First day, 25th Dec, Xmas day, half way to Rio, at Santiago airport

damn i missed my flight! i just missed my flight! now i have to stay here for another 6hrs!! I was at Santiago LAN lounge, checking my emails, drinking rasberry juice, and.. my poor time management, and partially relying on lounge staff announcing the boarding anouncement, and somehow i thought the flight departs 1.45pm instead of 1.35… when i got to the boarding gate, it was 1.36, the plane left!! I know i should be there 30min before departure anyway… i blame nothing else but myself!i have a feeling this is not good to be a smooth trip. things have already gone wrong a few times, since i left sydney this morning. But as usual, as if some angel´s been looking after me, plus i always try harder, things always turn out to be ok! but i need to remind myself, not to rely on good luck!

My flight from sydney did not start smooth. i arrived just a little over an hr at the Sydney airport, LAN counter, i was told all staff travel (anyone working in travel, standby discounted tickets) are handled by Qantas, at counter E. There wasn´t anybody waiting when i approached, but was told to come back at 10 (my flight departs at 10.45). when i went back, there was a loooong line, worried about missing the flight, i approached the check in staff, but was told they´re not checking in LAN standby yet, so i had to wait in the queue. By 10.15, i had to approach him again, as there´s no way i could make it following the queue. then he told me to approach his supervisor, who´s on the phone sorting out another couple of pax to Santiago. i waited, for another 10min, he called my name and gave me my boarding pass, i ran, without noticing that he checked me in economy class till i was in the line of immigration. i had no time to go back, had to try my luck at the boarding gate. the LAN staff at the gate was very helpful, i knew there were seats in business class, she said the Qantas staff did not realise my ticket was in business class, typical! she then told me first she couldn´t do anything for the flight from sydney to auckland, but can change it to business from auckland to santiago. after talking to other airline staff, she was then able to change to business all the way through, i was soo happy, and gave her a Merry Xmas kiss!

On the plane, i sat next to an interesting lady, who´s a very active middle aged traveller, especially into trekking tours. We were telling each other the most interesting travel stories. She´s meeting her husband in Santiago, going on a trekking tour at En Atacama, and then to Bunos Ares cruising to antarctic. She told me a wonderful walking tour she did in turkey and how she researched 90 hours for her itinerary and was able to explore alot of remote areas where tourists don´t normally go, they also chartered a boat with another couple to those hideaways where only boat has access to, and interesting market shopping for food for the boat chef to prepare. I asked her to email me the special itinerary so that we could suggest to our clients too. Hope she will!

its not too much a torture waiting in the LAN lounge actually. its the second time i´m here for long hours, last time was on the way back from Rio to Sydney. the food is simple, but nice, rasberry juice is not sth. you can easily get in Sydney, its simply devine! and if u need to sleep, there´s a kind of seperate area, with lie down chairs. the internet area i´m in is private, spacious, big enough table to put yr bags, food, drinks. I´ll just have to treat it as an office for 6hrs and get some work done, so i have more time for fun later!

Later that night
I didn’t realise there’re other costs of missing this afternoon flight! no only there’s no biz class on the evening flight, it goes via Sao Paulo too, which adds another 2hrs to the already looong trip!
when i finally arrived at airport at 2am, my luggage did not arrive! its getting worse, by the time i arrived at the Luxor Regente, there’s no reservation for me! Its all prepaid through an agency in Florida, there’s nothing i could do but let the staff to freeze 2nights costs on my credit card, before they could look into it tomorrow… AND, the hotel is shit! 4 star??? NO WAY! 3.5 the most! I later found out, most 4 star hotels in Rio are like 3-3.5 star in Asia.
I get my flight confirmation last minute, 4 days before departure, and there was no 5 star available then, but never again, book anything relying on others’ comments or feedbacks online (i checked feedback on tripadvisor, obviously it says nothing what i experience! staff are ok, location is good, nothing else…) few days later, i learnt the hotel doesn’t even have any iron and ironing board for guests!

26Dec, Rio
its a sad day, the airline is supposed to put my luggage on the first flight to Rio, but they did on the last flight, so i had to wait another day! i had no change, no beach clothes…
My room reservation is still a question, i’m sick of waiting and been told multiple times, they’ll confirm shortly…
i went around the city, went into a few hotels, all full…
I felt absolutely miserable today.

27th Dec
Things are getting a bit better here in Rio, till a big bomb dropped when i found out from the office, our domain name Firstclass.com.au expired, and our site is down and emails not working!! and we could not reach any staff of the name registrar Intaserve. Although i later renewed the domain online, site is still down!