Airport Issues

November 13

Oh man! I arrived at the airport in Kansai, Japan, ready to take off for my adventure in Seoul, Korea. Upon getting to the airline counter and handing in my passport, the Japanese airline employee checked over my flight information and stated, “This flight is full.” I looked at her with disbelief and said, “I already paid for this flight. How can it be full?” Again, she stated, “This flight is full” In response, I said, “This isn’t possible. I’m on this flight. I have already confirmed it. Your airline charged my credit card.” She probably didn’t understand a word I was saying but judging by my face, she could tell I was stressed. With broken English, she responded by saying, “No, don’t worry. This flight is full. You are okay.” I looked confused again so she pointed at my bag and then to the luggage scale said, “Place bag.” Then, a Japanese man behind me said, “She was just letting you know that the flight was full.” I was relieved and placed my bags on the scale.

Then she looked over my itinerary and looked a bit confused. She ended up having to call several people over to look at my flight schedule. The discussion between the employees took over 5 minutes before the same airline employee turned to me and asked how long I was going to be staying in Korea. I explained that I was going to be in Korea for 4 days, 3 nights. Then she asked for my itinerary showing my flight departure out of Korea. Since I’ve been booking my flights as I go, I didn’t have my flight information for Korea yet. I booked my trip from Korea to China the night before and didn’t have access to printer to print out my itinerary for that trip. It looked suspicious that I only had a one-way ticket to Korea so they had to ask me several security questions to validate my intentions in Korea. Again this conversation was difficult to navigate through since they didn’t know enough English to communicate with me and I didn’t know any Japanese to communicate with them at all. This took 20 more minutes and several more employees. Finally, they confirmed my flight and moved on to the next step: checking in my baggage.

At this point, I was still keeping my cool and managed to maintain any stress that was fusing. When I placed my bags on the conveyer belt, she stated:

Airline Employee: “20,000 yen ($250).”

Me: “20,000 yen for what?”

Employee: “You can have one bag. You have two. We charge you money for extra bag.”

Me: “But I came into Japan with two bags. Why am I getting charged?”

The employee looked disgruntled by my limited knowledge of Japanese language. Thankfully, a person in line helped me translate. Basically, I was only allowed one bag that weighs 20 kilograms (44 lbs.) maximum. I have two bags, each weighing about 20 kilograms. When traveling from the States to Asia, it was acceptable to check in two bags, each weighing 23 kilograms (50 lbs.) maximum. However, when traveling to and from the Asian countries, almost all airlines only allow one check in bag. I had no idea and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t afford paying that much just for one flight, considering that I would have to pay that much every single time I took a flight in Asia. I was very worried at this point and it showed all over my face. After another 20 minutes or so of the man translating and the employees discussing amongst each other, I was reluctantly ready to hand in my credit card. Then, the manager approached me and told me that since this seemed like a first time mistake, he will waive the fee and allow me to board with two checked in luggage. Again, I was relieved and grateful. Though, he did warn me that I might encounter this problem when leaving Korea. So I needed to come up with a plan.

They finally gave me my plane ticket and I rushed over to my gate. I was almost late boarding my plane because of all the confusion. I really didn’t know of this specific rule before. How stressful! Now I have to figure out how to lug all my belongings into several countries. I might have to dispose of a lot along the way. I guess I am not as independent and prepared as I thought I was.