Nightmare NYC Flying Trip 2008 – The Sequel

Roxanne, Brenda, & I as most of you know, went to NYC for a much overdue girlz weekend on July 18th. The trip was AWESOME, however, getting home was not so great. It was so horrible, that to quote Roxanne, “You can’t make this shit up!!” Boy is she right!!! Brenda & I thought it was so unreal, that we needed to write it down for all to read, and hopefully later in life (WAY LATER), we can find some humor in this experience! So here goes….

Our story begins around 1:30 PM on Sunday, July 20th, we were scheduled on a flight that was leaving from NYC at 4:35 PM, and arriving in Detroit at 6:45 PM. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it…. Well guess again!!!

Like the good little girlz we are, we left the apartment we were staying at in NYC at 1:30 PM to arrive at the airport by 2:00. We were all checked in (via my BlackBerry – That phone ROCKS!), and just needed to turn in my luggage, and get through security. This all was completed with great ease, and we were all nestled all nice in our seats at the terminal to catch up on some reading while we waited the 1 ½ hours to bored our flight.

Out of the blue, the American Airline Ticket Agent comes over the PA at around 3:30 to say that our flight was cancelled, and we would need to “Proceed calmly to the counter for further instructions, and flight arraignments” (Please make note of the word “calmly”, it comes up often). So of course the 150 people waiting to board the plane walked “calmly” to the counter to get in line, and wait “calmly” for there updated flight info….. NOT!!!!

HOWEVER, B & I did proceed calmly to the counter, and wait our turn. Once it was our turn, we were told by a VERY nice gentleman that we are being moved to a flight that will leave NYC @ 6:20, and arrive in Chicago around 7:00 PM Chicago time. Then we would get on a connecting flight from Chicago to Detroit @ 9:50 PM, and arrive in Detroit @ 12:00 AM. Ok, our first reaction was THIS SUCKS!!! BUT, we then reminded each other that it may SUCK, but at least we would be home the same night.

Our next point of concern was the Sophia. You see, Chad was home with Abby & Dylan, but Pat had to leave for work @ 10 PM, and there was no one to be with Sophia for the night… UGH!! HUGE STRESS for me!! So after much brainstorming, and my hubby making a few calls, we had a plan, and a great one if I do say so myself!! Pat was able to take a vacation day, so all three kids would be tucked in tight in there own beds, and they would be with there Daddy’s…. STRESS GONE!!!! LeeAnn (my WONDERFUL sister-in-law) agreed to come get us, and take us both home. YEAH!! Ok, so off to the new terminal and a little more waiting and we were going to be on our way home, with a slight detour in Chicago. Brenda was just saying that she had never been there, and would love to go… Your wish is my command my friend!!! J

We arrived at our 2nd terminal around 4:30 I think. We found some nice comfy seats, and sat down to do some more reading… Of course we were a bit worried, so we were checking the monitor at the gate every few mins, and around 5:30 or so the flight was delayed from 6:20 to 7:00……. Then 7:40…… Then 8:10. Now keep in mind we had a very good amount of time between flights in Chicago, so I knew we had some wiggle room, however, it was starting to run out… L As you all know, I have traveled A LOT, so I can calculate in my head what time we need to land, so get to our connecting gate, and make the boarding of the next flight. So with the time change from NYC to Chicago, I knew we had about a 1 ½ flight, so we needed to be leaving around 8:15-8:30 to get to Chicago, and RUN to the next flight, and board @ 9:30, to take off by 9:50. So remember a min ago when I said they bumped our delay to 8:10…. UM Yeah, I was starting to get worried!!!

To try to help B feel a little calmer about this much unknown situation she was in, I thought now was a good time to grab a bite to eat. We found a few vendors, and grabbed some YUMMY ( L ) airport food, and found a seat on the floor by our gate to eat. While we were sitting on the comfy & clean airport terminal floor, completely enjoying the FABULOUS airport cuisine, (if you believe all that, I have a bridge in upper MI to sell you!) They announced that the gate we were assigned for our “6:20/7:00/7:40/8:10” flight was being moved to a new gate…. My god, does the madness ever end!!!

