wtfwasithinking.org

So, how’d your Christmas trip to Hammond Louisiana go? That’s probably what most of you were going ask me when you say me again. Please take this as my response and don’t re-open this festering subject.

Sat 22nd

Realized that I had failed to find out what time c.c. needed to be dropped off at shaker vet by. So we scrambled to find someone to either watch her or take her to the vet to board her. After much stressing and a lucky call by Josh, our stress subsided, he said he’d take her for the week once the monstrosity known as ‘Max’was gone.

Sun 23rd

Had a nice leisurely morning of laundry and backing… a little too leisurely. Our last load of laundry took a little longer than expected. We ended up getting to the airport with an hour to spare. This was just the beginning of the ‘fun’.

At the continental ticket counter we found out that our flight had actually been cancelled. The lady was nice enough to get us on the United flight to Chicago then New Orleans. Things looked promising. Once at the gate we find out our 17:10 departure is not a 20:30 departure…. then it was (finally) a 22:05 boarding time. This looked to pose a problem the young man at the gate told us that all the flights flying in and out of Chicago were delayed and we would probably end up waiting for our connecting flight.

Arriving in change at roughly 01:00, a little ahead of schedule, we were greeted with our connecting flight not listed at all on the departure board. Not delayed, cancelled, or indef. Not listed at all. So we joined much of the rest of our flight at the United information desk. On the up side, we had automatically been re-booked on a 1400 flight out later that day, and on standby for a 07:00 flight to New Orleans, should we feel so inclined to be up early enough to try and catch that flight. The down side is that we had to get a hotel on our own dime. The only thing United would do is hook us up with a discount voucher because our flight was cancelled due to weather. Which is beyond their control.

Mon 24th

If you’ve ever tried to catch a motel shuttle from ohare in snow and freezing wind, you know the experience we were not prepared for. We had packed lightly in anticipation of only stopping in Louisiana. At around 04:00 we finally rolled into bed. Ally was set up in one and Erika and I in the other. It was a good 5hr rest. Got up too late to catch the free breakfast and too early to catch the shuttle back to ohare to get breakfast in the airport. Coffee and cocoa worked well for most of us until we could finally head back.

Back at ohare we arrive at our concourse to find our flight, once again, not listed. United information told us that it had been cancelled due to lack of a crew and the only other direct flight out they could get us on was Thursday. Everything else was full. Erika stayed to figure out what else could be arranged while I took Ally to go get breakfast. We had just got settled when Erika came running up informing that our flight was boarding in five minutes. Turns out the lady at information was able to get us on a flight to D.C. then to New Orleans. So we hightailed it to the gate and made it on our way to D.C.

Landing in D.C. was a little rough, but not bad. We got off the plane and looked at the ‘directions’that we had been given with our boarding passes for the next flight though USair in the next concourse over. Our flight wasn’t ready for another two hours so we went and got lunch and get to the gate. After being at the gate and noticing that the seats had us divided up, 17A, C and D, I went to see if I could get that remedied before getting on the plane and trying to sort it out there. I found out the hard way that USair needs a ‘paper ticket’and that the united boarding pass was not valid. I caught the shuttle bus back to the other concourse only to find out that all of the united reps had already closed up shop. An American air rep was nice enough to try like hell to get a hold of someone from united, but with no luck. I had no choice but to go though security and see if there was a warm body at the actual ticket counter. Luckily there was, but there was also another customer. The customer was nice enough to notice that I was in a hurry and tried to get the agent to take care of me first when she found out that I was risking my flight. The agent however ignored all FIVE attempts of hers to have him take care of me first. Finally I did get to talk to him. He had a hard time understanding what I needed, granted it was a lengthy story and English was not his primary language. Finally he told me that even though the flight was arranged though a United rep, I had to get the print out from Continental because I was a transfer from Continental originally. There was nothing else he would do to help other than tell me I had to go though Continental. So I ran another 100ft to their ticket desk… and no one was there. Not at all, even the tsa rep i saw said that they had closed and gone home. We were screwed.

I ran back to concourse C because the shuttle would take too long. Luckily there was only an older woman in front of me in line. Oh but wait… she had more than 3oz. of shampoo on her, in a designer bottle. So tsa began their lecture on how they were going to either have her ship it or check the bag. I waved my tickets in the air and the tsa rep said, “It looks like you’re being out of breath means that you’re about to miss your flight?” I nodded. He pushed my coat and shoes though the machine and when they were clear, grabbed them and ran. I could hear them trying to figure out where my shoes where as I didn’t put them on.

I got to Erika and told her the bad news. She then took the tickets and went back up to the clerk. She came back saying that they refused to let us on the plane even though the seats were already reserved, all that was missing was a paper receipt from united releasing us to USair. Erika then called Continental again and while talking to the clerk on the phone broke down into tears. The clerks supervisor got on the line and asked to talk to a USair supervisor. Erika was just about to hand the phone to the new supervisor that showed up in a suit when it turned to her and said that we could go on though. Finally we were going to make it to New Orleans.

Most of the final leg of our trip went well. Ally was a little overtired but still cooperative as long as I let her watch beauty and the beast. This was until about an hour out from our landing when Ally had a coughing fit that triggered her gag reflex. Thankfully I had her blanket to catch 80% of the mess. She still managed to tag my pants, coat and shoes, but it was still mostly contained. I spent the rest of the trip smelling like vomit. Ally passed out in Erika’s arms.

We landed in New Orleans airport and Ronnie met us at the gate. Now we began to stress about where our luggage was. On a hope, we went to the United baggage rep to see if our bags made it onto the standby flight. They did, our bags and car seat were waiting for us.

With our new happy ending we packed ourselves up into Ronnie’s vehicle and went to Fred and Ronnie’s place for have Christmas the next morning.

And we still have 7 more days left… hopefully next year will be much easier!