Synth, come rescue me! (Or, why American Airlines sucks like hell.)

[whorlichan]

A few of you may know that I went to California this past week for my cousin's Bar Mitzvah. All went well, the party was awesome, and I even made some drunken IMs. Then I tried to go home on Sunday night. This is the story of how I came to be mired in a Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

The plan was, take the 9:30 pm shuttle bus to the airport and make my 11:10 pm flight easily. Then get to Chicago at about 3 am and get on a 4am flight that would have me in Philly before 10 am, and at my own house by noon at the latest. Here's what really happened:

9:05pm - stuck in traffic on the way to the shuttle bus.
9:25pm - refused entry onto the shuttle bus because I was "too late" even though the bus was half-empty and left 10 minutes late. FUME.
9:55pm - get on 10pm shuttle bus which is FULL OF PEOPLE DEAR LORD WHERE DID THEY ALL COME FROM.
10:24pm - stopped for an interminable amount of time at the terminal RIGHT BEFORE the one I need.
10:32pm - refused entry onto my flight because the baggage check closes 40 minutes before departure. Argue that 38 minutes is almost the same, told to go talk to agent.
11:20pm - finally make it through the lines to the agent. (Note that my flight has already left.) She tells me I can wait for the next flight, which is at 11:50--no, wait, 12:50--no, sorry, 2:30. Ooops! It's full, and so is standby...Go sit in the international terminal until 4:30 am when the American terminal opens again and they can get you a ticket.
4:26am - Where the hell did all these PEOPLE come from? WTF!
4:52am - I have a flight (it leaves at 9am) and I have checked my bags. I head for my gate. I am told I am at the wrong gate, even though it says so right here on the ticket and on the overhead screens that I'm in the right place. Takes the agent several minutes to realize SHE is actually in the wrong place, not me.
8:31am - boarding is supposed to start but we have no plane.
9:12am - 11 minutes after departure time, we are still boarding.
Cut to the end of the flight--thank the gods it was short and quick.
3:00pm Chicago time (uh...2pm Cali time? I think?) - My flight to Philadelphia is cancelled. So is the next one and the next one and OH! Here's a flight at 9pm--no wait, that one's cancelled too. You can wait here and see if the weather clears up by then...
3:35pm - I have a hotel voucher and a pass for my bags to be given to me instead of sent to Philly, thanks to my massive crying binge and amazing puppy dog eyes.
3:36pm-5:40pm - I wait for my bags.
5:47pm - I am told that, despite my lovely pass, my bags have in fact gone to Philadelphia even though no humans have been allowed to go there.
5:52pm - I catch the shuttle bus for the ride to the hotel and FUME some more.

Hopefully this is what will happen now:
7pm - I go to sleep.
4:30am - I wake up, shower, and take shuttle back to airport.
6:30am - I get on my plane, dammit.
7:04am - The plane LEAVES ON TIME (wishful thinking I know (WTIK)).
10:00am - The plane ARRIVES ON TIME. (more WTIK)
10:30am - Having gotten my bags from the baggage claim center (WTIK) I get on the train and go home.
12noon at the latest: SLEEP IN MY OWN DAMN BED with my kitties.

The moral of the story:
I hate flying. I refuse to do it anymore. From now on the family can come visit ME.

I am planning to write an angry letter to American Air but we'll see how this plays out first. If I'm not in Philly by noon tomorrow HEADS WILL ROLL.

[emccky]

That sucks, I'd hate to have that happen to me. Luckily, i have good experiences with flying places.


ps: sup avatar buddy.

[whorlichan]

Originally Posted by emccky

ps: sup avatar buddy.

You lose. My Snorlax is a bajillion times hotter than yours.

[stretchypanda]

Good freaking God -- they can't put you on a plane until 12 HOURS after your original departure time?!

=( Poor baby.

[sertman]

You can't blame them for cancelling flights. I live in Maryland and it POURED all night, massive thunderstorms, etc. My house was shaking because of the thunder.

However, you got ****ed over multiple times... I hope you get back home as soon as you can

[Tps222]

We got like 5 inches of rain in NY, so I suppose they have a valid reason.

Just think of it as an unwanted vacation.

[msbrunnettemickey]

I live in NJ and my dad had to leave at 4 am to go to Atlanta on sunday.

Nothing happened thank God.


How could you wait... More than 12 hours for a flight...
That really sucks Orli. Aren't you tired! :P

I hope everything would turn out right tomorrow. I bet you will be home safely.

Btw, it was worth going to the Bar Mitzvah right?

[Omeganitros]

Bar Mitzvahs are awesome. The last one I went to I was the only male teenager and there were like 5 babes to hang out with.

