ends with me accepting this ticket because I hadn’t actually missed the flight. Even though I 99% would. The likelihood would be that I would arrive in Houston, miss my connection, then have to find another way to get back to the UK. This would likely get me back to the UK on Thursday. I was supposed to arrive on Tuesday.

I'd quite like to visit at some point...on my own terms...

Accepting my fate, I head to leave the airport with another teacher as we have been placed in the same hotel. As we are about to round the corner, I realise I haven’t found out what the other teachers are doing. They’re still at gate 19. They tell me that they will be on a different flight. The flight that is about to board from gate 19. An Iberia flight to London via Madrid. They suggested I see if there is any space left. I ask at about 6:30pm. This flight is leaving at 7:35pm.

Ten-and-a-half hour flight: long

The United agent - a different one with whom I dealt for my possible Chicago sojourn - finds there is one space. Perfect. I tell my other friend that I won’t be needing the hotel after all. She leaves…just when the agent says there is a problem transferring my ticket. A slight segue is needed here. These tickets are our end-of-year flights provided as part of our school contract. They are all organised by the same person. Everyone else seems to have been directly booked through United. Mine, bizarrely, is through Brussels Airlines. So rather than the United agent having the power to change the United ticket, he needs some sort of clearance from Brussels Airlines. Brussels is in Belgium. It’s the middle of the night in Belgium. But without approval, I can’t get on the plane.

Brussels Airlines is owned by Lufthansa

Of course, an international airline has offices around the world. Two United agents were thus frantically trying to get through to a US office. There is a 30 minute wait time on the phone for an agent. The flight is boarding. My colleagues whose tickets were more easily transferred give me sympathetic smiles and head onto the plane. It is 6:45pm. Time is running out. 

Not as easy as they made it seem

Soon after 7pm, someone answers the phone. Confirmation! A couple of caveats. One: remember I said that there were no computers or printers in this part of the terminal? This means that they can’t print boarding passes. I am thus given what equates to a handwritten note for flight one, and told to go to the Iberia desk when we arrive in Madrid. I have no idea what time the flight lands or the length of the layover. Two: are my bags on the plane? They radio the ground staff. Yes is the response. Have the tags been changed? The impression we get is no, because there was no time to print new tags. Besides, they couldn’t print me bag tag receipts anyway.

Legit

Let’s fast forward a bit. I get on the plane, take a screenshot of my now-updated flight plan to London, fly to Madrid, land with the realisation that I have an 80 minute layover, go to the Iberia desk, use enough Spanish and show my screenshot (the internet wasn’t working so it was lucky I took one) to get my boarding pass, and listen to the lady explain some things. At one point she says ‘una maleta’ - one suitcase. I interrupt to say that there are two bags. She types some stuff into her computer and confirms there are two. At this point I should have checked that two had been scanned into Madrid, rather than there being two bags attached to my name, but I didn’t think of that at the time.

An actual ticket for leg dos!

Ironically, the Madrid to London flight was delayed due to a ‘maintenance issue’. Maybe the part they needed was now in El Salvador? This wasn’t a long delay and I arrived in London about 6 hours later than originally planned.

The plane taking me back to the UK on the correct day

We landed about 45 minutes later than scheduled

Without my bags, though. I was told to check multiple carousels, then eventually told that they hadn’t been scanned into London. Missing bag report filled in, I then leave the terminal to start my summer with one pair of underwear. It wasn’t an ideal, stress-free way to start a break. However, I didn’t miss any flights and my most valuable possessions were either on me or not on the plane. Ultimately, I’m back home and ready to begin a summer of fun. Not to mention shopping in Primark…

I...don't...

Have you seen my bags?

Update: they may have been found...in San Salvador airport! Hopefully they will get here before I head off to Costa Rica...

Love you all,

Matt