LIVE from the Horizon - July 8 - 16 - We’re finally back at sea!

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

We finish up, and walk back to our gate, thinking we have about 10 minutes to boarding. Remember, this flight was already delayed by an hour. If it was the original time, when we planned on taking the Louisville connecting flight, we would have missed it - but, then again, if she didn't try changing the connecting flight because of the delay, I guess it wouldn't have been such an issue.

 

We sit down and wait for them to start boarding.  I then look out the window, and notice that there's no airplane there.  If boarding is about to start, shouldn't there be an airplane?

 

I then look at the board again.  It's another hour delay. 6:30 departure. That's the max delay before we'd miss the flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh.  

 

So we wait. And we wait.  We run down for a snack and some water.  And we wait.  And watch that board, hoping there isn't another delay.

 

Guess what.  There's another delay. 8pm departure.  

 

But, there's a silver lining. The flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh is also delayed to a midnight departure!  We can still make it!  The flight to Charlotte is about 90 minutes, and wanting an hour layover time, as long as we departed by 9:30, we should be good to go.

 

Does anyone think we departed by 9:30?

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I think it was around 7:30 or so when they announce that because of thunderstorms around FLL, and the airplane running out of fuel, they had to land in Sarasota.  Once the thunderstorms cleared, they would depart Sarasota for FLL. Looking out the window, it was a huge thunderstorm.  Loud too.

 

So we wait. It's only a half hour flight from Sarasota.  They can do a turnover in about a half hour.  That means they need to arrive by 9pm, so that we can leave at 9:30.  Which means they must leave Sarasota by 8:30pm.

 

At 8pm, the sky outside FLL lightens up, and the airport reopens. Everyone cheers.

 

8:15.  The plane still hasn't left Sarasota. They are waiting for the planes that didn't have to land to refuel, and were still circling FLL, to land first. Then the planes that had to land in Sarasota could depart. Ours wasn't the only one.

 

8:30.  They are still in Sarasota. I'm thinking we'll never make our Pittsburgh flight.

 

8:45. Our flight to Pittsburgh is delayed yet again!  Hurray for flight delays! Leaving Pittsburgh at 1:15!

 

The airplane doesn't leave Sarasota until almost 9:30. They arrive at 10 pm, and we get a 10:30 departure.

 

When those people got off the plane, they looked like zombies. They were coming from Charlotte, and had departed only one hour late. Their 90 minute flight turned into a five hour flight (they were not able to get off the plane while sitting in Sarasota).

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

We arrive in Charlotte at 11:45pm. We check the flight board.  1:15 departure, boarding starts at 12:30.  Plenty of time to walk to our gate (it was across the terminal, so quite a long walk actually), and get a snack and some water. 

 

We get to our gate and find that our flight to Pittsburgh is cancelled.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

It's only a 6 hour drive home from Charlotte. We didn't know what would happen to our luggage, but we decided to rent a car, drive home, and worry about our checked bags when we got home.  We figured we'd get them back eventually.

 

I go on my phone to try to book a rental car.  Avis.  Sold out. Budget. Sold out. Enterprise. Sold out. Herz. Nissan Pathfinder available.  I book it as fast as I could. Didn't even look at the price. I didn't care. I just wanted to go home.

 

I look at the confirmation, and notice the location closes at 1am. It is almost 12:30 by this point, and I have no idea how long it takes to get to the rental station (I did check to see that it was an in airport location, but for all I know I need an airport shuttle to get to the airport rental station!).

 

I make sure I have what I need to rent a car, and my wife and I each have our phones, and then start running down the airport to find the rental car counter.

 

My wife got on the line to speak to the American Airlines agent. The line went from one end of the terminal to the central hub. The kids were settled into a soft spot of airport floor to rest. 

 

AA did automatically reschedule us on alternate flights.  It had us on four flights to go home. First flight departed at 7 something, and the 4th flight had us arriving in DC after 9 pm. Calling AA was pointless. The message at their call center said it was a seven hour wait to speak to someone.  Seven hours!  

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I run through the airport and find the rental counter.  I show them my rental car confirmation on my phone. The agent asks me if I made the reservation after 4pm. I said that I did, but why would it matter.

 

She said they ran out of cars at 4 pm.  Every rental car company was out of cars and had been for over eight hours. She said they put a lock in the system that was supposed to prevent anyone from making a reservation for that day, but the lock was broken, and taking reservations anyway. She said she had been sitting there turning countless heartbroken people away for eight hours. Literally hundreds of people.

 

So I turn around and go back to the terminal.  And find, to my horror, that security is closed for the night. I can't get back to my family!

[Kingsmom]

This is just awful.....  

