Crazy journey and stupid terrorists
So, I was at Raleigh airport last evening, waiting for a 4:05 flight to Chicago, connecting to Dallas. I was cursing the fact that I had not booked myself on a later flight, as I was missing Ozzfest, something that my friends Dwight and Jen had really wanted me to go with them to.
4:05 comes and goes, and there is no sign of any of the South West airline gate agents. I am quite unconcerned at this point, but when it turns 4:30 and there have been no announcements, I get concerned and ask South West customer service whats happening. And then they tell me that the inbound aircraft is delayed and would come in a few minutes. At 5 PM, they announce that the aircraft has landed but has some problems with the hydraulics and will take atleast 3 hours to fix. That means that I would definitely miss my connecting flight and the earliest I could get to Dallas would be 11 AM the next day.
So, I cancelled my South West ticket, and looked online for the best alternate flights. American, United and Delta all had flights that would get to me to Dallas (via Atlanta) at around 11 PM. For some reason, I chose Delta, and I checked in my bags and settled down in the departure lounge. We boarded a few minutes past schedule, and I was not overly worried. Then came an ominous announcement - Weather concerns in Atlanta ! There were major thunderstorms in ATL, and we took after after a delay of 2 hours - I thought that there was a good chance that my connection to Dallas would be delayed as well, so I was still hoping to make it to Dallas. When we landed in ATL, I called customer service and asked them about the Dallas flight, and I was told that they were still boarding. Luck was on my side - Or, so I thought. We went on to spend 75 minutes waiting for a gate (There were about 50 planes in a queue - Quite impressive, it would have been, in better circumstances). So, I missed my connection, got myself booked onto the 7 AM flight.
I finally got out of the airport at 1:30 AM, and there was a sea of people waiting for the hotel shuttles. So, I got to the hotel at 2:30 AM and set the alarm for 5 AM. I finally woke up at 5:27 and ran down to get to the airport at 5:50 AM, which is usually plenty of time ... However, I didnt know at that time about the UK-US terrorist plot ! There was a whole K-9 unit, and a huge queue. I finally got through security at 7 AM and literally ran a mile to Concourse A where the gate was just being locked. The lady would not let me on despite all of my entreaties, and I got onto an American Air flight instead at 7:30 AM, which was on time.
However, of course my bag was not loaded on either flight, so it was stuck in Atlanta. I am now in Dallas, on the way back to Atlanta, where I will hopefully be re-united with my bag, which contains some very valuable shirts ;-)
4:05 comes and goes, and there is no sign of any of the South West airline gate agents. I am quite unconcerned at this point, but when it turns 4:30 and there have been no announcements, I get concerned and ask South West customer service whats happening. And then they tell me that the inbound aircraft is delayed and would come in a few minutes. At 5 PM, they announce that the aircraft has landed but has some problems with the hydraulics and will take atleast 3 hours to fix. That means that I would definitely miss my connecting flight and the earliest I could get to Dallas would be 11 AM the next day.
So, I cancelled my South West ticket, and looked online for the best alternate flights. American, United and Delta all had flights that would get to me to Dallas (via Atlanta) at around 11 PM. For some reason, I chose Delta, and I checked in my bags and settled down in the departure lounge. We boarded a few minutes past schedule, and I was not overly worried. Then came an ominous announcement - Weather concerns in Atlanta ! There were major thunderstorms in ATL, and we took after after a delay of 2 hours - I thought that there was a good chance that my connection to Dallas would be delayed as well, so I was still hoping to make it to Dallas. When we landed in ATL, I called customer service and asked them about the Dallas flight, and I was told that they were still boarding. Luck was on my side - Or, so I thought. We went on to spend 75 minutes waiting for a gate (There were about 50 planes in a queue - Quite impressive, it would have been, in better circumstances). So, I missed my connection, got myself booked onto the 7 AM flight.
I finally got out of the airport at 1:30 AM, and there was a sea of people waiting for the hotel shuttles. So, I got to the hotel at 2:30 AM and set the alarm for 5 AM. I finally woke up at 5:27 and ran down to get to the airport at 5:50 AM, which is usually plenty of time ... However, I didnt know at that time about the UK-US terrorist plot ! There was a whole K-9 unit, and a huge queue. I finally got through security at 7 AM and literally ran a mile to Concourse A where the gate was just being locked. The lady would not let me on despite all of my entreaties, and I got onto an American Air flight instead at 7:30 AM, which was on time.
However, of course my bag was not loaded on either flight, so it was stuck in Atlanta. I am now in Dallas, on the way back to Atlanta, where I will hopefully be re-united with my bag, which contains some very valuable shirts ;-)
Comments