Gotta love this, just saw the fourth rainbow of this week… only in #Hawaii I see so many #rainbows

http://twitpic.com/17n583 - Eating baby rice for the first time..

Pff what a week.. airline breaks stroller, we got into an accident and now the computer is seriously broken.. makes me wonder whats next..

Isabella and I just got back from the clinic and are, as expected, both fine

• However, @DeltaAirLines had gr8 service in SEA & HNL: they were the ones 2 help me in ths matter ->thx! More info l8r @ http://bit.ly/bjObIw #
• Sweet: got the refund 4 the stroller from @alaskaair Thx!! (odd fact: it got broken on the @deltaairlines section of the trip) #
• Isabella and I arrived back in Hawaii tonight.. it kinda feels surreal.. hope that feeling goes away, its bleh #

Well, like I tweeted a bit earlier today, we received the refund for the new stroller. I think that’s very nice, it is solved in a nice way. I still have to tell you how the rest of the story went after the first part of this story (click!)

So, ok, we first had to go through the immigration part of Seattle-Tacoma Int. Airport. There was a nice line of people waiting, like always at immigrations. I was allowed to take the US Citizens line as I am the parent of a US citizen: Isabella, and that was nice because this line was a bit faster. The immigrations officer asked me a few simple questions, like how long we were abroad, what Isabella’s age was, and some other questions along that line. I had to give my fingerprints, and they took a picture of my face: the standard procedure, so to say. After this we could continue to downstairs, to the luggage claim.

While we were waiting on our suitcases (you always have to get these from the belt in the US, no matter if you have to continue after this flight or not), the nice lady from Delta came to me, to tell me where she was while I was waiting for the suitcases. I got the suitcases and wanted to go through the agriculture inspection with the lady from Delta (or should I say girl? She is about the same age as I am, or so I think haha) but I was stopped here since I had some foods with me, we had to get the bags through a scanner first. And what do you think, one of my suitcases was randomly selected for another inspection, the suitcase had to be opened.

After the inspection we were able to continue our trip to the luggage service desk. We (Isabella, the Delta lady and myself) took a train to a different part of the airport, where the service desk was. There they said the same thing as we already knew: the wheels were broken. They looked into the system for a bit and told me they couldn’t do much as Seattle was not my final destination, I had to claim my loss in Honolulu as that was my final destination. Right, so we did. They did give me an umbrella stroller for Isabella, so I didn’t had to carry Isabella all over the place They really helped me with that (believe me, it gets really tiring when you have to walk all over the place with her, especially when you are tired from a long trip).

After all this, the lady/girl (I’m still not sure what I should call her haha) from Delta brought me to the security check (I had to go through the security again as I had to leave the international part of the airport to get to the service desk) and she told me she would make sure that our broken stroller would be brought to the airplane to Hawaii.

During this security check, they checked my carry-on manually again (and only here they found the hand sanitizer bottle that they did not see in the Netherlands) but like expected, everything was found alright. So then it was time to go towards the gate for my flight to Honolulu.

Once we got to the gate, I thought I would be able to call my mother and Michelle through Skype… well, not exactly haha. Isabella started to cry since she became hungry. While I fed her, something started to smell quite bad and Isabella became very restless.. right, a dirty diaper. This meant I had to go to the toilets to change her. Once we got to the toilets, it turned out she did not only have a dirty diaper, no, everything was dirty. I had to clean her from head to toe and give her some new clothes.. hooray! Haha. I was glad I brought some spare clothes in my carry-ons.

Once I was done with all that, I went back to our gate and continued to feed Isabella. And when I was done with that, I was finally able to call my mother and Michelle, and tell them that I arrived safely several hours before all this. I can tell you: I was happy I had a 4 hour stopover, I really needed it.

Once I sat there for a bit, I had to go to the bathroom myself, and after the bathroom visit I looked at the arrival and departure screens and noted that my flight would leave from a different gate… oops, I did not see this earlier (and I should have checked it once I arrived at Seattle!).. fortunately I noticed this on time. I went to the other gate with Isabella and when I sat for about five minutes, I was able to board the plane.

My next flight was Alaska Airlines #859 to Honolulu. I knew there was a possibility that the third chair in our row would remain empty, but if it really would stay empty, I could only hope so.. often they add people on the last minute, people who were on standby for example. I was lucky: the chair remained empty and I had the whole row for Isabella and me. I can tell you this was a real welcome surprise, Isabella slept throughout the flight and I was also able to close my eyes for a few short naps

We arrived about 30 minutes ahead of schedule in Honolulu, and when we got to the baggage belts we finally saw Michelle again after three weeks. I can tell you, Michelle was very happy to see the both of us, and we were obviously also happy to see her again!

After we collected our luggage, we went to the Delta service desk in Honolulu, where a nice lady (this time it was a lady for sure, not a girl anymore haha) helped us. She had, however, some problems with her computer and she asked us to come back a day later so we could finish the claim, which we did. She told us we could just buy a new stroller and bring the receipt with us to get the amount for the stroller reimbursed. This was good news, we would get a refund for the whole amount if we had to believe her. I had some good hope after this!

The day after, on wednesday, we went (with a huge jetlag) back to the airport, together with the receipt for the new stroller, so we could finish the damage claim (by the way, they did not have the same stroller anymore, which was pretty sad as we had such a cute stroller). But they couldn’t find the first claim we made anymore.. ehmm. I instantly started to sweat it as I was unsure what would happen now.. for all I know they would say: too bad…

Fortunately it turned out to be not true. After a short wait, we learned that we would receive a check for the full amount, but that the check had to be signed by two different supervisors and these supervisors had a medical emergency at the same time somewhere else on the airfield. They told us that we could wait on them, but that we could also just come back (together with the proof of the claim) to wrap things up. It seemed the best to just come back the day after (today) to finish it all.

So this morning I went back to the airport again, where I received a nice check from Alaska Airlines for the full purchase amount of the stroller.

You might think it is a bit weird that Alaska Airlines reimbursed the costs for the stroller, but it turns out that the airline you flew last with (in the same booking), is the airline that will have to be responsible for any damages caused (which is probably why Seattle couldn’t help us, I think). Right, I know, it sounds all a bit weird, but that seems to be the rules. It doesn’t really matter to me, I am already happy things are solved.

I can only tell you that I am happy how things went. It is too bad the stroller got broken, but they solved in a very nice manner. Both Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines have helped us really well on the moments we needed the help the most and that’s something that should be told

For now I can only tell you I am really tired, the jetlag is really getting to me.

However, @DeltaAirLines had gr8 service in SEA & HNL: they were the ones 2 help me in ths matter ->thx! More info l8r @ http://bit.ly/bjObIw

Sweet: got the refund 4 the stroller from @alaskaair Thx!! (odd fact: it got broken on the @deltaairlines section of the trip)

Isabella and I arrived back in Hawaii tonight.. it kinda feels surreal.. hope that feeling goes away, its bleh

• Michelle told me she has enough food and drinks, so that’s good news.. She should be safe during and after this #hitsunami #
• I’m glad to be in Europe with Isabella, but Michelle is still in #Hawaii.. thankfully she is high enough when that #tsunami happens. #
• #Earthquake in #Chile triggers #tsunami warning in #Hawaii.. looks like it can be pretty serious.. http://bit.ly/aLyp1c http://bit.ly/cNWhwD #