Manta or bust...or how United Airlines turned a 1 1/2 day trip into 5!!!

The hardest part of moving was saying goodbye to our family. We planned to leave right after Christmas, so we decided to rent a house in Las Vegas, NV over Thanksgiving weekend to spend quality time with our parents, children & grand-babies before we left. Our son is deployed to Kuwait, so he joined us via Skype (love that technology!). We had a wonderful time and created life long memories for all of us.

Below is the description of our actual trip to Ecuador. I know it's long winded, but at the time I wrote it I needed an outlet for my frustration, and man it felt goooooddd to get it down on paper.

Day 1 (Dec. 26) - On our way

Speaks for itself...

You know that saying "be careful what you ask for" well it rang true for us on our trip from San Diego to Quito, Ecuador (EC). We asked for an adventure and oh boy did we get one!

It started at the airport check in counter in San Diego. Two of our bags were overweight (we expected that based on the fact that we tried to stuff our whole life into those four bags and Ronnie almost got a hernia lifting them). However, one was over 70 pounds and apparently you can't take a bag onto a flight into Quito that weighs over 70 pounds, period. Of course this isn't posted anywhere on the United web site :( I know this doesn't seem to be a big deal but the United Airline's agent put our bags on the baggage carousel and sent it into the black hole before he realized it couldn't go on the plane. So we had to wait for them to get it back, at which point I removed and threw away my shampoo & body wash. Lesson learned…

We finally got onto the flight and optimistically thought that was the worst of it, but United had another surprise waiting for us in Houston. We had a 3-hour layover in Houston before our flight to Quito. Five minutes before we were due to board the plane they cancelled the flight due to the First Officer not showing up for work!! So the gate agents handed us a piece of paper and told us to go to the hotel and call the 800# that was written at the bottom later. The gate agent told us they would probably create a "special section" (a new plane and crew) and we would likely go out the next morning. We checked into the hotel, went to dinner, and then called United. Of course they weren't going to create a new flight (that was just BS to get us out of the airport without a fuss). Instead they expected each of us to find our own new flights into Quito. When we finally got through to United's Customer Care, which should be retitled Customer Don't Care, the customer service rep (CRS) was surly. So I asked to be transferred to a Supervisor. The Supervisor's attitude was no better than the CRS's. After a lengthy discussion about our flight options I turned to tell Ronnie what was going on and the Supervisor said "thank you for calling United" and hung up on me! We called back and finally were scheduled to fly out of Houston to Bogotá and Bogotá to Quito, with a 3-hour layover in Bogotá.

Day 2 (Dec. 27) - Still in Houston :(

After a sorely needed night’s sleep, we went down to breakfast. We started chatting with a couple at a nearby table that was supposed to be on the same flight with us to Quito. The wife mentioned she was having trouble rescheduling her hotels and I offered to go to the business center to see if I could help. I spent a few minutes with her finding her reservations and helped her get it worked out...gotta keep the positive Karma going :)

Ronnie joined us in the business center and we logged onto United to print our boarding passes. There were two options to choose from, we chose one and it said it couldn't complete the transaction so we went back and selected the other option. When we got to the next screen we needed information from our passports and didn't have them with us, so we closed the web page and decided we would just get our boarding passes at the airport. However, after we got to the room Ronnie decided to call United to confirm our flights (paranoia had set in by then). It's a good thing he did because the CRS told him that our flight reservations had been cancelled via the web site!!! Now we are both computer savvy and there is no way we accidentally cancelled our reservations online...there was no warning, no "do you want to cancel" nothing. We had to reschedule our flights and ended up on the same red-eye flight to Bogotá but instead of a 3-hour layover it ended up being 13 hours.

