I just got back from another trip to Buffalo NY.  The trip started out fine.  Got out on time, made my connection, got a good rental car, was put on the executive floor of the hotel.  The trainees were excellent - it was a very low key training.  I even got to go to a baseball game Thursday night.  Friday I go in and finish up with my people and head to the airport at noon.  My flight was not to go out until 4, but there is an earlier one I can usually get on.  This is where the fun starts.

I can't get on the earlier flight - it is full.  Oh well, not a big deal.  I have my audio book to listen to and my socks to knit.  The inbound plane for my flight is delayed, which is typical.  No big deal, I have plenty of time to make my connection in Chicago.  We get on the plane and THEN they announce there is a ground delay in Chicago due to weather.  So we can't take off until they give us a landing spot.  Many estimates on when we will leave, and finally we leave 1.5 hours late.  Still, no problem making my connection and I might even be able to go out on an earlier flight (under normal circumstances).

I get in to O'hare and check on the gate for my flight and the earlier flights.  I head to an earlier flight's gate and there is a HUGE crowd in the gate area.  I ask what's going on and am told that 2 earlier flights to MPLS were cancelled and everyone is trying to get onto the 2 flights I am trying to get on to.  I go to a kiosk to try to wait list and see that the list is about 75 people for both of the flights.  I'll never get on either flight, so I am resolved to taking my original flight that gets me home at 9:30pm.  I'm about to find something to eat for dinner and my cell phone goes off with a message - it's from the airline informing me my flight to MPLS has been cancelled and I need to rebook.  I head to the customer service area and find about 30 people in line (not a good sign).  While standing in line, I call the 800 number.  That person informs me that they have rebooked me on a 7:45 am flight Saturday morning.  Great.  I have to spend the night.  Of course the 800 number person can't help me with vouchers for a hotel or food, so I have to stay in line.  An hour or so later I finally get to a rep to help me.  They confirm I'm booked on the 7:45 am flight.  I ask about hotel accommodations and I did manage to get a voucher.  (You have to ask - they don't offer them.)



I decide to get some dinner while in the airport and then go to the hotel.  I find a food court with a chinese food place.  They put the food in a styrofoam container and in the process of giving it to me, the person "shoves" it across the counter where it tips and dumps all over me.  I now have pineapple chicken sauce all over my shirt and down the front of my skirt.  Yuck!  I had to ask them for more napkins and to replace the food - and argue that it was their fault!!!  I ate my dinner and in the meantime, the pineapple chicken sauce is soaking thru my khaki skirt and I am getting sticky.  I am thankful that I had not checked any luggage and I had my clothes with me, so I would have something cleaner to wear on Sat.

I leave the secure area of the airport to find the shuttle to the hotel.  I am just about to leave and my phone goes off again.  My 7:45 am flight has just been cancelled!!!!  Why would they cancel a flight for the next day???  Oh well, I head to the ticketing area to see what they are going to do for me.  They confirm that the flight has been cancelled (because of a thunderstorm that is supposed to hit in the morning!!????!!!!) and I've been re-booked onto a flight that leaves at 11:00 am Saturday.  !!!!!!!!!!!  Crap, I will now spend most of Saturday traveling.  I weasle another meal voucher out of this person and head out to the hotel shuttle area.  and I wait, and wait and wait.  I waited an hour for a shuttle that is supposed to run every 15 minutes.  I am not a happy camper.  I am hot, sweaty and sticky from the stupid chinese food.  Get to the hotel and get a room - no problem.  It is 10 pm.  I have been traveling for 10 hours - I could have driven this distance faster.  I call hubby to give him the latest update and then get ready to take a shower.  There is no soap nor towels in the bathroom!!!!  I go to call the front desk and the phone does not work.  DEAD!  Ok, I figure out the phone has been unplugged and all the outlets are in use.  I find a 2nd phone in the bedside table drawer.  (Who ever puts a phone in a drawer??).  I call the front desk and explain my situation and question if the room was properly cleaned.  This is one of those hotels that does not change the sheets if you are staying multiple nights.  They agree to send housekeeping up with fresh linens, etc.  I get dressed, wait for them to come up, change the linens, etc.  I finally take my shower and feel "human" again.  Meanwhile I have tried to get on to the internet - they have WiFi, but I can't get connected.  I call on that and - oops, the internet router is down.  I give up and go to bed.  It is midnight and the planes are still landing on the roof of the hotel every 15 minutes.  This is NOT a sound proofed hotel.  I do get a couple hours of sleep, but wake at 4:30 am and can't get back to sleep.

continued

Wow.  Good thing you kept your cool.  Its hard when its out of your hands.

