Travel Days 1 and 2 Flying to Santiago, Chile

Greetings, all!

I’m gonna catch you up on what has transpired to this point! Pardon me for providing too much information, but I gotta get this off my chest… I don’t have many photos to share at this point.

January 2nd, 2023

We began the trip with a lovely chauffered ride from our condo to the Orlando International Airport. This was provided by Silversea, and Mr. Antoun of Blacklane was our driver! It was really nice to not have to drive ourselves or bother friends to take us to the airport!

We checked in with Delta Airlines Sky Priority, and Angel verified our passports as our print-at-home boarding passes required. Our flights to Chile began with a Delta First Class flight to Miami, then connecting with Latam Airlines with business class seats to Santiago, Chile. Bags checked in, we headed through airport security and then to Vino Volo for a nice wine lunch to celebrate the start of this journey.

We began receiving notices from Delta Airlines that our Orlando to Miami flight was delayed. At first it was one hour, then it became over two hours. We rushed to the Delta “Need Help” line to see what our options were since we now had only a 5 minute layover in Miami – we couldn’t even get off the plane in that amount of time, not including we also have to go from the domestic to international terminals. Whirled!

While the line moved ever-so-painfully forward we began making calls. Joy called our Travel Insured trip insurance office while I called the Silversea cruise line’s emergency number for travellers. Joy was transferred several times and was cut off with no way to call the last person without having to start over and go through the handoffs again.  Instead she called our travel agent, Patty, to let her know what was going on. Meanwhile I was on the phone on hold with with Silversea’s Emergency Hotline to see what could be done to fix our layover problem. After 45 minutes on hold they told me they don’t handle travel problems anymore – I need to call the Travel 24/7 office, and they gave me the number. Joy had wrapped up with Patty long ago and offered to call Travel 24/7. She connected with Andy. He told her she called the wrong number and gave her the emergency number I called earlier.  Whirled! Full circle! She explained we did call that number and he finally agreed to forward our complaint.

A short time later Joy discovered she had missed a call – it came from an unknown number and Apple lovingly blocked the call from ringing. It was Catalina, the agent from Travel 24/7 who was going to help us!

Joy finally got through to Catalina, and she found an 11:38 PM flight out of Miami to Santiago that she could book for us – we agreed as this would give us a couple of hours in Miami to make the tansfer. Several minutes later Joy received an email from Catalina that she was holding seats for us, but couldn’t complete the reservation because we had already “checked in” to the flights – she would continue working it. By this time we’re about 8 folks away from the head of the line. We decide to stay in line and ask the Need Help agent if they can see our new booking or help Catalina complete the booking if needed.

Finally, we reach the Delta agent’s kiosk. Aracel, the agent, takes our boarding passes and again asks for our passports (remember – we didn’t get new boarding passes without the “verify passport” line) and can’t find our reservation. Catalina had somehow cancelled our Orlando to Miami flight, but my Delta app told me our bags are on that flight! Whirled, whirled, and whirled! Aracel tries to get our Orlando to Miami seats back, but can’t – they’ve already been given away.  She can’t see our Miami to Santiago connection and can’t help us because that flight is on Latam, not Delta. Latam is a codeshare partner with Delta. “You need to talk to Latam,” she said. Further, since Silversea made our reservations under their system, she doesn’t know what our credit is to apply to a rebooked ticket! So she won’t book us on another flight.

We decide to run down to the gate where our original flight to Miami is now boarding and see if we can get on board. The gate agent, Joosef, confirms we don’t have any reserved seats on the flight, and there are no more seats available. He does confirm our bags are on the plane and puts in a request to have them removed and sent back to baggage claim.

We head back to the Delta Need Help area to use the Delta-direct phones they have there. While Joy talks to Delta I call our travel agent, Patty, to let her know we failed to get through to the Travel Insured trip insurance folks. I send her a copy of our trip insurance policy. Meanwhile, Joy succeeds in having Delta rebook us on flights for tomorrow that take us from Orlando to Atlanta, and then down to Santiago, all first class seats!  This will get us in to Santiago on the morning of January 4th – the day we take the charter flight to Puerto Williams to board the ship!  Time to check with baggage claim.