The hotel allowed us a late, late check-out. We took the shuttle to the airport 3 1/2 hours before our flight time. Good thing we did, because another hassle awaited us when we tried to check-in for the flight to Bogotá. The United agent wouldn't issue our boarding passes because we booked our return flight to the U.S. 6 months from our departure date instead of 3. This wasn't a mistake on our part...the Ecuadorian government web site states you do not need a visa for the first 90 days and that you can get an automatic 90 day extension while in country. We also discussed this with our Ecuadorian Attorney because we don't want to be undocumented immigrants in a foreign country. FYI...there is no such thing as an "illegal" immigrant in EC, or in most other countries outside the U.S. Oh, and did I mention that the booking web site doesn't provide a warning about this nor ask for a visa number in order to allow you to book the flight?

After an extended conversation with three different United agents we were forced to pay $150 per ticket to reschedule our return flights to within 90 days of departure. Since when did the airlines become foreign immigration??? They are totally out of control! They finally issued us our boarding passes for the flight to Bogotá. We went though security and, because of the long delay at check-in we didn't end up getting anything to eat as all the food stands were closed.

One bright spot...apparently the United agent Alex felt sorry for us and upgraded us to economy plus, which was a happy surprise and made the flight to Bogotá much more comfortable. Bless you Alex for taking pity on two travel weary passengers!

Day 3 (Dec. 28) - Bogotá and Quito

We landed in Bogotá at 5:55 a.m. and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:00 p.m. so we had a long wait ahead of us. Fortunately the airport in Bogotá is new so there were restaurants and shops along the concourse that helped us while away the time.

About two hours after we arrived we realized that the United agent in Houston only issued our boarding passes for the first leg of our trip! Doesn't sound like much of an issue, right? In the U.S. one would just go to the nearest open gate for the airline, or to the customer service desk. But those conveniences don't exist in the airport in Bogotá, nor the airports in EC for that matter. After walking up and down the concourse several times we found a United gate that was open and a very kind Columbian United agent (the first kind United agent we encountered besides Alex) took our itinerary and passports out through customs to the airport check-in counter and had them issue our boarding passes, which he promptly handed us with a smile and a wave of his hand. I think we embarrassed him a bit with our effusive expressions of gratitude. Our good Karma kicked in just in the nick of time!

When United cancelled our flight from Houston to Quito it had a domino affect on our entire trip. We booked a hotel in Quito for one night that we were charged for but didn't get to use. We booked a flight the following day to Manta, which we also couldn't use. The owner of the apartment we were renting, and the real estate agent (Fernanda) that found us the apartment were waiting for us to pick up the keys. I sent an email to Fernanda letting her know we were delayed and were trying to contact AeroGal to change our flights. Fernanda sprang into action! She asked us to send her our flight information and then called AeroGal and rebooked our flight for us! Unfortunately the only flight available was on Dec. 30, which meant staying in Quito for 2 days. So we went online and booked 2 nights at Howard Johnsons in Quito.

Our flight from Bogotá to Quito was on Avianca airline that is based in Columbia and man you could tell the difference (from United) as soon as you stepped on the plane. The flight attendants greeted us with buenas noches, bienvenidas and a warm, welcoming smile. They were courteous and attentive - when's the last time you experienced that on a United plane? The planes are well equipped and comfortable. Plenty of leg room for everyone, not just economy plus, business, or first class. There was a plug to charge our electronics under our seat and a fully interactive (free!) personal entertainment system with games, music, movies (did I mention this was all free?). They served us a hot meal that was actually edible and also free! Compared to economy flights in the U.S. we felt like we were flying first class.

We arrived in Quito on time. The flight was a bit bumpy, but other than that uneventful. That's not to say our "adventure" ended there…

Our four large suitcases were not on the plane, which didn't actually surprise us because they did the same thing on the trip we made last December to EC. Off to the baggage claim desk I went, while Ronnie watched the bags we did have. It's a good thing I speak some Spanish. Although I'm sure it sounds broken, and my grammar leaves much to be desired, it gets us where we need to go. Once we submitted our claim it was off to the hotel Howard Johnson.

Although HoJo isn't considered one of the top hotel chains in the U.S., in EC they are one of the better hotels and are much nicer than the ones in the States. The staff was welcoming and the room was clean and comfortable. We took a quick shower and fell into bed exhausted.

