Okay...so I ask in all seriousness...why is it that we pay ridiculous amounts of money to get stuffed into an airplane like sardines, only to not even reach the our chosen destination without serious stress, sweating, headaches, arguments, stomachaches, etc.?!?! Yesterday Drew and I were lucky enough to experience all of that...well all of that...and more. Rewind to the beginning of the day. Drew and I spent the weekend outside of Philadelphia. One of Drew's best friends from college, Tim, was getting married. We had a fantastic time seeing him and meeting his beautiful wife Heather. When we were packing up all of our stuff in the morning, getting ready to leave our hotel for the brunch so we could go to the airport right after it, Drew says to me, "you have my wallet, right babe?" Ummm..."that would be a negative, honey. I gave it back to you at the reception last night so you could tip the bartender." So...the hunt began. We must have torn apart that hotel room at least three or four times, packed and unpacked our suitcases about the same, searched the rental car, called the place where the reception was. GONE! No sign of it. We even went to Tim's new in-laws' house to search the boxes of "stuff" that was gathered after the reception room was cleaned out. No such luck. Drew's sister saved the day. She found a copy of Drew's license with his gym card, so she faxed that to us, along with a copy of his birth certificate. Once we got that, we RACED to the airport, returned our rental car, and flew to the ticket counter. We were happy to find out that our flight was delayed 30 minutes (shew!) and they didn't even flinch at the fact that Drew had lost his wallet. They took all the random pieces of faxed artwork Dana had so generously taken the time to fax to us. Things were going to be fine after all...right? Wrong. We go up the stairs to go through security and no line...yippee! We hand all our "stuff" to the ever so friendly TSA guy and he looks at Drew and says, "what is this?" Drew explained to him that he had lost his wallet...blah, blah, blah. "Well, sir, this doesn't do you any good." What?!
Drew: "But I called American and they said as long as I had a faxed copy of my driver's license I would be okay."
Friendly TSA guy: "Nope. Doesn't help us at all. Have to call my supervisor."
We wait,trying not to be too ticked (after all, it had been a long day so far), but we didn't want to end up on the news as the "uncooperative" passengers. So we wait some more. Oh, good. Here comes his supervisor. He looks nice enough.
Supervisor: "So you lost your wallet." Not quite as friendly as we would have hoped.
Drew: "Yeah, they told me that if I have a copy of my---"
Not so friendly supervisor: "We need to verify you."
Drew: "You need to what?"
Not so friendly supervisor: "Verify you. We need to make sure you are who you say you are."
Drew: (trying to laugh a bit) "Oh...okay. I thought you meant I wouldn't get on." (after all, even with the delay, we were cutting it pretty close)
Not so friendly supervisor: "I'm not saying you'll get on. Not if you don't answer the questions right."
Drew: (trying SO hard to keep his cool) "Okay, well can my wife go through? At least one of us needs to get on that plane to go home."
Not so friendly supervisor: "Yep."
Off I go...barely looked back I was so worried I was going to miss our flight. Nice wife, huh. I just wanted to see my girlies!! Turns out, though, our gate was right by security. Shew! A bit more to help us out. I see they haven't started boarding yet, so I head back to security to see where they have Drew (was trying to redeem my good wife quality). He's in a room getting his bag searched, and since he's lost so much weight and they made him take his belt off, he's standing there holding his pants up and answering questions. Poor guy. He finally comes out with all his stuff some 15 minutes later. Not sure where they get the info to "verify" someone, but they asked him what his address was, who else lived at that residence, and what kind of car he drove. Weird. Thankfully, he passed the test, and off we went.
