I wanted to surprise my mother for her 60th anniversary! So almost nobody knew that we were coming for holidays!
As we are staying for some weeks we had to bring the cat, so I flew first with her and Carlos will come tomorrow!
My flight was at 19h20, we left home at 17h00, but I remembered that I didn’t had my jacket and we were already in the elevator (which is pretty slow)… Carlos pressed the button to the floor below so the elevator would stop and went to fetch it. When we finally took off it was already 17h15.
We were surprised by works in the road as soon as we were getting out of Breda, that obligated us to a deviation. Of course there was traffic on that road, but we were lucky, we could turn the other way around and go to the high way we wanted but there was also traffic…
We didn't want to go too early to the airport because of the cat… and now we were getting late… Anyway, it turned out traffic wasn't that bad – just in exits and entrances of the highway, but we still had another detour to make, near the airport, it was 18h00.
We got to the airport at 18h10! The check-in was already saying it was closed (I don’t know why, because it wasn't ). So we started the check-in, but my luggage was too heavy, it was 26 kg! 10€/extra kilo would make 60€ extra, so we had to reduce 6 kg… no, we didn't take out the shoes! We had to remove the Dutch books! Carlos will bring them later. So I closed the suitcase again and handled it to the lady and she said that her supervisor told her that I had to fill a form for the cat in the service desk… So I let everything with Carlos and went there. Everything signed, I had a copy and there I was again in the check-in… After having my boarding pass, I asked where should I take that cat (when I took the cat to Holland, I took the cat to another desk so they would take her to the plane), and the lady said “under the stairs near security” I thought there was something else there, but there wasn’t. So Carlos asked again in the information desk, and they said that the cat would travel with me. I knew the box wouldn’t fit under the seats as they mention in the air company’s website, but they weren’t giving me more options, so I took the cat with me. I had to carry the box all along the queue, take the cat out of the box, put the box on the x-ray machine… and pass with the cat in my arms… of course the machine beeped…and the cat was so scarred with all the noises… :(
I was searched from my hears to the bottom of my toes! And they barely let me put the cat in the box before that!
Next step was to check the gate, no information yet, but it was still 18h40, they usually give the gate later.
19h00… 19h10… - still no gate! I’m getting worried now! I don’t see any plane of transavia!
19h20… 19h40… A transavia plain just landed! Ok… So this must be our plane! They finally gave us the gate, but I won’t go until the boarding is almost over, so Zu (my cat) doesn’t get more nervous!
My sister was one of the few that knew we were coming, but my parents were very suspicious… She was going to pick me up at the airport, so I wanted to warn her about the delay, but her mobile was off… I was getting really nervous! I called also Carlos so he wouldn’t get worried!
Meanwhile I saw a dog being transported to the aircraft… Obviously they didn’t give me the right information! I wanted to ask somebody but there was no crew near me, and I wanted to see how far would this nonsense go...
Everybody was looking at me with my cat…“Oh so cute!”, they said, even the hostesses! During the boarding, nobody told me anything, I was still hoping that someone would take the cat for me, but no; I had to go with her to the plane, and climb the stairs.
When I got on the plane, first thing I checked was if the transportation box fitted under the seats – It didn’t, just as I suspected! So I explained to a hostess what happened… everybody told me to bring the cat… Fortunately, she asked to the pilot if we could put the cat with me, given the fact that there was spare room between two seat rows! So there we went! She put the cat on the floor between two rows, and I sat on the corridor side. Five minutes later, it was already like 20h30, the pilot made an announcement in Dutch, and everybody was surprised and upset, I didn’t get what he said and there was no translation, I was about to ask someone but there was a hostess coming, so I tried to get her attention but she ignored me completely - nice… As a payback, we should only speak Portuguese in flight departing from Portugal! :D
Nevertheless, after a while, the hostess that helped me with Zu came to explain what happened: they lost their slot to take off, because they had a double counting and they took a while to understand the problem, so we had to wait for another slot, it would take 45 more minutes! At least someone nice on the crew! Wait a minute… it was probably me! With all that trouble with the luggage and the cat, they must have count me twice… well… not my fault! They made two mistakes… the transportation of Zu and the double check-in!
5 minutes later a big agitation… we were given a slot right away! Cool!
So we arrived and we are both ok! Zu is not used now with other pets... but she will be fine! Now we just hope everything goes well with Carlos! He will arrive tomorrow just in time to have lunch with his grandmother, which is going on holidays to her son's house!
