So, we've been reprimanded twice for not updating the blog in a while - and I don't blame them! It's been 6 weeks since the last post, but I'm blaming the delay in posts on the ramp-up to Christmas, Christmas and New Years itself, and the "wind-down" from all of those happenings....
First of all, Christmas and New Years was a blast, and I'm really happy that Marn and I were able to go out West to spend it with my family. I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to go out again after the grief from Marn's family that we were not going to be HERE for Christmas. Just kidding. They were OK with it (as long as we never go again). We actually had a nice turkey dinner just last night to make up for the missed dinner at her parent's house, even though we had an absolutely fabulous Christmas dinner at Adrienne and Dennis' place!
The start of our holiday as most of you know turned out to be a nightmare. I'm going to recall it here for "the record, so feel free to skip this post.
It started the 20th of December when I logged on to the American Airlines website to double-check our flights to make sure that nothing changed, literally 30 minutes before we ere leaving for Buffalo. Well, when I punched in our info, a message came up to call their customer service personnel. Great, I thought... Somethings happening for sure. Turns out that, yes, something is happening. They canceled both our departing and return flights and rescheduled them for different times. Our flight that was originally departing at 11 AM on the 21st is now leaving late in the afternoon. When I asked them why I wasn't notified of this, they told me that it was up to our travel agent to tell me. So after getting all the information, I called our travel agent, but unfortunately didn't get through to her. I was going to complain and try and get our hotel night for free, because with this time change, we didn't need it after all. AA also told me that they made this change back in August. AUGUST! And we weren't notified?!
Anyway, we left for Buffalo and didn't get to the hotel until about 11:30pm that night. We were tired. The hotel also screwed up our reservation, and was expecting us 1 week earlier. I hadn't checked but they already charged our credit card for the "no show". So after getting that straightened out, we got our room "for free". I'm still going to go after our travel agent to pay for that room.
SO, at the buffalo airport, everything seemed to be going fine, except that our flight wasn't there on time. The departure got pushed 1 hour later.... Still not there, so got pushed again.... and then again. NO ONE from American Eagle came over to tell us what was happening. I don't remember exactly what time we left, but I believe it was 3 hours later than scheduled. The reason we found out was that Chicago wasn't accepting a lot of flights because of bad weather and that the whole Denver airport was shut down because of a huge snowfall. Bother Denver and Chicago being 2 of the biggest airport hubs in the US, really screws up pretty much every flight in the US. I was thinking the whole time that we're going to miss our connector to Seattle, but I had no idea what was in store.
We get to Chicago and it's total chaos. Canceled flights, delayed flights, people stranded, people walking and talking on every phone and cell phone in sights.... Word was spreading fast that flights were being canceled every minute. And as soon as we stepped off the Jetway, I overheard someone say that their Seattle flight was canceled, so because of my past experience from going to Savannah through Chicago and the problems I had with that, I grabbed the first AE agent that we saw - no one was quick enough to do that at this point in time. She confirmed that our flight was canceled and informed us that they do not rebook you or reschedule you on to other flights to make up for it! So, I asked her what was next and what our options were. She told us that the next flight to Seattle was at 9:30PM and that we'd have to fly standby for it or any other flights out. She was particularly on the ball and also put us on standby for the next flight out after that which was 7:30 the next morning. They had nothing to Vancouver directly as a different option. She also politely stated that we couldn't be confirmed on a flight until Sunday afternoon - Christmas Eve Day! If that was our only option, we were going to turn around and fly back to Buffalo. The last little bit of hope that the agent gave us, was even though it didn't look good to make this next flight, it was worth a try because of the sheer amount of cancellations and delays that were happening. She said a LOT of flights were not going to make it in tonight.
So we waiting as numbers 23 and 24 out of a total of 75 people on the stand by for the next flight to Seattle... as if that many people were gong to make the flight! Why they put those people on the list, I have no idea? We waited until 12:45 in the morning after the flight was delayed by 3.5 hours! During this time, Adrienne was already in Seattle waiting to hear from us about whether we made the flight. She had to be there for Branko who flew in directly from Toronto. Well after the 3rd delay I called her to tell her to go back home and not wait for us. It wasn't looking good. It turned out that we did not make that flight. Our numbers were down to 4th and 5th by the time they closed the flight. It was worth a try, but probably ended up better to not be on the flight as we'd be in Seattle after 2am with nothing open.