Day 4 (Dec. 29) - Quito

We spent an uneventful day in Quito. We ordered room service for breakfast and stayed in the room, checking emails and recuperating. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and a couple of Pilsner beers each, which were quite tasty.

Day 5 (Dec 30) - Quito… and finally in Manta!

We called about our missing luggage several times over the two days we were at the hotel and finally found that three of them were transferred by United to Avianca airline and were at the Quito airport. The fourth was still in Houston because United didn't send it with the other three. The bags were at the baggage claim in the Quito airport so we decided to leave to pick up our three bags at 12:30 for our flight to Manta at 5:00 p.m. 4 1/2 hours early may seem excessive but we were already learning from our experience that things move at a different pace in Latin America.

We requested to take the hotel shuttle to the airport. We waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes. There were no other customers waiting with us. The airport "shuttle" was actually a taxi that the hotel apparently contracts with to take passengers to the airport. This taxi had been sitting outside the hotel the entire time we were waiting. Promptly at 12:30 the driver folded the newspaper he was reading and got into the front seat of the car, at which point the hotel bell hop came and took our bags to load them into the cab. Ronnie and I looked at each other and laughed out loud! Just another example of how different things are in Ecuador.

Another adventure awaited us at the airport. First we had to figure out where to go to collect our missing luggage, all the while lugging around our carry-on bags. Once we figured that out I had to go through a security door, up some stairs and down a long hallway to talk to the baggage claim officer. The baggage claim officer contacted someone else on his walkie-talkie and then sent us back to where we originally filed our lost baggage claim the day we arrived in Quito. They opened the storage locker and lo and behold there were three of our four bags. Considering we were told something different every time we called baggage claim, the fact they were actually there seemed like a small miracle. Once we collected and signed for the bags we were off to check-in for our flight to Manta.

Fernanda told us we would have to pay for changing our flight to Manta but there were no AeroGal agents at the ticket or the flight check-in counters when we got there, so we stood in the check-in line. Then we waited...and waited…

A few hours later the AeroGal agents arrived and began the process of checking in passengers. Of course they couldn't take the payment for changing our flight at that counter, so they sent me to another counter to make the payment. Another small miracle! There was actually someone there and I was the only one in line. I paid for the flight change, went back to the check-in counter, and the agents issued our boarding passes. Then we went through security. For those of you that haven't traveled outside the U.S., the rules are much different (read: easier) and you can take food, liquids, etc. through security.

While waiting to board the plane we met a U.S. expat couple from Tennessee who live in Manta. They shared some good information about the expat community - there are about 80 expats living in Manta proper and they meet twice a week. We also met a nice Latin American couple from Charlotte. She was El Salvadorian and he was Ecuadorian. They were traveling to Manta for vacation, and to drop off his daughter who was visiting them in the U.S.

We boarded the plane to Manta with a sigh of relief. After everything we'd been through to get to this point it seemed surreal that we were actually on the plane to Manta!

The flight to Manta only takes about 45 minutes. In that 45 minutes we were given a warm empanada and our choice of beverage...free. We touched down in Manta on time, grabbed our bags, and took a taxi to our new home.

Our new home is in a building called Las Olas (the waves) in a gated community named Urbanization Pedro Balda. The building is on the beach of the Pacific Ocean. Our apartment is 850 sq. ft. with one bedroom and one bath. It is open concept and we can see and hear the ocean from the kitchen/dining/living area and the bedroom. It has a small laundry room with a combination washer/dryer. We have a balcony that overlooks the ocean.

Juan, our new landlord, met us at the apartment; gave us a brief overview of the building; showed us a few technicalities about the apartment; and left. We were finally in our new home!

We dropped our suitcases, took a moment to orient ourselves, and realized we were hungry. Alas there was no food in the apartment. So we set off to find something to eat and a frosty beverage to celebrate our arrival. Lucky for us - or perhaps good karma coming back around - right across the street from the entrance to our complex is the Magic Manta Bar Cafe. The owner was warm and friendly, and the $3 subs and the cold frosty were delicious and really hit the spot!

Hasta luego, P.