Flying from Panama to Seattle and then back to Panama
There are quirks about passing through the border between the U.S. and Panama that are different at each end and in each direction. I figured I'd take notes so I could remember all this stuff myself, and also as a heads up for others planning the same trip (in a month, several of my kids will come visit me here!).
The trip to Seattle
My trip started with the best possible kind of airplane delay story. I checked in via the United app the night before, ordered an Uber for 6 o'clock, and set my alarm for (ugh) 4 a.m. When I woke up, I had a text from United saying my flight would be delayed two hours. This meant four nice things:
- I could spend two more hours in bed.
- When I then canceled my Uber, I realized I'd actually ordered it for 6 p.m. not 6 a.m. (whoops)! So I canceled and rescheduled for 8 a.m., successfully.
- When I did show up at the airport, United gifted me with a $15 breakfast voucher because of the "inconvenience" of the delay; that was sweet!
- I could spend two fewer hours cooling my heels in the Houston airport.
The Uber worked (as usual) great; it picked me up just before 8 a.m. and dropped me at the airport at 8:30. Checking in and passing through security took another 20 minutes. I had a while before my flight, so I used my United voucher to get some cheese sandwiches and mango lemonade -- yum. I'd dutifully tossed my water before passing through security, so I was glad to have something yummy to refill my insulated water bottle before we boarded. Little did I know what fate was to befall the mango lemonade, alas.
About an hour before the departure time, we were all instructed to line up for a second security line -- one for our flight only. It took a while to get to the front of this line, and when I did, they told me I had to pour out my liquids, so apparently you can't bring drinks on board planes departing from Panama. Goodbye, mango lemonade!
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| My second security line of the day, at the gate in PTY. |
As I said, it took a lot longer to make it through this line -- about 40 minutes, and directly after we did, we started boarding.
The flight was uneventful. When we landed in Houston, we were directed toward Customs. There was a very long, and fortunately very clearly marked, walk through many twisting hallways, ending up in a huge room half-filled with people in the cattle-chute zig-zag lines. Daunting! I made it to the front of this long line almost an hour after we landed. One of the line attendants asked how long my wait had been, and cheerfully noted that this was typical, and how nice it was that I hadn't come on a busy day. When I got to the customs booth, the clerk/agent (not sure what's the right word) took my photo. I handed over my passport for inspection, declared my trail mix, confirmed that I wasn't bringing fruits, plants, pets, firearms, or explosives, got my passport back, and then passed through.
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| The view of the customs "line" (a humongous zigzag). |
Then came the baggage claim, where I picked my bag up from one place and dropped it off at another (using the same baggage tag), and then went through my third security line of the day. Ten minutes after customs, I was finally ready for my "20 minute walk from Gate E16 to Gate C4" that my United App had advised me of.
I had another uneventful flight, with one small oddity that the announcements on board kept saying things like "you may continue charging your laptops and cellphones", but this flight didn't actually have any electrical outlets. If I'd known that, I would have juiced up before I boarded.
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| The sun setting past the clouds. |
I arrived in Seattle and got my bags with no problem, just as my United app sent me a little note saying "It looks like you missed your connection to Seattle; here's how you can rebook." I'm guessing my boarding pass didn't scan properly when I was entering the plane? At any rate, I would rather make my flight and have the app think I'd missed it than the other way around! This weird little glitch DID cause additional glitches on the return flight: I couldn't check in via app or even at a kiosk because of that. But that's in the future.
I arrived somewhat late in the evening, which felt VERY late because of the time changes. My colleague Rekha suggested I take a taxi instead of the Light Rail to her home because of the cold, and I was so tired I figured the quicker trip (20 minutes versus one hour, she said) would make it worth it. But then I got my first sticker shock: this short ride cost $65. Yeesh! (Light Rail would have cost $3, and a half-hour Uber ride that morning in Panama was $30). Low-cost Ubers in Panama have spoiled me, I guess!
The trip back
The Light Rail had planned construction going on for part of the route, and although they were offering shuttles between the convention center stop and the SoDo stop, I was nervous enough about the time frame that I decided to Uber that portion instead. Again, I was struck by how expensive it is to Uber in Seattle (or rather, reminded of how cheap it is to Uber in Panama): the 10-minute ride was $30. Going all the way to the airport would have been almost $100! Equivalent rides in Panama are one-third that cost.
The Uber dropped me off at the rail station, where a train was just getting ready to pull out. The platform attendants urged me to hurry, noting that the next train wouldn't come for "22 minutes". I jumped on board without first buying my ticket [scoff law that I am!!*], and the doors closed behind me. The train was standing-room-only, but full of quite cheerful people discussing homological invariants, so I knew I was among my peeps. The construction apparently played some havoc with the automated announcement system, because the sign board announced we were next arriving at stops that were completely on the other side of the city, but that was really the only glitch.
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| Standing-room-only on the Light Rail |
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| We were actually nowhere near the University District, despite what the train sign said. |
The Light Rail took only about a half hour, followed by a very chilly 10-minute walk through the humongous, well-labelled parking garage to reach the terminal. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in and wander through the airport. That was when I discovered that the reason I couldn't check in online was because of that glitch where United thought I'd miss my flight to Seattle. A helpful (but completely unsmiling) attendant checked me in manually, and I was through the security line and at my gate 15 minutes later. However, they gave me the boarding pass only as far as Houston.
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| Seeing Mount Rainier from the plane |
So, from Seattle to Houston, another easy flight. I told my seat-mate about the book I'm working on, and he asked to be put on the mailing list for when it comes out; that was flattering!
In Houston, I got my bags and went to check in. I had further glitches:
- The attendant needed to verify that I had a ticket to leave the country again, and she needed it in a particular format, which I finally found in my emails.
- I couldn't check my bags until 12 hours before departure. This particular Houston layover is a looonnngggg one. I found a quiet-ish place by the baggage carousels and did a bit of meditation and such until 9:34 p.m., when I returned to the check-in counter and checked my bag without any issue.
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| Predicted Panama weather: 81°, 91°, 91° the next few days. |
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| It's fun recognizing landmarks I have personal connections to. |
In the US, passport and customs are all together. Not so in Panama. Here, the sequence is (1) passport check, (2) get bags, (3) go through customs. That form I filled out on the plane is only for step (3).
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| These were the lines to check my passport. All that paperwork I did to get temporary migrant status means that I got to stand in a shorter line. You don't need the customs form here. |
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| Mine was suitcase #82 off the ramp. |
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| Then comes another snaky line to go through customs. No passport needed here, just the white form and feeding all your bags through a scanner on a conveyer belt. |
After that, there's a big white glass wall. One of the panels in this wall is marked "Salida" (exit); you go through this white wall to get out to the rest of the airport. I can't tell you how much that confused me the first two times I was here.
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| Some of these walls are actually doors. |
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| Metro station entrance |
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