We get to our gate just as they are boarding. It still says on the board the flight is planning to leave at 4:00 pm, and it's about ten til. We get on and wait...and wait...and wait. They push us back from the gate and as we head towards the runway, tell us that the weather between Philly and Chicago is so bad that it has shut down most of the routes that would get us there, so we're just going to turn off the engines out here and wait. Shouldn't be more than 15 or 20 minutes, but could be longer. We wait...and wait...and wait again. Finally (lots of "courteous announcements" from the captain filled the time here)...three and a half hours later, they tell us that they are going to be unable to get us to Chicago. That specific crew had timed out and they had passed the time that they even thought they had enough fuel to safely get us there. "So ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience and understanding. We are going to head back to the gate, well...as soon as they find a gate for us to go to." Drew had been on the phone with American off and on trying to get us on another flight that night, but they couldn't do it. They actually could not put us on any flight because the one we were on hadn't been cancelled yet. They couldn't check us in on another flight until we were off this flight. WE'RE TRYING! GET US TO THE DAMN GATE!! 45 frustrating minutes and one cancelled flight later, we are at the gate and have fortunately been confirmed on a 6 am flight to Dallas (and then Denver) this morning. We went to the counter and got our tickets, and even talked them out of a hotel voucher. We thought the day was finally over. After all, it was almost 8:00 p.m. Really, what more could go wrong? Turns out, we jinxed ourselves. All of the passengers who checked luggage had to go reclaim it all. One would think...baggage claim, right? Nope. Ticket counter. What?! Yep...one by one, they were going to check our claim checks, walk back into whatever black hole is behind the ticket counter, and retrieve our luggage. Oh...but first? They were going to help everyone else who had yet to be re ticketed. Seriously?!?! After about an hour, Drew and I started to worry that other people would have been given hotel vouchers for the same hotel. So, I quick went and caught the shuttle to the hotel and Drew stayed to get our bags. About an hour later, Drew called to say he had our bags and would hopefully be at the hotel soon. He got there a little after 9:30 pm and we went down to the restaurant in the hotel lobby (it was called "Relish--The Burger Bistro") and had dinner. At exactly 11:11 (you have to know how much sleep we wished for) we put our heads on the pillow and were OUT! At 3:00 a.m. (1 am Colorado time), the alarm went off and we began again, never really feeling like the day ended...we just had a well deserved nap. After a couple of showers, a big cup of coffee, and our suitcases packed and repacked again, we headed downstairs for more waiting, this time for the shuttle back to the airport. Boy, was it going to be a long day. There were two blondies at home with Aunt Dana who we missed so much, and we knew they wouldn't care that we had been up since the night before...time to put our game faces on! We made it to the airport and got checked in all in one piece, no major drama. Then security...Drew had to go through the same "verification" deal again. This time, it took twice as long, but the supervisor was great. He was so nice, and such a good sport--a nice treat at 4:15 am. :-) The best part? He came over to me and said, "your husband passed the test. Except he didn't know the color of his car." I think he was joking, because Drew answered it right, but I laughed so hard and he looked at me like I was crazy. I asked him, "did Drew happen to tell you he is color blind?"
Needless to say, we made it home, landing safely at DIA at 9:55...just in time for Drew to head to the office and me to go and get the girls. It's 4:30 in the afternoon right now...is the day over yet? I swear, these are the type of days that bloggers dream of!Monday, July 14, 2008
The Day That Never Ended
Okay...so I ask in all seriousness...why is it that we pay ridiculous amounts of money to get stuffed into an airplane like sardines, only to not even reach the our chosen destination without serious stress, sweating, headaches, arguments, stomachaches, etc.?!?! Yesterday Drew and I were lucky enough to experience all of that...well all of that...and more. Rewind to the beginning of the day. Drew and I spent the weekend outside of Philadelphia. One of Drew's best friends from college, Tim, was getting married. We had a fantastic time seeing him and meeting his beautiful wife Heather. When we were packing up all of our stuff in the morning, getting ready to leave our hotel for the brunch so we could go to the airport right after it, Drew says to me, "you have my wallet, right babe?" Ummm..."that would be a negative, honey. I gave it back to you at the reception last night so you could tip the bartender." So...the hunt began. We must have torn apart that hotel room at least three or four times, packed and unpacked our suitcases about the same, searched the rental car, called the place where the reception was. GONE! No sign of it. We even went to Tim's new in-laws' house to search the boxes of "stuff" that was gathered after the reception room was cleaned out. No such luck. Drew's sister saved the day. She found a copy of Drew's license with his gym card, so she faxed that to us, along with a copy of his birth certificate. Once we got that, we RACED to the airport, returned our rental car, and flew to the ticket counter. We were happy to find out that our flight was delayed 30 minutes (shew!) and they didn't even flinch at the fact that Drew had lost his wallet. They took all the random pieces of faxed artwork Dana had so generously taken the time to fax to us. Things were going to be fine after all...right? Wrong. We go up the stairs to go through security and no line...yippee! We hand all our "stuff" to the ever so friendly TSA guy and he looks at Drew and says, "what is this?" Drew explained to him that he had lost his wallet...blah, blah, blah. "Well, sir, this doesn't do you any good." What?!
Drew: "But I called American and they said as long as I had a faxed copy of my driver's license I would be okay."
Friendly TSA guy: "Nope. Doesn't help us at all. Have to call my supervisor."
We wait,trying not to be too ticked (after all, it had been a long day so far), but we didn't want to end up on the news as the "uncooperative" passengers. So we wait some more. Oh, good. Here comes his supervisor. He looks nice enough.
Supervisor: "So you lost your wallet." Not quite as friendly as we would have hoped.