So we decided to sit & watch as the tired, hungry, angry mob of circus freaks BOLTED from one gate to the next. I am sure the rush was due to the fact that the faster they all crammed into the new gate area, the sooner the plane would take off!! Are they kidding me!!! My god people, have you never traveled before, EVER!!!! Well at least it was fun to watch as they trampled each other to get to the new gate first…. J Once we finished our gourmet dinner, we decided to join the HAPPY travelers in the gate area so we could hear the announcements for our flight better. We wanted to hear first hand all the great updates of how we were NEVER getting home…. L

We found an empty corner, and crammed ourselves into it to watch all the crazy’s getting angrier & angrier… Yep, this madness was just about to get real interesting…. I told B to hold on to her hat, angry travelers are SCARY!!!!!! B was checking the terminal monitor on a regular basis now, and at some point, the screen just went blank…. Yep, I said BLANK!! So not only were we cancelled, and then delayed 5 times, now our flight info just disappeared… UGH!!! Well, I was completely sure now, we were not going to be seeing MI anytime soon!!! B asked if we should go to the counter to check things out… I looked up, saw ONE person working the counter, and 100 freaked out, pissed off, & tired people standing in front of him…. NOPE, I wasn’t about to get in the middle of that! I told her they gave us our seat assignments after they moved us from our cancelled flight, so I was going to just wait to board (The phantom plane…Yep, 8:20, and still no plane at the door). I told her if they bump us, they would call us up…. We were crossing EVERYTHING!!! Fingers, toes, eyes, legs, each other!!! Lord, please get us home!!!

I think it was around 8:25 when the plane pulled up the gate… WOO HOO times 1,000!!!! Ok, now we were getting somewhere, not home yet, but hey, at this point we would take any form of progress they would give us!!!
Around 8:35 they started to call for pre-boarding… YEAH!!!!!!!! Chicago here we come!!!! We were in line, it was 8:37, and the ticket agent announces (calmly) that we have to all be on the plane, seated, belted in, the door shut & locked, and taking off by 9:00, or they flight attendance on the plane will not be able to fly due to federal guidelines for flight time, and we would be stuck in NYC for the night. I am sure you can only guess how that announcement was so “calming” to the tired, hungry, angry mob of circus freaks….. UMMMM, yeah, not good!!!!!!!! It was like the seagulls on Finding Nemo…. Instead of saying MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, we heard… WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT!!!! Yep, pure craziness was happening all around us… So we proceeded through the line, got in our seats, belted in, and the door was shut & locked @ 8:55…..Amazing you say…. OH FO SHO!!! So things are looking up right… WRONG!!! The one thing the “nice” ticket agent didn’t mention was that once we are all on the plane, and the door is locked, and you pull away from the gate, we are good…. The plane doesn’t HAVE to ACTUALLY take off for the flight attendants to be within there rules for there flying time…. WHAT!!!!! Are freakin kidding me!!!

So there we sat….. 9:00..... 9:30……10:00 (yep still sitting on the tarmac)….. 10:30….. OMG!!!..... finally at 10:40 (PM, 8 hrs & 40 mins after arriving to the airport) the captain gets on the PA to tell us he is sorry this is taking so long (REALLY!), but we are in line to take off, and we are #9 in line….. Oh, by the way, it is a 10 min delay in between each plane for takeoff…..Um, I am going to give you a sec to do the math on that one…………………..So by now you have figured out we are taking off in oh about NINTEY MINUTES!!!! OMG, this is freaking unreal!!!.... Oh, but wait!! He has just come back on to update us about 5 min later… We are in a different line, and are #3 in line, so we will be taking off in about 30 mins…. So with a total of 2 hrs & 20 min sitting on the tarmack, we are FINALLY on our way at 11:15…… Yep, it only took us 9 hrs & 15 mins to get off the ground in NYC to head to Chicago to get home to Detroit…. Make since… Ya, I thought not!!!

So we landed in Chicago at about midnight Chicago time, with absolutely no clue what was next on the agenda for getting home to Detroit….. Oh, by the way, we missed our connecting flight…. Just in case you didn’t get that already… Again we got stuck in the back of the line… Remember that tired, angry, hungry mob of circus freaks… Yep, they are now even more tired, angrier, hungrier, & out for American Airlines BLOOD!!! So B & I waited “calmly” in the back of the line, cuz we like our limbs attached to our body, and not ripped off for trying to get in the front of the line. Well, it was finely our turn, and we walked “calmly” (remember, I told you that word would come up A LOT!) to the counter to ask eagerly how the heck we were ever getting home. We were told we were booked on a flight @ 7:30 AM the next morning…. GREAT!!! Only 7 ½ hrs until we can make yet our 4th attempt to getting on a plane, and getting home…. Of course the next question was where were we going to take our few hour nap… Oh, we soooo needed one by now!! We were told we could get on a bus, and go over to the Wydham (NICE HOTEL!). So off we went… We got to the hotel (with our free voucher by the way) checked in, and got to our room around 1:15. We were out like a light by 1:40 AM. WOO HOO, back up @ 4:45 AM to jump in the shower, rinse off the yuck, and put our day old clothes back on… That was such a nice 3 ½ hour nap… Really it was, the beds were AWESWOME!!!!!!

