Thursday, February 21, 2008

A long day of traveling

Yesterday Todd and I were not so lucky, first we left the house at 7:30 in the morning for our 11:36 departure to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport (hoping to avoid the stress of cutting it close) but the weather was very bad, with icy, snowy roads and bad driving conditions. Lots of car accidents along the way requiring multiple detours. The freeway actually shut down due to a 6 mile 27 car pile up. It was a long and slow go getting to the airport, I was relieved when I called to check flight status and the flight was delayed 20 minutes. We finally arrived with 1.25 hours before our flight departed. By the time we got to the front of the baggage check-in line, we were told our flight just closed 1 minute ago. I didn’t understand, we still had 1 hour before it left. They explained you must check bags 45 minutes before departure! I retaliated with but the flight doesn’t leave for another hour! We went back and forth with that for a few minutes before I gave up. Had I known how the day would have played out I would have been more persistent, but they said there was another flight they could put us on that left 10 minutes later, however was not a direct flight but would layover in Atlanta and get us to FL only 2 hours later than originally planned. Didn't sound all that bad so I just went along with it. They sort of mentioned that we couldn't get seat assignments on the second leg of our flight because it was full, but don't worry, Atlanta has lots of delays and surely someone will miss their flight and we'll get a seat. I asked if they could put us on a flight to Tampa but they said NO, they would have to charge us a rebooking fee plus the difference in fare. So we got booked on the flight through Atlanta.
When we got to Atlanta and went to our gate to check in they informed us that we were on stand-by and would have to wait and see if we would get seats. So we waited, and then didn't get seats. We then went to get booked on the next flight to Serasota only to find out it didn't leave till 9pm, (it was currently 3pm). The lady was kind enough to offer to fly us into another airport such as Tampa if we wanted, I THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T DO THAT! sure, fly us to Tampa, just get us there, a quick call to our travel agent and the rental car issue was taken care of. So we get to Tampa at 6pm only to discover that our luggage has not made it with us. I suspected this might happen, and soon discovered that it was waiting for us at Serasota airport, an hour in the opposite direction of where we were staying that night. (but they told us only 30 minutes) so we drove to Serasota and then back to New Port Richie (our final destination for the night) and arrived at 11:30pm!
A very long day, and the last time we will ever fly TranAir. I thought having a cute baby in tow would get us some sympathy, but I was very wrong! Oh and the flight to Tampa - they didn't mention that we wouldn't get to sit together and had been assigned 2 middle seats. How I'm supposed to nurse a baby so his ears wont hurt on take off and landing in a middle seat I don't know. I just got on the plane and sat next to Todd and when the person who's seat I was in showed up I kindly asked her to take my middle seat which thankfully she did! Finally, one nice person.
Okay, so were here, and have had a good nights sleep and it's 75 degrees outside, so I'm already getting over it, but I kind of want to write a letter and complain! We'll see how I feel about it when I get home.

5 comments:

soontobemrs said...

Oh that sounds like something that would definetly happen to me!!! Well at least you got there safe and sound, finally! I hope you guys have a great trip and enjoy the warm weather!!!!

Paula said...

What a nightmare. I can't stand traveling (and I used to be a flight attendant, hehe). Glad you made it there safely.

Tina in CT said...

You definitely should have stood your ground in Chicago and asked for the manager. Write a letter to the president of the airline and cc the manager at the Chicago location. I'm sure you can call the airline to get the names and email addresses.

Now you can just relax and enjoy your week of vacation.

What an ordeal you had yesterday between the drive to O'Hare and the traveling.

Mandy Lou said...

What a horrible travel day - sadly I've been there (though never with an infant!).

Glad you're getting a break from all the grey weather!

Rachael said...

That sounds terrible.

Maybe you should have Francie call or write and complain for you! :)

Was Anthony a good little baby trooper through the ordeal? His first airplane flight too, right? Did you guys gate check the stroller so you had it during the layover?

Don't forget to get some sunshine for me, okay?