And we missed the plane :(

Friday afternoon, 2:30pm I left the office, dashed into a taxi and reached Somerset at 3pm sharp. 3:05pm we were in another taxi getting to the airport. We arrived at Terminal 2 25minutes later, just 10 minutes before the check-in would close. Border line but feasible. Except we couldn’t find our flight CA1345 on the screens. We asked at the information desk and the lady there told us the flight leaves from terminal 3!!! Desperation reached us. We asked if they could call the counter in terminal 3 and tell them we’re coming. No. We repeated the question and the only answer we could get was “go to terminal 3”. We had to beg to get a phone number so we could call ourselves. Of course they didn’t have the phone number of the office of Air China at the airport, only the general one. So I called while we tried to get into a taxi to change terminal. China being China most taxi drivers refused to take us and the only one willing asked for 50RMB (i.e. the same price as for coming from the city center). We 1st said no but quickly realized we would not get any other taxi. At this point I’m screaming over the phone as the lady on the other side who’s supposed to speak English can not even understand the flight number and keeps putting me on hold. 10min later we’re in the taxi and the driver is acting weird. Each time I raise my voice on the phone or gesture to him to speed up he slows down and wants to take us back to terminal 2. Grrr we’ll never make it. Finally the lady on the phone said she could not help (I’m not sure I believed she could anymore at this point) and told me to call the office at the airport. So I did, and spent another 10min on hold until I can get an operator who did not speak any English of course except “just a moment”. We reached terminal 3 at 15h50, paid only 20RMB the taxi as he refused to take the rest of the money (another mystery), ran into the terminal, didn’t find our flight on the screens (reminds you of something?), asked the information desk, it’s terminal… no J area :). We ran there and of course were too late. Even begging the manager on duty of Air China did not get us in. The system was locked, no way to emit a boarding pass anymore.
And there it goes our dream of beach and sun… We called the travel agent in Sanya and asked if she could do something like book us on a later flight. This was followed by 5min of stress and anxiety: will there be another ticket and at what price?
The travel agent called us back with good news. We can take a flight at 9:30pm for the same price. Yeah! We’re back on.
And guess what, the flight leaves from terminal 1 (which we will double check, because last time the travel agent was wrong). Just a few hours to kill in the airport.

Who can claim having been in all the terminals of an airport in half a day?

PS: And even worse, there is no internet in the Starbucks of the airport :( so what are we going to do for the next 5 hours? Actually only 3 because we’ll be at terminal 1 at least 2 hours before the flight, just in case we have to change terminal again.