The fat man in the Hawaii shirt

After hours of waiting, annoyance, discussions and excitement, we finally arrived...in paradise on the Fiji Islands =) Yes, I know, we shouldn't complain, but I still want to briefly tell you how incompetent and exhausting one or two airlines can be. Two months before, our direct flight from Christchurch to Nadi was cancelled and we got a new one a day earlier with a stopover in Auckland. The airline wanted to pay for our first night in Fiji. Perfect for us. Unfortunately, the journey was already delayed at the beginning because our plane in Christchurch couldn't take off due to fog. After 2 hours, we finally took off for Auckland. When we arrived there, we ran like crazy from the domestic airport to the international one. The sprint of about 1.5 km with a 15kg backpack was already only panting at a snail's pace for me after 200 meters, to the amusement of the oncoming passengers. And of course, we missed our connecting flight to the Fiji Islands. Great...when does the next plane leave? We immediately went to the airline counter, where of course no one was there anymore. So Jonas called there and we were told that no plane would fly today and tomorrow's plane was already fully booked. After 10 minutes of discussion on the phone, the nice lady referred us to the counter of the other airline, it was their fault after all. We went to the counter of the other airline and continued to discuss for hours, until they finally told us that the other airline had already booked us on the flight for tomorrow (which was previously fully booked) and they would cover one night in the hotel + meal voucher. Finally, we were satisfied with that and enjoyed the night in a great double room. The next morning, the nasty surprise came: at the airline counter, they told us that we have no seats on the plane but only on the waiting list with 14 other people, as the plane is completely overbooked. We could hardly believe our ears and there were countless discussions with the fat man in the Hawaii shirt. But what annoyed me the most was that they told us something else yesterday just to get rid of us.

We tried all possibilities to maybe get on another plane or make a stopover somewhere else. No chance... The fat man was getting more and more restless and angry when we said we would come back in an hour when the counter closes. He told us that he has been doing this job for 25 years and the chance of us being on this plane is lower than winning the lottery. Well, he sure knows... Furious, we left and sat on hot coals for two hours. I had already given up hope and was already thinking about what food I would order with my meal voucher at the hotel this time. Exactly one hour later, we walked back to the counter and I was already looking forward to the annoyed face of the fat man. But I could hardly believe my eyes when another man waved at us from a distance and joyfully told us that another plane was delayed and there were still two seats free for us on the plane. We were overjoyed like two little children. The joy turned into a big wide grin when we saw the stupid face of the fat man... maybe his 25 years of experience were not right after all. He handed us the tickets and only said that we should hurry now. And once again, we were two lucky people and I seriously consider starting to play the lottery=)