We had a great time in Barcelona up until we got to the airport, can you say DRAMA. We got to the airport in Barcelona super excited about the second leg of trip, we were headed to Paris. Come check-in time we were informed that our flight was overbooked *cue dramatic music*

I also want to state for the record we arrived at the airport on time, overbooking happens according to the lady at the check-in desk as she checked our luggage in and handing us boarding passes with no gate number. Also may I just say the people who work at the Barcelona are very dismissive.

Anyway back to the our story, we were booked on an 11h30 flight so we could have a full-ish day in Paris. We finally make it to the correct boarding gate and the attendant there tries to shoo us away in spanish, at this point we’ve had it and our inner Karens come out so we start yelling. This prompts the attendant to find her English switch; she then informs us again that our flight is over booked and that we’ll be put on the next available flight. She asks us to take a seat next to 2 other passengers( a mother and daughter) who were also supposed to be on our flight. The attendant comes back with more info, new boarding passes and meal and snack vouchers as the flight we’ve been moved to is at 19h30. Please note the time when all this is happening is 11h00 ELEVEN O’ FRIGGIN CLOCK!!!!! We cannot leave the airport, we’re stuck there for 8hours that’s a full work day, at this point I’ve stopped listening.

The attendant switches between English & Spanish while talking to us, so thank goodness Maria the other passenger in the trenches with us speaks Spanish so she translates for us and her mother where needed. Sidenote Maria was the MVP during this ordeal. We are also told we’ll be landing at Orly airport so we’re like “our initial flight was to land at Charles De Gaulle” and that was the sticker placed on our luggage when we checked in *cue more dramatic music*. The attendant is like no problem there will be a taxi to take you to CDG to go collect your luggage just go to the Iberia counter someone will be there to help you.

So fast forward to us landing in Paris and wishful thinking has me heading to the luggage carousel hoping to find my suitcase and I guess Maria and her mom hoped the same cause that’s where we reunited. Nomsa on the other hand went to search for the Iberia counter. We join her after we’ve seen all luggage come out and ours isn’t there. There’s a queue and when we get to the front we have to fill in forms and the lady at the counter is like “Ok go to your hotel and your luggage will be delivered tonight or tomorrow morning” the time now is 22h15. This is where we all chime in “No you guys are supposed to get us a taxi that will take us to CDG and we can get our luggage ourselves tonight”. She says “Nope”. At this point I’m cursing the attendant in Barcelona again.

We decide to take an uber to CDG to go find our luggage. Yoooooo when I tell you the baggage terminal was a ghost town at that hour, we kept knocking at any door where we saw people. I kid you not at one point we were giving a cleaning lady our phone numbers and showing pictures of our luggage (once again Maria translated as she also spoke french). Desperate times guys.

Anyway our efforts were fruitless so we went to our hotel luggage-less. We checked into our hotel at 00h30. I woke up the next morning hella optimistic because hey I woke up in Paris it doesn’t get better than that.

We decide to go get supplies while we wait for luggage to arrive alas most places are closed because its Sunday and the french don’t eff around when it comes to rest days. Anyway the local supermarche’ and H&M saved the day because they made it possible for us to continue holiday-ing without our stuff. Don’t get it twisted we were still tracking the luggage progress or lack thereof on the Vueling Airlines site. Sunday came and went and still nothing.

Monday morning even our concierge was on the case, we were recruiting people at this point and checking in with Maria as well. By midday we were losing hope and Maria had already received a call from the airline and we had nothing 😦

We went back to the hotel a bit defeated but then we were told the airline called while we were out and our luggage would arrive between 15h00-18h00. I went to go take a nap and Nomsa went shopping just in case . After my nap I also went shopping cause nothing had arrived and when we got back to the hotel the concierge had the biggest grin on his face because our luggage finally arrived. When I tell you I damn near hugged this man (I’m not a hugger).

Like shuuu hey, it took nearly two days but our Paris holiday could finally begin.

Real-life drama I tell you.