Take shuttle to SeaTac hotel so I can get a decent night's sleep and easily catch 6:00 am flight back to the Midwest. As opposed to staying up all night, taking the 2:00 am shuttle from home and hope I can get through holiday crowds in 45 minutes or less.
Stay up all night at SeaTac airport because I am anxious about the trip back to Midwest. Why? The weather.
4:00 am 12/22/09
Go to SeaTac. See long-ass line at check in. Walk outside to curbside check in. Check bags, walk past crowds to security. Get to gate in less than 30 minutes.
6:00 am
Plane leaves gate only to stop due to "stoppage" in O'Hare. Spent an hour and a half drinking coffee, chatting to the Canadians I am sitting next to, watch 500 Days of Summer.
8:00 am
Take off for O'Hare.
1:30 pm
Arrive at O'hare an hour and a half late. No worries, I have a three-hour layover. Find vegan food at Cibo Gourmet Market. Yummy.
1:30-5:00 pm
Wait for flight as it keeps getting pushed back because the incoming plane has not arrived. Meet other stranded people. Bond. Develop system to check flight statuses without having to give up our cool kid perch in the terminal that allows us to ridicule people who walk by.
5:00 pm
Incoming plane arrives, get excited I will get out of O'hare, until they cancel the flight. Swear, loudly and often.
Thus starts the slide into O'Hare Hell. Try to find someone in customer service to help. Agent tells us to to try the desk at the end of the concourse because there is no line. Run, and I mean run, to end of concourse. Knock over a few people on the way. Don't care. There is no line because the three agents are trying to get an entire basketball team home after a missed/canceled flight. Give up, call customer service while waiting in line for an agent. Agent on phone tells me to get on stand-by for later flight and that I had been re-booked on the next morning's flight and to forget my luggage ever leaving the bowels of O'Hare.
O'Hare Gate F1 during the beginning of the trip a few minutes before they canceled my flight. They were boarding three or flights at one time and people were relaying info to the end of the crowd. People were still in a good mood. 5:30-7:00 pm
Make my way down an escalator only to almost get sucked into it because the guy in front of me stopped. I yelled at him. He yelled back. I told him to not yell at me. He says, "Look at what I was behind" and points to an old woman with a cane. Well... ok.
Stand in a crowd of angry, tired, stranded travelers trying to get out of O'Hare. Meet some interesting people. Discuss renting a car since it is a two-and-a-half hour drive to our final destination. Discuss options with brother. Stand-by or just have him come pick me up. Decide to try stand-by for 6:00 pm-ish fight. Other option is to go stand-by on later flight or leave the next morning. Don't get on stand by. Feel defeated.
7:00-7:30 pm
Wander O'Hare, exhausted. Realize I had been up at least 36 hours and hardy eaten any thing. Go load up with food at Cibo Market because I had no clue how long I would be there. Decide with brother that it would be best to go with the sure thing: him coming to get me. He'll be there around 10:00 pm at the earliest.
7:30 pm
While walking towards baggage claim, call United customer service one more time. Wonder if they could get me on another airline. Give rambling explanation to reservation agent. During my babbling, agent says, "I just grabbed you a seat on the 9:22 flight. Do you not want that?" Me: Confused. She tells me she could cancel it but I had a seat if I wanted to get out that night. Begin to ask why other person told me I had to be on standby for that flight and then realize it doesn't fucking matter. Get boarding pass.
Find previous-stranded friend still waiting for her flight--five hours after it was supposed to leave. Re-bond.
8:00 pm
Flight gate moved. Wander to Concourse C. Look for outlet.
8:15-10:30 pm
Wait and board flight. Listen to some guy get irritated about the incoming flight being a few minutes late. Want to slap him. Crew hauls ass to close the door and push off so they don't time out. Half the plane cheers loudly when we taxi onto runway.
10:3011:00 pm
Thirty minutes and a bumpy ride later, I am on the ground at my final destination. Half the plane cheers. Again.
One guy says it was the worst flight of his life (it wasn't even close). Want to smack him. Hard.
I made it. Luggage didn't. Hope it gets here tomorrow.
2:00 am 12/23/09
Wonder why I am still awake at 2:00 am.
No comments:
Post a Comment