Thirty Two Hours to Uganda

Scammed

We always check-in online for our flights as soon as possible. We are booked from Toronto to JFK- New York on Delta and on Kenya Airways from New York to Nairobi, Kenya and then to Entebbe, Uganda.

When doing our on line check in, John is able to check in on our Delta flight to New York but was denied check-in access to our Kenya Airways flights. He tries calling Kenya Airways and being the weekend, the Canadian contact number is closed so he calls their 24/7 global number listed on their website. That number comes back as out of service. He finds another number on their website which promises to connect you to the next available agent but never does. After being on hold he finds another contact number from a Google search which he calls. The representative tells him that there are extra charges to the tune of $1,300 US. There is a long history here with our Kenya Airways booking as our original booking got changed in mysterious and unexplained circumstances to another day which we had to sort out to a new date. The airline also has a bad customer service reputation. The rep said the original change  to a new date should have been charged at a higher rate and so the ticket was never confirmed and to do so we had to pay the difference between the original cost and current cost of the return tickets which would be $1300 US. Then the call got dropped. 

John calls back, gets a different rep that figures a way to get the excess fees cut to $580 US. We do not want to lose our flights to Uganda.

Meanwhile I call Visa (which is the card we used to book the flight). We have the two calls going at the same time. It turns out that we were in the process of a scam.

Visa tells us that we need to get hold of the real Kenya Airways to confirm everything. So we call again and are on hold for over three hours before it sinks in that we are calling Kenya with a cell phone and no long distance plan…this is going to be the most expensive call ever.

We never do get hold of Kenya Airlines on any of the numbers on their website… and this was definitely their real website.

The scammer calls back and leaves a message on John’s phone. We ignore it.

We call Delta which has a code share with Kenya Airlines and Delta confirms that everything looks fine with our flights. However we never find out why we could not check-in online on the Kenya Airways website.

John has since learned that this is a common scam. Customers google an airlines number to make a change or inquiry and  call a scam number posing as the airlines number. By providing your name and booking number to the ‘agent’ the scammer can get all the info about the booking and start trying to add extra fees etc. 

In our case, our inability to access check-in on the real website just made the scam that much more believable. However, we informed Visa and should be covered for the scam…wish I could say as much for the cell phone bill.

From Pearson to JFK

We wake up at 2am and grab a 2:35am Uber to the airport.

At the Delta check in counter they give us all our boarding passes, including the Kenya Airways ones. That is promising! 

With a farewell wave we send our one checked bag off, with hopes that we see it again when we arrive in Entebbe, Uganda.

At the gate we are called to board early because, for some reason, our tickets have been marked that we both require wheel chairs! Is anything on this trip going to go smoothly?  Although it’s tempting to be moved through all the transiting airports in wheelchairs, we say there is a mistake and we are fit & mobile.  Despite not needing wheelchairs, the gate agent still allow us to board early.

Our plane is a small puddle jumper. It is almost empty. Dawn is breaking as we take off. We fly directly over Oakville. It is impossible to see any houses and even difficult to make out Lakeshore Road because the tree canopy is so dense.

The flight takes an hour. We arrive at JFK and at the skybridge where you exit the plane are two staff each with a wheelchair… we keep on walking.

New York to Nairobi 

We have a six hour layover at JFK International Airport. The time passes quickly with good internet, good books and downloaded episodes of “Bones”.

When our flight’s gate opens, John informs the Kenya Airways staff that someone had accidently listed us as needing wheelchairs. The agent issues us new boarding passes in order to remove the wheelchair designation from our booking. 

In checking our passports the agent says …”This might be a problem”. What now?  The agent explains we might not have enough blank pages in our passports, almost all the pages are full. They have some rule that passengers CANNOT travel with insufficient pages for visa stamps etc. We will he getting visa stamps in Uganda. There is much concern as to where the stamp should go. He has to call his supervisor and says our names will  be called if the supervisor decides action is required. We are handed our passports and wait in dread of our names being called.

As we wait by the gate we notice staff lining up the wheelchair passengers for early boarding. There are eight wheelchairs, six chairs have people in them. while two chairs remain empty with their attendants scanning the area… hmmm, I wonder who those chairs were for?

Our names are not called out… we hurry onboard the plane with our over-stamped passports and breathe a sigh of relief. 

It is fourteen hours to Nairobi, Kenya. I sleep most of the way. I don’t have anyone sitting in the seat in front of me so I don’t have John’s experience of being hit in the head twice by the passenger infront of him reclining his seat. The seat reclines so much it is maybe 8″ from his face. The tv screen is below his eye level. John looks around and sees several other seats in such a drastic recline. His only choice is to push his seat back as well to get some breathing room. But it does have the advantage of giving the lie-flat seat feeling in economy.

Nairobi to Entebbe

We have a five hour layover at Nairobi Airport in Kenya. We manage to snag two lounging chairs by the windows. Internet is a bit spotty so I spend most of the time binge watching “Bones” on my laptop. The sun through the window makes it difficult to see the screen so I Macgyvered a makeshift tent with my jacket over the screen and my head.

The flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda is only an hour and a quarter. We fly over Lake Victoria. 

The airport is easy to get through and well organized. I love the big stuffed silverback that welcomes me to Uganda.

After clearing immigration we get our checked bag and head out to meet our driver from the hotel who will be holding a sign with our names. No sign, no driver. As we search for our sign, cab drivers sensing our predicament start to circle like vultures over a carcass. One cab driver offers to call the hotel on his phone. We speak to the hotel. Apparently our driver was delayed so the hotel paid for the helpful cab driver to take us instead.

After almost 32 hours since leaving home, we finally arrive at our guest house in Entebbe to start our adventure.

Evening in Entebbe

The Carpe Diem is a small guesthouse located on a hill overlooking Lake Victoria. 

Lake Victoria is 3 1/2 times larger than Lake Ontario. It is the largest lake in Africa and is the second largest freshwater lake in the world. (Lake Superior is the largest).

The guesthouse is very pretty and there are so many staff. We have a large room. It feels great to shower before heading to the guesthouse restaurant to watch the sunset and have supper.

Large birds with raspy calls fly past in the dying sun.

It appears that this is a place where people come on dates and watch the sunset since a few couples come and go. 

The air cools quickly once the sun is down.