As we are staying for some weeks we had to bring the cat, so I flew first with her and Carlos will come tomorrow!
My flight was at 19h20, we left home at 17h00, but I remembered that I didn’t had my jacket and we were already in the elevator (which is pretty slow)… Carlos pressed the button to the floor below so the elevator would stop and went to fetch it. When we finally took off it was already 17h15.
We were surprised by works in the road as soon as we were getting out of Breda, that obligated us to a deviation. Of course there was traffic on that road, but we were lucky, we could turn the other way around and go to the high way we wanted but there was also traffic…
We didn't want to go too early to the airport because of the cat… and now we were getting late… Anyway, it turned out traffic wasn't that bad – just in exits and entrances of the highway, but we still had another detour to make, near the airport, it was 18h00.
We got to the airport at 18h10! The check-in was already saying it was closed (I don’t know why, because it wasn't ). So we started the check-in, but my luggage was too heavy, it was 26 kg! 10€/extra kilo would make 60€ extra, so we had to reduce 6 kg… no, we didn't take out the shoes! We had to remove the Dutch books! Carlos will bring them later. So I closed the suitcase again and handled it to the lady and she said that her supervisor told her that I had to fill a form for the cat in the service desk… So I let everything with Carlos and went there. Everything signed, I had a copy and there I was again in the check-in… After having my boarding pass, I asked where should I take that cat (when I took the cat to Holland, I took the cat to another desk so they would take her to the plane), and the lady said “under the stairs near security” I thought there was something else there, but there wasn’t. So Carlos asked again in the information desk, and they said that the cat would travel with me. I knew the box wouldn’t fit under the seats as they mention in the air company’s website, but they weren’t giving me more options, so I took the cat with me. I had to carry the box all along the queue, take the cat out of the box, put the box on the x-ray machine… and pass with the cat in my arms… of course the machine beeped…and the cat was so scarred with all the noises… :(
I was searched from my hears to the bottom of my toes! And they barely let me put the cat in the box before that!
Next step was to check the gate, no information yet, but it was still 18h40, they usually give the gate later.
19h00… 19h10… - still no gate! I’m getting worried now! I don’t see any plane of transavia!
19h20… 19h40… A transavia plain just landed! Ok… So this must be our plane! They finally gave us the gate, but I won’t go until the boarding is almost over, so Zu (my cat) doesn’t get more nervous!
My sister was one of the few that knew we were coming, but my parents were very suspicious… She was going to pick me up at the airport, so I wanted to warn her about the delay, but her mobile was off… I was getting really nervous! I called also Carlos so he wouldn’t get worried!
Meanwhile I saw a dog being transported to the aircraft… Obviously they didn’t give me the right information! I wanted to ask somebody but there was no crew near me, and I wanted to see how far would this nonsense go...
Everybody was looking at me with my cat…“Oh so cute!”, they said, even the hostesses! During the boarding, nobody told me anything, I was still hoping that someone would take the cat for me, but no; I had to go with her to the plane, and climb the stairs.
When I got on the plane, first thing I checked was if the transportation box fitted under the seats – It didn’t, just as I suspected! So I explained to a hostess what happened… everybody told me to bring the cat… Fortunately, she asked to the pilot if we could put the cat with me, given the fact that there was spare room between two seat rows! So there we went! She put the cat on the floor between two rows, and I sat on the corridor side. Five minutes later, it was already like 20h30, the pilot made an announcement in Dutch, and everybody was surprised and upset, I didn’t get what he said and there was no translation, I was about to ask someone but there was a hostess coming, so I tried to get her attention but she ignored me completely - nice… As a payback, we should only speak Portuguese in flight departing from Portugal! :D
Nevertheless, after a while, the hostess that helped me with Zu came to explain what happened: they lost their slot to take off, because they had a double counting and they took a while to understand the problem, so we had to wait for another slot, it would take 45 more minutes! At least someone nice on the crew! Wait a minute… it was probably me! With all that trouble with the luggage and the cat, they must have count me twice… well… not my fault! They made two mistakes… the transportation of Zu and the double check-in!
5 minutes later a big agitation… we were given a slot right away! Cool!
So we arrived and we are both ok! Zu is not used now with other pets... but she will be fine! Now we just hope everything goes well with Carlos! He will arrive tomorrow just in time to have lunch with his grandmother, which is going on holidays to her son's house!
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