Tuesday, October 7
Depart Maui for Fiji, quick stop in Honolulu.
Wednesday, October 8 (we crossed the dateline)
Honolulu flight stops at Kiritimati Island (Christmas Island) to refuel and pick up a few passengers.
Pilot announces mechanical failure-we will spend the night on the island.
Totally unorganized dispersal of passengers to various hotels and guest houses to spend the night.
Thursday, October 9
Return to "airport" at 11:00 am.
Board plane at 2:30.
Finally arrive in Fiji at 7:00 pm.
Yes, we had an unexpected adventure to Christmas Island. While I understand that things break down on planes, and I appreciate them doing the right thing to keep people safe, you'll read here that everything else related to the delay on Christmas Island was completely mishandled by Fiji Airlines, creating a total debacle.
The Adventure within an Adventure:
After landing on Christmas Island to refuel, drop off a few people, and pick up a few folks who had been there fishing, we were soon told we would be disembarking from the plane due to mechanical failure. Everybody looked at one another as if asking, "Did we hear that right?" Oh, we did. They went on to tell us that we would be spending the night on Christmas Island, because the plane was now unsafe to fly (apparently the main controls for the flaps that control altitude broke mid-flight, and thankfully the backup controls worked so we could land), and that another plane would arrive in the morning to take us on to Fiji. We were on the plane for another hour or so while they arranged for transportation to a local hotel called the Captain Cook Hotel. We arrived in the last caravan due to our seats being at the back of the plane (and some people moving ahead of us even though we were asked to stay on the plane). After an hour or so at Captain Cook Hotel, a few of us found out that there were no more rooms, and there was nobody from the airline to be found, so we asked them to call for transportation to another hotel we heard was on the island.
Transport trucks finally arrived, and 20 of us tossed our luggage in and rode off into the night. Gracyn and I rode in the cab with the driver, clutching our big backpacks in our laps as we made our way down the road. Not too long after dark we arrived at The Village, a small cluster of guesthouses/bungalows where we were told they were working to make space for us. Gracyn and I said numerous times that we were willing to share a room with folks and that we had camping gear, including therma-rests, but somehow, in the end, we had our own little bungalow, with AC even. Over a tasty dinner of tuna steak, rice, and veggies, we got to know an Australian family that has been traveling the US for the past month or so. After dinner, we offered them our therma-rests, and they thankfully accepted them.
After getting settled in, we walked down to the beach where the moon was shining bright, the water was lightly lapping the coast, and hundreds of crabs were making their way down the beach. We found a bench to sit on and simply enjoy our surroundings. We commented that had this been part of the plan, or if we were simply trying to get away from all civilization, we couldn't have asked for a nicer spot.
After a good night's sleep, we woke up to join our fellow travelers in an outside dining area where we were served coffee and a basic breakfast. We learned more about where everybody was from and where they were headed. One girl, Holly, had spent a lot of time in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and she provided us with five pages of notes on where to go and what to see.
Around 11:00, the transport trucks returned and we were told that it was time to head back to the "airport." I use the scare quotes here, because it was basically an open air building with two main rooms connected by a hallway featuring a metal detector. All of our bags were hand-checked, and all paperwork was done by hand. We had to show our passports about ten times. After checking our luggage, we were told that the new plane would not arrive until 1:30 and that they were hoping to leave by 3:00. Yes, we had almost four hours to wait, and there were very few seats indoors. We Village people decided to create our own Sky Priority Lounge under a palm tree, using fallen branches as seats. The Dad from the Australian family found a coconut and busted it open with a sharp rock. We both agree we would stay close to him if anything else went wrong.
Finally, at 1:30 or so, they began moving everybody through security, and we had just entered the "gate area" when the other plane appeared on the horizon and touched down on the lone runway on Christmas Island. Upon boarding the plane, we sat there for an hour or so while they worked through the handwritten paperwork. At this point (4:00 or so), most folks hadn't had any food or drink since they left their hotels mid-morning, so things were tense. Thankfully we had packed peanut butter sandwiches before leaving Honolulu, so we were able to eat them for lunch in the Sky Priority lounge.
We eventually did get off the ground and had an uneventful flight to Nadi, and upon arrival, immigration was relatively painless. We figured Fiji Airlines would have a large number of customer service reps on hand to address everybody's needs for rebooking and whatnot, because most folks were only planning to stay in Fiji for a night and leave first thing the next morning. We figured incorrectly. They had a handful of agents, but only one computer. We ended up near the end of the line and waited for over an hour to speak to the agent about being compensated for the room we were charged for there in Fiji while we were delayed on Christmas Island. We were told that they didn't really do that, but that they could give us information for our travel insurance (we had to eventually get that taken care of upon checking in for the next flight). They did agree to book us into a nice hotel for the remainder of our stay in Fiji, including vouchers for meals. We left the airport that night feeling frustrated, angry, and tired.
All in all, this situation was a total debacle and not handled well by Fiji Airlines. From the moment we got off the plane on Christmas Island, everything was completely unorganized. The worst/worrisome part for most of us was when they collected all of our passports with the assurances of handing them back in the morning (which they did, along with new boarding passes). There was one woman telling us to take the transport trucks to the hotel, but not really saying much else. Then, when we arrived at the hotel, nobody from the airlines was around to communicate with the hotel. She did come to the Village around 10:00 pm to give us an update, but it was basically in the vein of, "Don't worry. We'll figure it out." It would have been so much better for them to organize who went where from the very beginning. If there was an HOD major on that flight, he/she would have a senior thesis in the bag. We've definitely decided that after our flight to Christchurch, we will never fly with Fiji Airlines again if we can help it.
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