My first flight was one I didn't originally plan have to take - a flight to Entebbe, just so I could catch my flight back to Nairobi. When I bought my flights to Africa, I wasn't sure whether I was going to Uganda before Kenya, or the other way around. The flights to Entebbe and Nairobi were the same price, so I bought return tickets to Entebbe with a stop over in Nairobi. When I tried to cancel the Entebbe to Nairobi portion of the flight, the airline wanted to charge me over $900 to NOT take a flight! The flight from Nairobi to Entebbe was around $250 ... guess which option I took!
When I checked in for the flight, I asked if they could check me and my bags all the way through to Canada, but I guess because of the connection in Nairobi the system got confused and wouldn't allow it, so was told that I had to check in again in Entebbe. I had about a 4 hour stopover in Entebbe, so plenty of time to collect my bags, go through customs (if I had to), and check-in for the rest of my flight.
Getting to Entebbe, I found the transfer office (before customs, so I could avoid the US$50 visa). The guy working there looked at my flight information, grabbed my passport, and asked if I wanted to go back to Nairobi on the plane I just came in on. I told him I'd do whatever was easiest for him, and he decided to send me back on the next flight. Since the flight was already boarding I had my doubts about getting on, but, ok! He took me around all the immigration desks and sat me down at the lost luggage desk while he filled-in some papers. I could see my bag going around and told him, so he took me over there and told me to grab my bag and then stay and wait for him while he ran off with my passport and flight info. He came back with another guy who ripped the old label off my bag and took the bag without attaching a new label (hence the "will my luggage ever be seen again?" feeling). We went back past immigration, up some back stairs, and back into the terminal. He left me sitting in a restaurant and off he went (still with my passport) to go and see if he could get me on the flight. After 10 minutes sitting there, he reappeared, handed me back all my papers, passport, and boarding passes all the way to Toronto! As I went through the gate, I was told that everyone was waiting for me, so I RAN down the stairs and across the ramp and into the plane ... where everyone was still slowly putting bags up and other passengers still got in after me!
So, it was back to Nairobi where I got to spend 6 hours sweating in a hot, stuffy terminal, then on to Amsterdam.
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