After arriving in Incheon Airport I needed to go and grab my luggage. There are a lot of checkpoints you need to go through to get it. I just followed the signs to where the baggage area was, but.....it got weird. When I arrived at the section I thought the baggage was suppose to be at it was a dead end with a lot of people lined up. Come to find out you had to actually take a subway train to another section of the airport. I was pretty skeptical of getting on the train just cause I was afraid my baggage wasn't on the other side, haha. I hopped on the train anyway. When I got to the other side there were several tables set up to fill out your cards. You can check out the airport procedures on this website. After filling out the cards, I went to the quarantine desk, but no one was stopping by it. Everyone just passed by, so I followed suit. I lined up at the immigration and it takes forever to get to the immigration desk. In a earlier blog post, I said I didn't have a return flight back. I was afraid the immigration desk was going to question me about it. When I finally arrived at the attendant, the attendant only wanted my passport and my Arrival/Departure card. No questions at all.
Once you get out of immigration you should see a Baggage Claim electronic board:
When I first saw the board, it didn't look like my baggage showed up at all because it didn't have any initials for the US. I went to the baggage conveyors that showed up on the board anyway convinced that my intuition was wrong. I SO hoped I was wrong. I went to all of the baggage conveyors that showed up on the board and don't you know it....I was RIGHT. I couldn't find my luggage for an hour. I sought out some help from the baggage information desk, but they told me to go to the other baggage information desk in the other section. I clearly saw they had United Airlines poster that states that this was the correct desk. When I got to the other baggage information desk, the attendant told me to go back to the original information desk cause they didn't work with United Airlines. I went back again and.....it was CLOSED.
I went back to the other section where the attendant was and he was able to help me out. He checked my boarding pass for the Korea flight and saw that my luggage did indeed come in. You can tell which baggage conveyor your luggage is by looking at:
One of those numbers should match the listing on the electronic board. If it doesn't then I hope you find the baggage information desk quick to see if you luggage arrived. The attendant then told me which baggage conveyor to go to, but I didn't recognize the conveyor number at all. It definitely wasn't on the electronic board when I first saw the board. I went there anyway for any hope of my belongings. When I got to the conveyor the whole thing was empty. Discouraged and frustrated I sought out more help from a security guard. He told me to go through Customs and ask the travel information desk for help. I honestly didn't want to leave the baggage claims area cause I was afraid that it might be lost forever, shipped back to America or something. The security guard convinced me to though cause they said everywhere was closed except the information desk. Off I went through Customs, handing in my Customs Declaration card. Once you go through, you can't go back. I checked around me and it was already 11:30pm. Most of the shops were closed except for the convenient stores and fast food restaurants. The buses and subways don't stop at the area where my hostel was at, so I was stuck at the airport until they started running. It really does get WORST and WORST. I told the information desk my situation and got some good news. The United Airlines baggage office is upstairs on the second floor. The bad news was they don't open until 9:00am. Without a way to get to my hostel, I ended up sleeping/wandering around at the airport for several hours. There were no foreign exchange shops open either. More depression just sets in. Luckily the information desk told me to go to Gate B. Once I got there I had to give them my passport and leave my belongings with them. They'll open the door back to Customs and there should be a foreign exchange shop. I only exchanged very little cause the exchange rates suck at the airport.
The first floor of Incheon Airport has Korean television on, so that kept me entertained for several hours. You can also access the internet for 10 minutes at a PC terminals for ₩500. There are mostly gift shops, convenient stores, restaurants, foreign exchange shops, cellphone rental shops, ticketing desk, and information help desk. I went to the convenient store and bought this:
It's so good and so warm. You can't really get warm drinks in the US that come straight out a heated box or vending machine. After that I ate at McDonald's. They put a cardboard ring around the sandwiches which makes it so neat....it was interesting. The McDonald's here are much more clean than the US counterparts.
The second floor has a net cafe of some sort and Airline customer service. The third floor is the most interesting. They have plane ticketing centers for all kinds of airlines, cellphone shops, magazine shops, restaurants, and entertainment booths. If you ever get stuck in Incheon Airport like me, I advise to not sleep on the first floor cause there is limited space. The third floor is huge, so you could lie down fully stretched. I never went up to the fourth floor. The basement floor is AREX with the same shops from above.
I had 2 choices now. Take the bus/train when they start at 5:00 to my hostel which will take 1 hour each way or stay at the airport until the United Airlines baggage office opened. I opted to stay at the airport cause I REALLY wanted my baggage with me when I got there. Plus it would be a waste of money.....which I didn't have much of.
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