In baggage claim Joy talks to the agent, Angel (not the same gentleman who checked us in), while I handle a call that comes in from the Travel Insured office. Patty reached Marcus and asked him to call me. Basically he told me keep all receipts, and keep a log of all names and transactions and conversations, and gave me our case number for any claims we want to submit. Joy returns – Angel confirmed our bags show they’re on the flight, but if the pull request went through it would be 2-3 hours before they would receive the bags back here, so “please check back later.”

We decide to get a room at the airport’s Hyatt Hotel. We head upstairs. No room at the inn. Hmmm. I booked a room at the Renaissance Orlando Airport through the Marriott app on my phone. Pretty cool, huh?

We go to McCoy’s Restaurant in the Hyatt for some dinner and to give baggage claim time to do their magic. After a light dinner we head back to baggage claim (gettin’ our steps in today, I tell ya) and they inform us they’ve seen nothing on our bags and the flight has already landed in Miami showing the bags are on board.  I had placed Tile locators in the bags – and after a while I received confirmation from Tile that our bags were in the vicinity of the Miami Airport International terminal.  Angel and Jorge confer and agree that our best plan is to let the airlines follow through with our luggage transportation. The bags are checked through to Santiago, and Latam needs to honor that. The bags should arrive, if not on the 3rd, at the latest on the 4th just before we arrive, and they will see we are rebooked on a Delta flight, and transport our bags to the Delta area!

I call the hotel to find our where to catch the shuttle, and we head out. Thirty minutes later we’re in the hotel room, no bags but our carry-ons. It’s now about 11 PM. Helluva day.

January 3rd, 2023

We are supposed to be in Santiago now, but we are sleeping in in Orlando. We have breakfast in the Concierge Lounge, and at 1:00 PM we head back to the airport. Joy stands in the Sky Priority check-in line while I head down to baggage claim to see where they believe the bags are. My Delta app tells me one of the two bags was “expedited” back to the Orlando airport via Atlanta. They see it is still in Miaimi, too, but the records show it was never scanned onto either fight that was supposed to bring it to Orlando overnight. They believe the bags are still in Miami, and that agrees with my Tile location results.

We head thorugh security again and have another wonderful lunch at Vino Volo before heading to board our flight to Atlanta. Soon we’re on board! We have first-class seats on this flight. I’m in 5C and Joy is in 5D – we thought we’d be next to each other, but I’m sitting next to a guy in 5B! Joy is actually a bit behind me and across the aisle!

We fly to Atlanta with a little storm trouble that delays our arrival by over an hour, but we still have a half-hour to make it to our gate for the flight to Santiago! We have a long walk to get to the train in the middle of concourse A, and take the train to concourse F.  Once in concourse F it’s not a long walk to our gate for Santiago, but we arrive just minutes before boarding is complete!

On the Atlanta to Santiago flight we are actually seated together! We have the first class lie-flat seats. This is a first for us! The plane pushes away from the gate an hour late, and after a not-so-restful night we arrive in Santiago over an hour late.

As we head down the gangway toward Santiago’s terminal we get to see our aircraft that got us here.

Immigration was a breeze! Two sniffing dogs were on duty checking everyone out as we maneuvered the area. Santiago’s baggage claim has all of the flight in Terminal 2 coming into the same area, using the same 6 carousels. This gave me hope that it would be easier to find our bags if they did come here!

I turn off airplane mode on my phone and see what Tile has to tell me. After a few moments both bags register as being in the Santiago airport!  Woo hoo! Where are they? I begin checking the signal strength as I walk around the carousel, and the strongest spot is near where I started. I tap the Tile button on the phone to ask the Tile device to start singing. At first I don’t hear anything, then a few notes catch my ear! Another tap and I maneuver around a group of people and find the bags on a luggage trolley with another suitcase! I initially wasn’t sure these were our bags because I didn’t recognize the suitcase. A closer examination revealed we did receive our bags! Yay!

I highly recommend you get Tile (Android users) or Airtag (Apple users) to put in or on your bags for any flight these days, since lost baggage is becoming a major issue!