[falconsfan14]

Originally Posted by whorlichan

A few of you may know that I went to California this past week for my cousin's Bar Mitzvah. All went well, the party was awesome, and I even made some drunken IMs. Then I tried to go home on Sunday night. This is the story of how I came to be mired in a Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

The plan was, take the 9:30 pm shuttle bus to the airport and make my 11:10 pm flight easily. Then get to Chicago at about 3 am and get on a 4am flight that would have me in Philly before 10 am, and at my own house by noon at the latest. Here's what really happened:

9:05pm - stuck in traffic on the way to the shuttle bus.
9:25pm - refused entry onto the shuttle bus because I was "too late" even though the bus was half-empty and left 10 minutes late. FUME.
9:55pm - get on 10pm shuttle bus which is FULL OF PEOPLE DEAR LORD WHERE DID THEY ALL COME FROM.
10:24pm - stopped for an interminable amount of time at the terminal RIGHT BEFORE the one I need.
10:32pm - refused entry onto my flight because the baggage check closes 40 minutes before departure. Argue that 38 minutes is almost the same, told to go talk to agent.
11:20pm - finally make it through the lines to the agent. (Note that my flight has already left.) She tells me I can wait for the next flight, which is at 11:50--no, wait, 12:50--no, sorry, 2:30. Ooops! It's full, and so is standby...Go sit in the international terminal until 4:30 am when the American terminal opens again and they can get you a ticket.
4:26am - Where the hell did all these PEOPLE come from? WTF!
4:52am - I have a flight (it leaves at 9am) and I have checked my bags. I head for my gate. I am told I am at the wrong gate, even though it says so right here on the ticket and on the overhead screens that I'm in the right place. Takes the agent several minutes to realize SHE is actually in the wrong place, not me.
8:31am - boarding is supposed to start but we have no plane.
9:12am - 11 minutes after departure time, we are still boarding.
Cut to the end of the flight--thank the gods it was short and quick.
3:00pm Chicago time (uh...2pm Cali time? I think?) - My flight to Philadelphia is cancelled. So is the next one and the next one and OH! Here's a flight at 9pm--no wait, that one's cancelled too. You can wait here and see if the weather clears up by then...
3:35pm - I have a hotel voucher and a pass for my bags to be given to me instead of sent to Philly, thanks to my massive crying binge and amazing puppy dog eyes.
3:36pm-5:40pm - I wait for my bags.
5:47pm - I am told that, despite my lovely pass, my bags have in fact gone to Philadelphia even though no humans have been allowed to go there.
5:52pm - I catch the shuttle bus for the ride to the hotel and FUME some more.

Hopefully this is what will happen now:
7pm - I go to sleep.
4:30am - I wake up, shower, and take shuttle back to airport.
6:30am - I get on my plane, dammit.
7:04am - The plane LEAVES ON TIME (wishful thinking I know (WTIK)).
10:00am - The plane ARRIVES ON TIME. (more WTIK)
10:30am - Having gotten my bags from the baggage claim center (WTIK) I get on the train and go home.
12noon at the latest: SLEEP IN MY OWN DAMN BED with my kitties.

The moral of the story:
I hate flying. I refuse to do it anymore. From now on the family can come visit ME.

I am planning to write an angry letter to American Air but we'll see how this plays out first. If I'm not in Philly by noon tomorrow HEADS WILL ROLL.

Its happened to me before too, except with delta >.>

Sorry you had to experience it.

[Kilgamayan]

Fly US Airways. I used them on my trip to SC and not only were none of the flights late, but one was so early we had to wait for the plane in front of us to clear the disembarking gate.

[GuidoHunter]

MAN those drunk IMs were ridiculous.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[lightdarkness]

Kinda related... when KiggD flew into Chicago for our FFR Meetup, his luggage was delayed... it didn't arrive until 4:30am, when we went to Spook and Kigg's room to wake them up (Myself, Jason, and Synth were still up) Spook came to the door in his boxers.

Priceless XD

PS: That sucks

[JurseyRider734]

Continental's pretty good.

[stretchypanda]

Southwest Airlines ftw! The head flight attendant on my flight from Houston to Jackson, MS was a drag queen.

[Shashakiro]

All of a sudden I understand why, whenever we're about to fly anywhere, my mom makes us show up to everywhere at least an hour early, including the shuttle bus.

Damn that sucks.

[Tasselfoot]

:-*

no time for a more thought out comment.

[whorlichan]

Update: I checked my e-mail before passing out last night. There are 17 different e-mails from expedia.com telling me that my itinerary has changed. NO **** SHERLOCK. I thought I crossed that box off years ago--I don't usually have a way to check e-mail on the road (I am not usually ON THE ROAD long enough to warrant it anyway) and I ALREADY KNOW. Besides, they're all timestamped way too late to have helped me even if I could have read them, i.e. the one telling me my flight to Philly was cancelled (it was a 4:20pm flight out of Chicago) and I had been switched onto a 9pm flight is timestamped right around 9pm EST last night--so, 8pm Chicago time. Like that helps; I was already passed out and even if I wasn't, I'd missed boarding and luggage check-in. AGAIN.

[chickendude]

This happened to me once in Switzerland. That kicked ass.
That sounds like it sucks

my dad has like 3 stories of this from United Airlines. Don't use them either.

[SethSquall]

All I can say is, give me some of your patience. I would of gone "aahh well i'll just go home" after the first couple of problems.

[Benny1]

Hmm, rolling meadows, thats pretty damn close.

I can understand why flights were cancelled, it poured for hours that night, it wouldn't really be safe ;/.

Kind of sucks though, I've never actually flown though, so I don't know.