The Terminal – Minneapolis Chapter
About 6 months ago I mentioned the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks, in one of my posts, referring to Starbucks. Well… here’s the story.
I was flying to Boise, ID, on early March 2005. There had been some terrible snow storms all over Europe so flights were delayed or even cancelled. My route was Milan Malpensa, Italy – Amsterdam Shipol, Netherlands – Minneapolis, MN – Boise, ID. Shipol and Paris were shut down for 24 hours because of the snow. Malpensa was still open but in a chaos. I can only fly to Amsterdam on the next day, same flight, 24 hrs later, basically. It does manage to arrive in Amsterdam with about one hour delay so I run and catch the other flight, Amsterdam – Minneapolis. I’m 99% sure the baggage was still in Amsterdam as there wouldn’t have been enough time to transfer it to the next flight. I arrive in Minneapolis, not even half an hour late and I go through the customs.
When you first arrive to the US, in any airport, even if you are in transit to somewhere else, be it the US or any other country, you have to go through the customs and passport check. You have to pick up your baggage, go through passport check, put the baggage back on another of those conveyors and then take your connecting flight. SO… I go pick up my baggage but of course it wasn’t on the flight. I see my connecting flight to Boise is boarding and I have 15 minutes left to take it. I explain the problem to the officer and the fact that by baggage is very very very very likely to be still in Amsterdam for this and that reason. He says he’s really sorry but I can’t get the next flight if I’m not 100% sure my baggage isn’t on this one I’ve just arrived with. To be sure, I have to stay there and wait for my baggage until there really are no more baggages on the conveyor. And that’s how I lost my connecting flight to Boise, ID. It was the last flight of the day to Boise, at around 10.30pm or something… Shucks!
So I go back to the check-in counter and explain the problem to the lady there. Lost my flight, need to take the first one next morning, blah blah blah… She offers a coupon for a hotel nearby. But I decide to ask her if I can stay at the airport. The next flight is at 7am, it’s almost midnight, I don’t know the town, I would have to take a taxi to go to the hotel and sleep a couple of hours and than come back. Mmm, I guess I can nap on the seats here… I’m not that tired, I slept on the flight across the Atlantic already.
She looks at me and says… “hold on a second, I’m gonna check something…” and she goes talking with a police officer at the gates entry. She comes back and starts typing on her computer, prints out some paper and then hands me the document: “ok, you can take this document and go to the gates entry. The police officer will check you with the metal detector and all, and you can stay inside the gates. Here, the check in area only has regular seats and it’s empty. Inside it’s more comfortable. The shops will be closed, but it’s safer than staying out here.” That was SO nice!! I go to the police checkin point, pass the check and all… and a police officer smiles at me and tells me there’s a family room with a couch and restrooms inside. She gives me the directions and says I can take some rest there, it’s quiet. So nice… 
And that’s how I spent the whole night alone in the airport, haha! At 5am some janitor started touring the hallways, but the rest of the night had been very quiet and could take a nice power nap on that couch.
Then around 6am or so, Starbucks opened. The other shops opened later, Starbucks was the first and a few people had already checked in and were waiting for early flights. So I queued for a coffee. I definitely needed a coffee boost 
Right before me was standing a woman who ordered a vanilla espresso, double, with coconut cream topping. The thing was *huge*! Vanilla?! Coconut cream on top?! Yawk… I only got a double espresso. And it was still at least about 50 times larger than the double espresso you would get in Italy!
oh yes, VIP lounges can be very nice!
I’m a regular at the KLM VIP Lounge at Shipol, Amsterdam. Very nice and comfy… And now you got me thinking at some other funky travel story and VIP Lounges, lol.. That might need another blog entry, mmm… 
we will travel well together.Not a bad idea ? remind me to tell you about chiang mai airport-northern thailand.LMAO.
xxx
well, here I am, reminding you to tell me about Thailand… You lazy!