My wife (Josie) missed her connection to her Philippine Airlines flight at LAX but because Philippine Airlines has excellent customer service, she was re-booked for the next flight with minimal problems.

A Sudden Storm

Josie's flight out of Phoenix was supposed to depart at 7:32 pm on the 25th of August and arrive at LAX at 8:57 pm. The Philippine Airlines flight was scheduled to depart at 10:35 pm. There would have been plenty of time for getting from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, check in and make that flight.

A "microburst" hit the airport area of Phoenix when boarding on her United Airlines flight was supposed to take place. Microbursts are extremely dangerous to airlines during takeoff and landing. The flight ended up being delayed about an hour and a half. When Josie arrived at LAX, the Philippine Airlines flight had already departed. She is stuck in Los Angeles for 24 hours.

She has relatives in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any of their numbers in her cell phone address book and they're not listed in the local phone books. She is spending her 24 hours at the LAX international terminal.

Philippine Airlines Customer Service

I called the Philippine Airlines 800 number via Skype (800-435-9725) because I don't have national long distance on my residential telephone line. I explained the situation to the customer service representative and she re-booked the flight and told me that Josie needed to head back to United Airlines to get some kind of re-something in order to avoid paying any re-booking fee.

As I write this, Josie is headed to the United Airline ticket counter. It's a good thing she won't have to pay any fees because she spent her last $50 (in US dollars) paying for a 1 pound overage on one of her bags. One lousy pound! That wouldn't have happened if the baggage weight restriction hadn't been reduced from 70 to 50 pounds due to the increase in fuel costs.

A Vacation Delayed

Yes, Josie's Philippines vacation is being delayed for 24 hours. LAX doesn't count as part of it. She'll be extremely tired upon arrival, both because of being stuck at the terminal and because she can't sleep on airline flights.

I moved her party from Wednesday (naturally, since she won't be arriving until Thursday) to Friday so that she can get some rest before getting tore up from the floor up. I went to the Royal Subic store earlier and picked up two more bottles of Jose Cuervo tequila and two bottles of Tanduay dark rum. I'm going to get tore up from the floor up as well.

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