Drew: "Yeah, they told me that if I have a copy of my---"
Not so friendly supervisor: "We need to verify you."
Drew: "You need to what?"
Not so friendly supervisor: "Verify you. We need to make sure you are who you say you are."
Drew: (trying to laugh a bit) "Oh...okay. I thought you meant I wouldn't get on." (after all, even with the delay, we were cutting it pretty close)
Not so friendly supervisor: "I'm not saying you'll get on. Not if you don't answer the questions right."
Drew: (trying SO hard to keep his cool) "Okay, well can my wife go through? At least one of us needs to get on that plane to go home."
Not so friendly supervisor: "Yep."
Off I go...barely looked back I was so worried I was going to miss our flight. Nice wife, huh. I just wanted to see my girlies!! Turns out, though, our gate was right by security. Shew! A bit more to help us out. I see they haven't started boarding yet, so I head back to security to see where they have Drew (was trying to redeem my good wife quality). He's in a room getting his bag searched, and since he's lost so much weight and they made him take his belt off, he's standing there holding his pants up and answering questions. Poor guy. He finally comes out with all his stuff some 15 minutes later. Not sure where they get the info to "verify" someone, but they asked him what his address was, who else lived at that residence, and what kind of car he drove. Weird. Thankfully, he passed the test, and off we went.
We get to our gate just as they are boarding. It still says on the board the flight is planning to leave at 4:00 pm, and it's about ten til. We get on and wait...and wait...and wait. They push us back from the gate and as we head towards the runway, tell us that the weather between Philly and Chicago is so bad that it has shut down most of the routes that would get us there, so we're just going to turn off the engines out here and wait. Shouldn't be more than 15 or 20 minutes, but could be longer. We wait...and wait...and wait again. Finally (lots of "courteous announcements" from the captain filled the time here)...three and a half hours later, they tell us that they are going to be unable to get us to Chicago. That specific crew had timed out and they had passed the time that they even thought they had enough fuel to safely get us there. "So ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience and understanding. We are going to head back to the gate, well...as soon as they find a gate for us to go to." Drew had been on the phone with American off and on trying to get us on another flight that night, but they couldn't do it. They actually could not put us on any flight because the one we were on hadn't been cancelled yet. They couldn't check us in on another flight until we were off this flight. WE'RE TRYING! GET US TO THE DAMN GATE!! 45 frustrating minutes and one cancelled flight later, we are at the gate and have fortunately been confirmed on a 6 am flight to Dallas (and then Denver) this morning. We went to the counter and got our tickets, and even talked them out of a hotel voucher. We thought the day was finally over. After all, it was almost 8:00 p.m. Really, what more could go wrong? Turns out, we jinxed ourselves. All of the passengers who checked luggage had to go reclaim it all. One would think...baggage claim, right? Nope. Ticket counter. What?! Yep...one by one, they were going to check our claim checks, walk back into whatever black hole is behind the ticket counter, and retrieve our luggage. Oh...but first? They were going to help everyone else who had yet to be re ticketed. Seriously?!?! After about an hour, Drew and I started to worry that other people would have been given hotel vouchers for the same hotel. So, I quick went and caught the shuttle to the hotel and Drew stayed to get our bags. About an hour later, Drew called to say he had our bags and would hopefully be at the hotel soon. He got there a little after 9:30 pm and we went down to the restaurant in the hotel lobby (it was called "Relish--The Burger Bistro") and had dinner. At exactly 11:11 (you have to know how much sleep we wished for) we put our heads on the pillow and were OUT! At 3:00 a.m. (1 am Colorado time), the alarm went off and we began again, never really feeling like the day ended...we just had a well deserved nap. After a couple of showers, a big cup of coffee, and our suitcases packed and repacked again, we headed downstairs for more waiting, this time for the shuttle back to the airport. Boy, was it going to be a long day. There were two blondies at home with Aunt Dana who we missed so much, and we knew they wouldn't care that we had been up since the night before...time to put our game faces on! We made it to the airport and got checked in all in one piece, no major drama. Then security...Drew had to go through the same "verification" deal again. This time, it took twice as long, but the supervisor was great. He was so nice, and such a good sport--a nice treat at 4:15 am. :-) The best part? He came over to me and said, "your husband passed the test. Except he didn't know the color of his car." I think he was joking, because Drew answered it right, but I laughed so hard and he looked at me like I was crazy. I asked him, "did Drew happen to tell you he is color blind?"
Needless to say, we made it home, landing safely at DIA at 9:55...just in time for Drew to head to the office and me to go and get the girls. It's 4:30 in the afternoon right now...is the day over yet? I swear, these are the type of days that bloggers dream of!
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