“29-hour ordeal in the sky - and on the tarmac.”
I’ve done longer.
Mil Air Charter.
4 hours Korea to Japan.
6 hours on the tarmac in Japan (Fuel leak) no deboarding.
10 hours Japan to Fairbanks. Diverted due to volcano.
6 hours on tarmac to service aircraft no deboarding.
7 hours Alaska to Alabama.
33 hours total time on aircraft.
Then there was the 6 hour bus ride to north alabama.
It also took 8 hours to board the aircraft in Korea. (train ride plus flat tire on aircraft).
Something like 48 hours total travel time.
You beat me by an hour: 32 hours Guangzhou to Washington DC, transiting through LAX and Chicago.
A direct flight is 13 hours. We were flying immediately post covid shutdowns. Most international flights to China had not restarted and connections were terrible. Chinese airports still looked post apocalyptic with moonsuited security people at all gates doing temperature checks, and if you had a fever, you were immediately quarantined. We dodged that bullet in a half a dozen provincial cities where a quarantine might have been adventurous; we were all popping asperin and tylenol like mad to reduce fever, as travel fevers come with the territory on long trips.
In our case, most of the delays were very long layovers in Hong Kong and LAX, plus a shorter layover in Chicago. Couldn’t leave the airports.
All I can say for spending the night in a transit lounge is that it beats sleeping on a bench in 30th St. Station in Philly and on the floor in Penn Station in New York, both in the late 70’s, because I had missed the last train for the night. In Philly, a police officer roused me in the wee hours and told me that if I wanted to wake up alive in the morning, I should move to a different section of the terminal. At least China is civilized enough to police terminals.
Glad you (finally) ended up in the promised land :)
“”Then there was the 6 hour bus ride to north alabama.””
Sounds like a fast trip from Alaska to Alabama.
I thought I had it bad on mil air. Working for a DoD contractor, I “got to” escort a cargo from Travis AFB to Japan, in February 1993. The cargo was placed on a KC-135.
As if that was not bat enough, we flew to Fairbanks for refueling, and the flight on to Japan was cancelled, due to a blizzard at the destination. Got on another KC-135 the next morning, along with a screaming baby. Oh, those delicious Air Force in-flight meals! At the destination, I found that my companies travel people had neglected to book us rooms for the night.
There was one bright spot, however. The cargo’s high priority allowed it to bump a colonel and entourage from the Fairbanks-Japan flight.