When we found out that we did not make the flight, we went back to the agents and confirmed that we were on the standby list for the 7:30 flight, and to inquire about a hotel room. "They are all booked, the closest one I have is a 45 minute shuttle bus ride away. Oh, and we will cover 50% of that cost." ??? Only 50% after all the hassle you put us through? "We didn't cancel the flight, air traffic control did, so it was out of our control".... fine, never mind. "If you're interested, we will be putting up cots in the B wing of the airport for stranded passengers".
Nice, eh? Marn and I were hungry so we grabbed something quick because everything was closing down soon and found our way to the gate for the next morning. Curled up in a corner somewhere and tried our best to sleep.
The next morning couldn't come soon enough. I was ready to tear the speakers out of the walls as we heard the same announcements over and over again. Why they continue to play when the place is practically closed down is beyond me! Let us sleep for crying out loud!!! "Can I have your attention please. The department of homeland security has raised the national alert level to, Orange..." It's been "Orange" for over two F@#$% years, do they have to announce it every 10 minutes!??
ok, so I'm glad I got that off my chest. Can you tell I was grumpy about that? :)
The next morning as people woke up and made their way to the gate we slept at, I could tell this was going to be an interesting day. We ran into some of the same people that we were waiting with last night. Most of them slept on the cots that were set up, and after hearing the stories, I'm glad we didn't go there. One woman said they came around with a loud speaker and woke everyone up at 4 AM so that they could clear the cots out before the airport opened. How nice.
We did make this flight, AND there were no delays. We were actually one of the first people to get cleared for flight from the stand by list, even though we sat at numbers 10 and 11 when it first went on the board.
So now we're on the way to Seattle without a clue on how we're going to get to Vancouver. We didn't want to ask Adrienne and Dennis to come and get us (again) as it's a 2 hour drive each way and they were there last night. We actually asked in Chicago if they would fly us to Vancouver, and they agent "booked" us on that connector, so we were hoping that that would work. But we found out quickly that she "reserved" us on that flight and that we would have to pay for the flight. bummer. We arrived in Seattle at 11:30AM and went to the shuttle bus area to find out our options. Through Adrienne we found out that there was a bus leaving at 1:30 to Vancouver and had a stop close to them in Surrey. Perfect! It was $45 each, and would be our "last option" if we couldn't find a better ride. So we wonder down to the car rental place and one after another ask if they had a one-way Canadian car rental. "No" was the answer everywhere, and I was ready to give up and not even ask the last company, Dollar Rent-a-car. I had never heard of the place, and I was sure it was a mickey mouse outfit, but Marn insisted and so we asked. "why yes we do! We have one left". !!! I'll take it, I said before even finding out what make it was, or how much it cost. If there was one thing that I wanted, it was our own fate in driving ourselves! It turned out to cost $110 USD for a Caravan... ahh, just like home. Dennis later informed us that Dollar Rent-a-Car was quite large in the US, with barely any presence in Canada (although they have a depot at the Vancouver airport).
We FINALLY pulled in to Dennis and Adrienne's place at about 3 pm honking the horn all excited to make it... and no one's home. humph... nice welcome!
It turned out Adrienne left with Teresa and Branko to get some groceries and Dennis had to leave to pick up Madison from school. The dog wasn't even there to bark at us.
Not 5 minutes later we heard some barking and kiddies yelling, and it was Den and the kids with Mariner coming back from school, so we got nice big hugs from them then and shortly after that Adrienne, Teresa and Branko came back.
What a nightmare start to what ended up being a great trip.
... and the terrible flights didn't end there, oh no.
On the return flight, everything was normal until we got to Chicago again and on the way to Buffalo. First of all, we waited 45 minutes for a family to make the connector, and then as we were taxiing down the runway we just stopped and sat and waited. I was thinking, it can't be THAT busy that we're waiting for this long.... The pilot comes on board and says "sorry to bring you bad news, but we have a hydraulic failure and we need to switch planes. There's also no open gates right now, so we're going to have to wait here until one opens up. Good Lord, what NEXT! I thought for sure that my car would be stolen or broken into at the hotel in Buffalo.
We finally did get on our way after a pretty quick transfer and we made it to Buffalo in just over an hour - I think the pilot threw it into overdrive for that flight. We were "only" about 1.5 hours late on that flight.
Thankfully, our car was still in the parking lot, and YES, it did start up first time.
We headed home at about 1am and got home right around 3am. Thankfully we were on BC time and it didn't feel as late as it was, otherwise we were considering staying overnight.
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