Saturday, June 29, 2013

The return home (the saga continues)

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 1:30 pm, so David and I arrived at the airport by 12:00.  Our flight was not on the reader board yet for check in, so we waited.  When it finally showed up the board said "go to gate", so we immediately went to the check in counter.  After much tickety tapping, we were told there were no seats available.  She tried to take us to the "compensation office", but I put my foot down and said there must be some seats on this plane, give us business class.  She had an extended conversation with the people in that office, then said ok and took us back and gave us boarding passes.

We had to clear passport control which took forever, then we quickly passed through security and dashed (yes, we actually sprinted down the corridor) to our gate at the very end of the concourse.  We made it in time to board the bus which took us out to the plane.  We were seated very far apart.  I found my seat and sat, but soon a woman came who was also assigned my seat number.  There were several more passengers with the same problem (I think the check in lady just passed the problem on to the flight attendant).  In the end, the other lady got a seat in first class, but at least I kept my seat on the plane.

After a long 11 hr flight we made it to Chicago, claimed our luggage and took a shuttle to our hotel for the night.  We were up early for the 6:00 am shuttle to the airport for our 8:30 am flight.  On the ride there, my phone rang with an automatic message from the airline "Your flight has been cancelled.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.  You are rebooked on a flight at...6:00 pm".  We managed to get on stand by for an 11 am flight...cancelled.  We got on standby for a 3:00 flight...score!  We got home by 5:00 pm after a long day in O'hare airport, changing gates every 30 mins or so. Surprisingly, our luggage arrived with us.  I really don't want to see another airport for a long time!

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