Well, today's been a most interesting day but the result may be that the first screw up of the trip may have occurred. Let's step back to this morning....
It was a nice day in Gaborone. I woke up later than usual on this trip and had a leisurely toilette. Made my way down to the lobby to check out and get the shuttle to the airport. We wound up leaving earlier than I expected but that was fine. Noticed that there were a lot of military vehicles at the intersections on the way to the airport but figured it was normal.
Got to the airport to check in and wound up being pretty far back in line. The reason you ask? There were a group of about 15 Chinese ahead of me. If you haven't heard, the Chinese have invaded Africa to get a lock on their natural resources to supplement their own dwindling stocks. These guys all looked like they were heading home as they had a lot of luggage and most of it was wrapped in an attempt to secure it with homemade wrappings.
There was only one agent working. Apparently, each of the Chinese passengers' checked bags was overweight. They either had to pay the fees for the overage or they had to move stuff around which they proceeded to do right in front of the counter. A second agent came over and started working. She took me very shortly. I was asked if I had already checked in and told her that I hadn't but realized that the agent in Johannesburg must have checked me in when she asked though I told her not to. My luggage was well under the limit and I was on my way.
I went to the window to see what everyone else was looking at on the tarmac. I noticed an official greeting set up so someone of importance was arriving. This may have been the reason the Johannesburg flight before me was delayed. I found out shortly there after that a Nigerian official was arriving as two Nigerian Air Force passenger jets appeared.
A little bit later, flights started boarding. There was some confusion because the two Johannesburg flights were very close together. I couldn't figure out why the gate agent was yelling the flight number. I did find out later from our pilot. The Gaborone airport was having problems with their power supply. They were manually processing passengers. This resulted in an hour delay of our departure when we boarded only five minutes late.
We taxiied out to the runway and then pulled off and went back to the gate. The pilot announced that some caution lights had come on and they couldn't fly with them active. They were calling the technical folks in Johannesburg to find a solution. They wound up only having to reset some breakers and we were off.
Of course, this meant we landed and taxiied to our bus gate with only 40 minutes to make my connection. By the time the gate checked bags were offloaded and we were bussed to the terminal, I had only 25 minutes. Got to the gate and found out that not only was I not checked in (Gaborone couldn't give me a boarding pass and there was no one from Ethiopian at the Transfer Desk) but that my ticket needed to be "exchanged". I had gotten an e-mail last week about a time change and figured it was no big deal. This was what caused the issue.
They got me on the plane in my business class seat. I'm now at the lounge in Addis Ababa where I have a handwritten boarding pass that I will exchange at the gate. I also found out that it is not only a time change but an equipment change as well.
Where does the potential screw up (or shoe to drop) come in? I'm not sure my checked luggage made the flight. I don't know if it will catch up to me. I can't do anything about it until I get to Dar Es Salaam. I'm hoping that if it didn't make the flight I can get it rerouted to Dubai when I leave for there tomorrow afternoon. Boy am I glad I have a carry-on as well....
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