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I call my wife and tell her the news.  She still has a lot of people in front of her to speak to the agent. I sit down and try to find a rental car for the first thing in the morning (in airport, or at least nearby I can take an Uber to if needed). Nothing. No way for us to drive home in the morning.

 

I look for a hotel, so we don't have to spend the night in the airport.  Nothing.  We're spending the night in the airport.

 

It was around 1:30 when my wife finally gets to the agent.  This was a 90 minute wait. The agent asks for the boarding passes. Which I took with me so that I could get back through security if needed. All of them. My wife explained what happened. He gives her a hard time, but does agree to help her. He is able to cut or trip home from 4 flights to 3, with an arrival at DC of around 5pm. He prints the new boarding passes.

 

Now I go to the TSA agent at the security exit, and ask if there's anyway I can rejoin my family.  He said there is not. By this point, the kids are sound asleep on their soft spot of airport floor, and it's much nicer by the gates than by the ticket counters where I was, so my wife stayed there. However, the TSA agent said my wife could bring me my book to read. I couldn't pass anything to her, but she would be able to give the TSA agent my book, and he could then pass my book to me.  He was very nice. My wife did just this, and also included my new boarding pass, so that I could get through security when it opened, which would be at 3:30, only two hours later.

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I settle down in the least uncomfortable chair I can find and read.  I was so tired, I think I must have read each page 2-3 times so that I could understand any of it.  I dozed a little.  For the most part, I was in that state that's half asleep, where dreams and reality start to mix together.  

 

At 3:30, I look up, and there's a line forming to get through security. I get on that line. They open security around 3:40, and there's only two agents there, so it goes slowly.  

 

I get to the front of the line, and give the agent my passport  and boarding pass I was thankful my wife remembered to give me. I didn't think a boarding pass from the day before would suffice!

 

The agent looks at the boarding pass really carefully, and she says, "This boarding pass doesn't match the flight that came up with my passport." Huh?  What? Which flight is it? I don't know what would come up at this point. The agent said that unless I could produce the boarding pass that matched what it said online, I couldn't go through.  

 

I couldn't believe this. Each other time through security, they just looked to see if I was holding a boarding pass.  They certainly didn't look carefully enough to read the flight number.

 

I go into my bag and hand the agent all the boarding passes I had. And there were a lot of them, as I had boarding passes for 5 people and three flights. I asked if any of them matched. Apparently one did, and off I went.

 

I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have the old boarding passes with me. I assume it would have been straightened out eventually.

 

I go through the scanner, and again, the fly of my shorts sets off the alarm. Another pat down.

 

I need to remember never to wear those shorts again on an airplane.

 

I found my family huddled together on the floor, sound asleep. I sat down next to them and started to read/doze/enjoy the random hallucinations.

[lazydayz]

OMG.  This is horrific.  Making me nervous about my flight to London next week.  

 

Hope you and the family are finally at home and getting everything sorted out. 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

At 5am I see a line start to form down by the AA customer service desk. I know that sometimes flights open up in the morning, and that there were two direct flights to Regan, one direct flight to Dulles (which wouldn't be so bad), and a direct flight to Baltimore (which I could live with). So, I go and get on the line.  The ladies in front of the line were told that the desk opens at 5:30. By 5:30, there were at least a dozen groups waiting in line.

 

5:30 comes. No agent.

 

6:00 comes. No agent.

 

All this time, AA employees are passing by us while standing in line, and don't say a word to us. They completely ignore us.  

 

6:15 comes, and a passenger comes up to us and says that the desk in terminal B was open and had been open for quite awhile. And yet it was a fellow passenger who let us know, not any of those AA employees who walked right by us.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I walk across to terminal B, and get on the line.  15 minutes later, I'm speaking to an agent.  

 

Our current flights were Charlotte to Nashville, Nashville to Raleigh (yes, back to NC), and then Raleigh to DC.  This agent (who was very kind and helpful) found 5 seats on a flight from Charlotte to Raleigh. Did we mind skipping a visit to Nashville?  No, we did not mind. Elvis can wait. I think he's dead anyway.  How far is it from Nashville to Memphis anyway?  I guess it doesn't matter now.  

 

We kept the same flight from Raleigh to DC. The agent let us know there were two earlier flights to DC from Raleigh we could make. Though they were full, we could ask once we got to Raleigh and see if there was room for us (though with five of us, she said it would be unlikely).

 

Then she went to print our new boarding passes. But couldn't. There was an issue with the tickets. Apparently, the agent last night that worked with my wife didn't logout of our tickets. Now I knew why I had that issue with the boarding pass getting through security. 

 

I had a feeling of deja vu while the agent called the help desk.  Or maybe Groundhog Day.  

