EASYJET

Easy jet.    

 

Up and out before breakfast for our taxi ride to the airport, we were eager to get out of this cold wind!

   The trouble with traveling in this COVID-19 world are the restrictions and paperwork required. Each country requires detailed information about flights, where you are staying or visiting. They want copies of passports, vaccination records, Covid tests and a full itinerary.  There would always be 7 or 8 pages needing to be filled out no sooner than 48 hours before your flight.  These forms must also include your boarding pass information.  That means you can’t finish until you get your Boarding Pass and flight information, including your seat number.

   Old people have a hard enough time trying to figure out how to turn on  a computer or smart phone anyway.  I don’t know what people without smart phones do.  Travelers must use their smart phone to fill out the documents, upload the documents, wait for the country’s approval and then download the approval email.  Really???  These countries desperately want tourism 

but they sure make it hard on people trying to get there.

   Trying to get an attendant to help us has been near impossible.  Just minutes before the gate closes will they help you get on board and tell you to get the paperwork done before you reach customs at your destination.

   To make things worse, the challenge of good WiFi or internet is hard to deal with as well.  Unreliable internet knocks you off line at a moment’s notice.  This causes you to start all over filling out the travel documents.  Even this blind guy couldn’t get help from any of the agents.  If it weren’t for Debby I think all of us would still be stuck in Iceland.  So we got to the airport in Iceland two hours early.  Good thing we did!  We barely made the gate!  Once in London we had to plead stupid and were able to get some British girls to help us finish our paperwork.

   With the exception of ticket agents helping with the electronic paperwork, my white cane often helped us out as an agent would come up to me and take us to a shortcut in those long customs lines, or boarding lines or even struggling with carrying our own luggage off the Tarmac.  Even strangers would help carry those suitcases up stairways.  People are generally kind and helpful.

In London we landed at one of the 3 major airports instead of flying straight from Iceland to Lisbon.  Easyjet had canceled that flight and diverted us to London, UK.  From that airport, Easyjet paid for a vehicle to transport us across London to another airport to catch our flight to Lisbon.  They did.  

   Looking to get aboard Easyjet to Lisbon, we struggled with our luggage because we were too cheap to check it into the Hold.  We asked the flight agent about checking our baggage for free but the lady told us it has to be 24 Pounds.  Nancy said, “How much?”  The agent girl said it would be 24 Pounds for one suitcase.  Nancy said , “I’m not sure what my suitcase weighs.  Could you weigh it?”  The agent pointed to some scales and Nancy started to put it on the scale.  I said, “No, Nancy.  She means it will cost 24 Pounds.  That’s British money.”  It was then the light came on and we all had a good laugh.

  We carried our luggage on board and got it stowed away.  Soon we were taking off and on our way to Lisbon, wondering if they would let us in the country without all that paperwork undone.

   Once at Lisbon, we entered a long line of people trying to get through Customs.  A nice man came by, looked at my White Cane and said “follow me”.  We told him that Nancy and Ron were also traveling with us and he motioned for them to also follow.  He opened a barricade strap  and let us through, then we followed him to the head of a line where only two people were ahead of us.

  All the Customs lady wanted to see were our Passports, Boarding Pass and asked  where we came from.  I said we came from the UK today.  After checking all our passports and stamping the boarder stamp, we went out to find a taxi to go to our hotel.

   Because we didn’t understand the language and customs of the country, the taxi driver charged us twice as much as we should have paid.  But how was we to know?  After all, we’re just four old duffers with signs across our forehead that say, “Go ahead, cheat me!”  Welcome to Lisbon, Portugal!

Mike