Loading ...20644 km, 38-hours, 4 airports, 3 small seats, 2 connections, 1 tired puppy.
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My return flight from Santiago to Hong Kong was an odyssey to be sure. I left my Hotel in Santiago on 7PM January 29th but the bus didn’t arrive to the airport until 9PM and waited in the long long long line for bags and boarding pass, for about an hour and a half then in the immigration line for about an hour, got to my gate just as they began boarding and sat in the back row against the wall for the 12 hour flight to LAX.
I arrived in LA at about 7am January 30th where I had to go through customs and immigration (even though I was just transiting) get from the international terminal down to the domestic terminal, get new boarding passes, go through security and I arrived at the gate just at boarding time. My flight was delayed which was good because they had also changed gates from terminal 7 to terminal 8, but as there was a secure side corridor I did not need to do security again, and got to the gate with enough time to grab some water and walk around for about 15 minutes. Boarded at about 9:30 and was off to SFO by 10 am.
Arriving in SFO at 11:20 I had to dash from the domestic terminal to the international (again through secure side corridor) to catch my flight to HKO, on-time departing at 11:40, on the way I grabbed a bag of chocolates for my staff and a bottle of water for myself.
The 14 hour flight across the date line to Hong Kong got me in and to my home at 8PM January 31, 2010.
Whew!
As someone who has spent a significant amount of time on-board flights over the past three months, I am absolutely awestruck and enamored of the outstanding and professional performance of Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, the much noted pilot of US Airways 1549 which made a controlled ditch into the Hudson River. 
