And finally... the update on Cabo return!
Wednesday: We had the Bris of our newborn baby. The day was very rainy and the Bris was early.
We named him Menachem Mendel.
After the Bris, I set off to get Menny's birth certificate, so that I would be able to have the whole family fly back to Cabo together and be there for Chanuka. It was easy. I went to Manhattan and picked up the certificate.
Then I went shopping the rest of the day.
I needed to make an appointment with the Passport office, in order to be granted entry into their building and apply for an immediate passport. It's the only way inside and we need a passport before Sunday if Sonia and the kids are to fly back with me for Chanuka.
The first time I called and tried making an appointment with their automated system, the earliest available appointment was on Tuesday, the 15 of December. We wanted to leave town on Sunday, the 13th.
So I called the offices and spoke directly with an agent. He looked into it and told me that the only thing I can do is keep calling and calling, checking if any time slots opened up earlier. Go figure!
I was very disappointed (pun intended), but I called anyway. After the third try, I was miraculously given an appointment for Thursday morning... Hashem pushes us to our limits and then lets us shine.
Thursday: Sonia ventured out of the house for the first time since coming home from the hospital. We both needed to be present at the passport office in Manhattan, in order to get a passport for the baby. We got there, signed up (with all the usual challenges and forgotten documents to bring back etc...)
Friday: Picked up the baby's passport, did the last minute shopping and stuff and were ready for our trip.
Shabbos: Not extremely eventful.
Sunday: I hadn't slept the whole night, because our flight was at 6am - which means that we need to be by the airport at 4, which means that we need to wake up at 2:30am and Motzaei Shabbos I needed to help pack.
We get to the airport.
We have 6 massive suitcases (each one about 55lbs), with one of them, full of Menorah's weighing a whopping 71lbs. We were very overweight.
Besides for that, we had a carriage, guitar, overly packed carry on luggage and loads of bags. We also had a long, narrow cardboard box containing the car Menorah that I purchased. It weighed only about 7lbs, but it was quite long.
The lady at the Delta counter was extremely nice. Especially impressive for all the pressure that she was under.
She didn't charge us for the children's taxes (roughly $100 worth).
She charged us with the 70lb bag. We payed $150 for that one.
All the paying adults were allowed 1 free bag with a $30 fee for extra bag, of which we paid for 2 extra bags. $60 for those.
She gave us our boarding passes and allowed us to pass on to the gate with our carry on luggage, guitar, carriage and long cardboard Menorah box.
We got the the gate. Finally.
Just before boarding, the manager of the gate comes barging over to us and starts rudely barking at us, telling us that the cardboard box is too big to go on the plane... We have too many bags to bring on with us... The carry on bags are too big to take on the plane. She is making a scene with us.
I calmly tell her that we were told to pass on right through and that everything is okay. Especially since the cardboard box contains a religious article and it is delicate.
She persists and with the help of another, even angrier gate agent continue to bark at us... Very rudely and loud. It was horrendous and shocking to experience such service.
She then demands that I put the cardboard Menorah box underneath the plane, with a $200 charge for a 7th checked bag.
I calmly ask her what will happen if I refuse to do that, since I was told by a Delta agent that I can bring it to the gate with me.
She tells me that she will throw us off the plane, taking all of our belongings to Cabo and later, in a few days time, bringing it back and getting us our stuff.
Obviously, I had no choice and paid the $200... Altogether resulting in $410US of exess fees and stuff.
Since we were held up the whole time with this issue, we were the last ones to board the plane. By that time, there was no space whatsoever for carry on bags to go in the plane and they took our "carry on" luggage (my tallis, tefillin and lots of our food) to the bottom of the plane as well, to join us once we arrive in Cabo.
I was upset and boarded the plane.
Upon our arrival to Cabo, the following issues came up.