So back on the shuttle bus to head to the airport, I was a bit concerned about the security line, due to it being a Monday morning in the windy city, MANY business people are flying out to go visit other business people in other cities, so we made sure to get there EARLY. However, I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived, and got through the line in about 30 mins or so. Why, that was WAY faster then we had expected it was nice to have ONE thing go as planned…. J So off to our gate, and hopefully HOME!! We bored the plane at 7:00 AM, right on time, another nice surprise, a plane that is one time for the first time in 18 hrs!! We were seated, and pulling away from the gate right on time… YEAH!! OH CRAP!! Yep, another problem…. We got almost to the runway for takeoff and the captain came back on the PA to let us know there were some lights out on in the cockpit, and we needed to go back to the gate for repairs… FOR GOODNESS SAKE, is this nightmare EVERY going to end!! For real people, “You can’t make this shit up!!” It is day time, do you REALLY need lights!! Ok, so here we go, back to the gate…. Poor B, I have to say, she has been a trooper!! I think I forgot to mention that she HATES, 100% completely HATES to fly, so this whole cancel, delay, turn around & go back thing, yeah just not comforting to her. But she was good through the whole thing, not one melt down, or freak out…. I looked over to see how she was, and yep, there were tears, I felt so bad!! The very first ones, but they were finally there…. Now don’t ask me why, but all of a sudden this whole nightmare just struck me weird, and I started to crack up, & I couldn’t stop, B looked at me like I was a looney, here she is with tears in her eyes, and I am just rolling with laughter…. I guess I had finally hit my breaking point to…. God help those who were seated around us.

So back on the phone to call the hubbies, and tell them we were delayed AGAIN, not that this was a surprise to them at this point. We got back to the gate, they let the mechanic on the plane to check things out. Now some of you may know, but when we went to NYC in 2004, we had a hard time getting home then also (that is a whole new blog in its self!) But to make a long story short, B made me get off the plane in Fort Wayne @ midnight to rent a car, and drive home. In her defense, the turbulence was REALLY bad, about 90% of the passengers were throwing up! So now that we have spent 18 + hours trying to get home, we were thinking maybe a rental car would be faster, for god’s sake, we could have been home by now if we drove from NYC, instead of this whole crazy mess!! We decided we would see what the mechanic said, and then decide if we were staying on, or heading to the rental car section of the airport….

It was only a few mins, and they told us the repairs would take about 1 ½ hours… OMG!!!! So they were moving us to a new plane… YEAH, plane # 5, was 5 our lucky number….. Let’s hope so!! We decided to stick it out, why rent a car when we were having so much fun living in the airport…. So off plane # 4, and a short walk to a different gate, and on to plane #5… PLEASE, PLEASE let this be the one!!! At this point I have kind of lost track o time, I think it is about 9:30 when we FINALLY take off from Chicago to head to Detroit… OMG!! We are actually going to get home before supper time… Yeah!!! We landed in Detroit around 11:30, and Pat & Sophia were waiting for us to finally take us home… The only last thing I was very scared about was my luggage, it had been checked in at NYC on our first flight, and 5 plane changes later, they told me it would be there, but at this point what they said held very little weight with me…. So off to luggage claim we go….. OMG!!! YEAH, it was there… Can you even believe it, B & I actually did a little jig!!!

So our story ends, 23 hrs & 15 mins after it started… What a crazy & long trip home, but we finally made it… WOO HOO!!! Now I do have to say before I close, Chad & Pat have set some ground rules for us for any more NYC trips… We are allowed to fly there, because that is never a problem, but we are NEVER allowed to fly home… We have to drive, take the greyhound, or Amtrak, but NEVER EVER again can we fly home from NYC… Well, we can’t seem to argue with them on this one can we… J

Blog more soon…..Carrie Ann