Sunday September 24, 2006

Airport Saga Continued

Saturday

As soon as agents arrived at 4:30 AM, we got on standby for the 7:30 AM flight – but soon discovered being on standby with United was almost worthless, because our original tickets were with American. 

We walked to the closest American gate to check on their standby status.  That didn’t look very hopeful either, so we booked seats on American for 5 PM. 

We had lots of fun meeting people – most of whom were also on standby.  It became humorous as each of us waited for our names to be called. 

Finally our names were called for the 11:30 AM United flight.  We had seats on this flight from the change of reservation the night before, but were told to wait until our names were called, because United’s standbys took priority to a ticketed seat from another airline. 

We arrived on the plane, only to discover that our seats had been given to two people who were United standbys, so had to get off again.  That was the most disappointing time of the day.  We were so tired, and so ready to get home.

By this point we were on standby with American, but just like United, every flight was delayed because of the weather the day before – or weather that was currently happening, and the standby list was long.

Our son Jere and his wife Kristen called from California to say their flight to Harrisburg (connecting in Texas) was canceled due to tornados in Dallas.  They called back later to say they were now connecting in Chicago about 6:30 PM.

We waited as standbys through each Harrisburg flight, and listened to many changes and cancelations, wondering if we would be spending another night in Chicago.  We talked to Jere’s and decided if we were both in Chicgao overnight, we would get a motel and try to leave together in the morning.

By late afternoon when I checked departing flights, there wasn’t even one on schedule.  Sometimes the plane was there, but the crew was at another airport, or enroute!

FINALLY our 5 PM flight was ready to leave at 6:40 PM – and we were on board! 

Our cell phone rang.  It was Jere.  They had just landed in an adjoining terminal.  This was one time we wished our plane would be delayed another hour – so Jere and Kristen could make the flight.  There were two empty seats in front of us. 

However, that was not to be.  We think we saw each others planes

~~~

We got home about 10:15 Saturday night.  Jere’s got home today (Sunday) about noon.