1 - One of our carry on bags - Which they hadn't ALLOWED us to rightfully bring onto the plane and guard with us - had a broken handle. They had broken the handle during handling. When I explained to the agent on hand at the airport our issue with the carry on, she told me that the airline doesn't take responsibility for handles and wheels of all bags... I told her that while in a regular case that makes sense... But in this case I hadn't wanted them to check it in the first place. It was meant to be nicely nestled beside me on top of the plane, where such a damage would never occur. Since they forcefully took the bag from me, they should compensate me for the damage.
2 - Our 70lb suitcase that I had paid $150 in overweight fees hadn't arrived. It had almost 100 Menorahs to give away to the community and it was lost. I was fuming. How dare they charge us so much, give us such rotten service and then lose the bag that we paid so much for!!
I yelled at them. They told me at the airport that there is nothing they can do about it. I need to send in a report by mail or by fax... Obviously they want to make it as difficult and inconvenient as possible for filing for compensation and complaints.
When I called up Delta to see where our bag was on Tuesday, they told me that it was mistakenly shipped to Costa Rica... Hooray!
It arrived yesterday. Too late for anything.
I am therefore filling out a complaint form and asking them to compensate me on:
1 - $150 for the overweight fee that I paid, but still had my luggage lost.
2 - $450 for the worth of the Menorah's that were inside the luggage which are now worthless, due to the fact that Chanukah is over and our party is over... There is no use for our Menorah's anymore. It came three days too late.
3 - To compensate us ($40) for the hand luggage which they forcefully put on bottom of the plane (when we had a right to bring it above with us) and thereby had the handle broken.
Total money that I am asking Delta to send to me is: $640US... That's besides for the scene they made in JFK, embarassing us and the horrible service that we received.
It was a very hard flight.
On to better news; We had a nice Chanuka party nonetheless. Thank G-d I had a few other Menorah's in another of our bags, which we used for the party. Not enough... But we had to do with what was available.
The party was nice and Chanuka is coming to a close. All in all, it was a beautiful Chanuka here in Cabo. I wish I would've come earlier and been able to arrange a giant Menorah lighting... But, baby's come first I guess.
Signing off.
I will post pictures of everything IY"H.
We named him Menachem Mendel.
After the Bris, I set off to get Menny's birth certificate, so that I would be able to have the whole family fly back to Cabo together and be there for Chanuka. It was easy. I went to Manhattan and picked up the certificate.
Then I went shopping the rest of the day.
I needed to make an appointment with the Passport office, in order to be granted entry into their building and apply for an immediate passport. It's the only way inside and we need a passport before Sunday if Sonia and the kids are to fly back with me for Chanuka.
The first time I called and tried making an appointment with their automated system, the earliest available appointment was on Tuesday, the 15 of December. We wanted to leave town on Sunday, the 13th.
So I called the offices and spoke directly with an agent. He looked into it and told me that the only thing I can do is keep calling and calling, checking if any time slots opened up earlier. Go figure!
I was very disappointed (pun intended), but I called anyway. After the third try, I was miraculously given an appointment for Thursday morning... Hashem pushes us to our limits and then lets us shine.
Thursday: Sonia ventured out of the house for the first time since coming home from the hospital. We both needed to be present at the passport office in Manhattan, in order to get a passport for the baby. We got there, signed up (with all the usual challenges and forgotten documents to bring back etc...)
Friday: Picked up the baby's passport, did the last minute shopping and stuff and were ready for our trip.
Shabbos: Not extremely eventful.
Sunday: I hadn't slept the whole night, because our flight was at 6am - which means that we need to be by the airport at 4, which means that we need to wake up at 2:30am and Motzaei Shabbos I needed to help pack.
We get to the airport.
We have 6 massive suitcases (each one about 55lbs), with one of them, full of Menorah's weighing a whopping 71lbs. We were very overweight.
Besides for that, we had a carriage, guitar, overly packed carry on luggage and loads of bags. We also had a long, narrow cardboard box containing the car Menorah that I purchased. It weighed only about 7lbs, but it was quite long.
The lady at the Delta counter was extremely nice. Especially impressive for all the pressure that she was under.
She didn't charge us for the children's taxes (roughly $100 worth).