Enjoy sleeping in your own bed, and not moving!

livingandlovingx3 wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2008 at 12:14am:




You have me beat by one because I have never been on any kind of plane at all

Not that I am afraid to fly because I love the larger jets such as the Boeing 747, Galaxy C5A and a lot of the military aircraft I just have not had a reason to travel where a plane was needed.

I would someday love to fly in a 747 or even the C5A but that will probably not happen anytime soon but maybe in the far off future.

But, I have heard the stories from people who have flown and it sounds like they can be very frustrating.

Jerry

Sir Rat - when you purchase a plane ticket, they always ask for a phone number - it doesn't have to be a cell, it can be your land line at home.  Of course, that wouldn't help much if you were not at home!  I don't like having a cell phone and don't give the number out to many people.  However, I have found it handy to have the text and phone updates from the airlines when I travel.

The stats still show air travel as safer than travel by car.  I have never had an injury from air travel, but I have had my share of strange happenings, delays, etc.

I think if I ever fly again, I will def try to take only one bag that would be allowed as carry on. I would hate to be stuck somewhere and not have my things with me.

I think I would have trouble packing for a family of 5, and still be allowed to carryon. I always tend to over pack!

I get on the bus to Gatwick.  Gatwick has two terminals, and in between dozes I listen and look for others on my flight, so I will know when to get off the bus.  I get off at Terminal One and go to find my family.  

They aren't there.

I check all the lines.  No family.

I look in all the restaurants and stores.  No family.

I have now searched the entire airport, or at least the parts I can access.  I think, surely they did not check in and go to the part where you have to have a ticket to get in.  So I go up to the desk and say, "I know you can't tell me if anyone else has checked in, but can you tell me if I have checked in?"  The woman checks and says, "No and neither has your family."  Around I go again, searching.  No family.

So I go have them paged.  No answer.  I ask the woman if she can page Terminal Two, because I think they might be there.  She says that yes, she can, but do I realize that if we do not check in within the next 15 minutes, we will lose our tickets and have to rebuy them?  Uh, no.

So I go out and stand in the most visible part of the airport I can, and I am just about ready to cry.  Then I said to myself, "Wait a minute.  You are where you are supposed to be, when you are supposed to be there.  You have done everything it was possible for you to do.  (By now most of you are thinking, cell phone?  Our stateside phones only worked stateside and our Saudi phones only worked in Saudi.  We hadn't done enough traveling to make a truly international phone worthwhile.  We thought.)  So I told myself, "Clearly you are not the one in charge right now, so you might as well calm down and let God do whatever He is going to do."  About five minutes later I heard my husband calling my name.

Here he came with a trolley full of suitcases and a baggage handler.  I explained the situation, and together with the handler, he went to check in.  It turned out we had made the flight, but the luggage didn't.  So they booked us on a later flight with no penalty.  As the woman checked in our bags, we mentioned the other couple had checked theirs through, and wondered at the discrepancy.  That's when we found out about the 9/11 rule.  So I said, "You mean they THINK their bags are checked through, but they really aren't?  Yep, that was right.  

Couldn't have happened to nicer people.

So we called my mom, who was picking us up, left a message about the delay, and passed the time as best we could.

When we go through the security gate, I notice they keep sending a backpack through repeatedly.  I point this out to my husband, who asks if there is a problem.  They say they need to search the bag.  The only thing we remember being in it is potato chips and a teddy bear, so we are truly confused.  As my husband goes to unzip the bag, the attendant says, in quite a firm voice, "Sir, step away from the bag."  He pulls out the teddy bear, and then the Saudi coffeepot we have cushioned with it.  This coffee pot has a long curved spout that comes to a point.  My husband looks at it and says, "You thought that was a knife."  The attendant says, "We didn't know WHAT that was."  Of course, they didn't find the REAL knife we had secreted in our luggage, because we weren't dumb enough to put it in a carry on.  We hid it among our computer's parts and it got through.

So we get on this, our last plane, and fly home.  Total time traveling?  36 hours.