She charged us with the 70lb bag. We payed $150 for that one.
All the paying adults were allowed 1 free bag with a $30 fee for extra bag, of which we paid for 2 extra bags. $60 for those.
She gave us our boarding passes and allowed us to pass on to the gate with our carry on luggage, guitar, carriage and long cardboard Menorah box.
We got the the gate. Finally.
Just before boarding, the manager of the gate comes barging over to us and starts rudely barking at us, telling us that the cardboard box is too big to go on the plane... We have too many bags to bring on with us... The carry on bags are too big to take on the plane. She is making a scene with us.
I calmly tell her that we were told to pass on right through and that everything is okay. Especially since the cardboard box contains a religious article and it is delicate.
She persists and with the help of another, even angrier gate agent continue to bark at us... Very rudely and loud. It was horrendous and shocking to experience such service.
She then demands that I put the cardboard Menorah box underneath the plane, with a $200 charge for a 7th checked bag.
I calmly ask her what will happen if I refuse to do that, since I was told by a Delta agent that I can bring it to the gate with me.
She tells me that she will throw us off the plane, taking all of our belongings to Cabo and later, in a few days time, bringing it back and getting us our stuff.
Obviously, I had no choice and paid the $200... Altogether resulting in $410US of exess fees and stuff.
Since we were held up the whole time with this issue, we were the last ones to board the plane. By that time, there was no space whatsoever for carry on bags to go in the plane and they took our "carry on" luggage (my tallis, tefillin and lots of our food) to the bottom of the plane as well, to join us once we arrive in Cabo.
I was upset and boarded the plane.
Upon our arrival to Cabo, the following issues came up.
1 - One of our carry on bags - Which they hadn't ALLOWED us to rightfully bring onto the plane and guard with us - had a broken handle. They had broken the handle during handling. When I explained to the agent on hand at the airport our issue with the carry on, she told me that the airline doesn't take responsibility for handles and wheels of all bags... I told her that while in a regular case that makes sense... But in this case I hadn't wanted them to check it in the first place. It was meant to be nicely nestled beside me on top of the plane, where such a damage would never occur. Since they forcefully took the bag from me, they should compensate me for the damage.
2 - Our 70lb suitcase that I had paid $150 in overweight fees hadn't arrived. It had almost 100 Menorahs to give away to the community and it was lost. I was fuming. How dare they charge us so much, give us such rotten service and then lose the bag that we paid so much for!!
I yelled at them. They told me at the airport that there is nothing they can do about it. I need to send in a report by mail or by fax... Obviously they want to make it as difficult and inconvenient as possible for filing for compensation and complaints.
When I called up Delta to see where our bag was on Tuesday, they told me that it was mistakenly shipped to Costa Rica... Hooray!
It arrived yesterday. Too late for anything.
I am therefore filling out a complaint form and asking them to compensate me on:
1 - $150 for the overweight fee that I paid, but still had my luggage lost.
2 - $450 for the worth of the Menorah's that were inside the luggage which are now worthless, due to the fact that Chanukah is over and our party is over... There is no use for our Menorah's anymore. It came three days too late.
3 - To compensate us ($40) for the hand luggage which they forcefully put on bottom of the plane (when we had a right to bring it above with us) and thereby had the handle broken.
Total money that I am asking Delta to send to me is: $640US... That's besides for the scene they made in JFK, embarassing us and the horrible service that we received.
It was a very hard flight.
On to better news; We had a nice Chanuka party nonetheless. Thank G-d I had a few other Menorah's in another of our bags, which we used for the party. Not enough... But we had to do with what was available.
The party was nice and Chanuka is coming to a close. All in all, it was a beautiful Chanuka here in Cabo. I wish I would've come earlier and been able to arrange a giant Menorah lighting... But, baby's come first I guess.
Signing off.
I will post pictures of everything IY"H.
posted by the Mitzvah man! at Thursday, December 17, 2009
1 Comments:
wow! good for you for standing up for yourself... that is one nutty experience
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