 

There was a difference. This time, the help desk agent skipped the lecture about logging out of tickets. But, this help desk agent took a lot longer to fix it. About twenty minutes this time. Boarding passes are printed. She checks them before handing them to me, and realizes, "Oh, your plane boards in less than 10 minutes, and it's in terminal A, which is a long walk from where we are in terminal B. And, your boarding pass says you need to check in with the gate agent for seat assignment, which you need to do before boarding starts, otherwise, they could give your seats away to stand by"

 

WHAT!!!!

 

Keep in mind, I left my wife and kids in Terminal C. (That sounds like the name of a bad country song.  If I had gone to Nashville, maybe I could have been inspired to write it). As you can guess, Terminal C is not the same direction from me as Terminal A.

 

Oh, and the customer service desk in Terminal B is all the way at the end. Not near the hub.

 

I take what energy I can muster, and run all the way through Terminal B to the hub, across the hub to the entrance to Terminal C. Down to my family, who are still fast asleep. I wake them up, telling them our flight is leaving. That gets them up fast. 

 

We gather everything up, and start to jog back through the terminal.  To the hub. Across the hub.  Passing Terminal B. And to the sign that says, "Terminal A." And underneath that sign, another one that says, "10 minute walk to Terminal A" 

 

We had 4 minutes. The kids weren't going to make it.  I took the boarding passes and ran.

 

Here we had a bit of good luck.  All the moving sidewalks were working. I ran down the moving sidewalks. Got to the start of Terminal A.  I checked our boarding passes, and couldn't believe what I saw. Gate A2. You mean I didn't have to run to the very end of Terminal A also?

 

I considered running to the end of Terminal A and back anyway. Why not at least try to add the straw that broke the camel's back? I didn't, instead I got on the line with the gate agent.

 

I gave the agent my boarding passes, and asked for our seat assignments.  The gate agent asked for our ID. Huh?  She said that in order to issue boarding passes, she needed to see IDs. But, we already had boarding passes, we just needed seat assignments. She said she needed to see them.

 

As you can guess, my wife had all the IDs with her, so I could run.  Well, at least the agent said she wouldn't give our spots away while we waited for them to come.  

 

Actually, they really hustled.  By the time the agent said she needed to see them, my wife came up behind me anyway. She hands the agent the military IDs. We got new boarding passes with seats on them.

 

How many sets of boarding passes have we gotten? Have you lost count yet?  I have.

 

Seconds after we walk away from the desk, they call Group 1 and military for boarding. We go to board the plane, and the very same agent who just looked at our military IDs just a few seconds earlier, said, EXTREMELY nastily, "Boarding Group 1 only." 

 

My wife said, 'And Military," and showed her the very same ID the agent looked at a few seconds earlier.

 

The agent sent us on the plane without saying a thing.  You'd think she's at least say, "Sorry."

 

Taxiing took 35 minutes. The flight to Raleigh took 28.  It's only about 130 miles. If you don't go through Nashville to get there.

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I don't even know what time we arrived in Raleigh.  We got off the plane, and went to Burger Fi for breakfast. They had both breakfast sandwiches and burgers available. I really don't remember whether it was good or not.  

 

We had about 6 hours until our final flight home. We looked at a terminal map to decide where to wait, and found that this airport had a USO!  Yay! 

 

For those that don't know, the USO has lounges in many major airports, where active duty and their families can relax. You need your military ID to get in.

 

It was outside security, unfortunately, so we'd have to leave the USO with time to get back through security. 

 

We go in. It's a very nice USO.  They have free soda, bottles of water, coffee, a variety of teas, ham sandwiches, turkey wraps, cookies, chips, crackers, granola bars, whole fruit, and fruit cups.  

 

They have video game stations. Board games. And VERY COMFORTABLE recliners. I sat down in one and fell instantly asleep.

 

When I woke up, the kids were playing a board game.  I had a snack and a bottle of water. We still had about an hour until we had to get going, so I sat back down in the recliner and read for a bit.  It felt like I was on vacation. Imagine that!

 

Sadly, 2pm came, and we started back towards security. Boarding started at 3, but I didn't know how long the line for security was going to be.

 

There was a long line.  Good thing we left when we did.

 

The TSA agent didn't even look at boarding passes, just IDs.

 

My shorts zipper made the metal detector go off again. Another pat down.

 

15 minutes later we are boarding our plane.  Are we finally going home?  Anything else going to go wrong?

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

The flight arrives in DC without a hitch. We go down to baggage claim. We have no idea what flights (if any) our baggage went on. 

 

The carousel starts. Bags start to come.  Bags get taken. Bags stop coming. The carousel stops. We don't have bags.

[princess76021]

I still insist they install an oh crap button!!

Can't sIt till you're in your house !

Safe rest of travels!!

Hugs from Texas! 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Ok.  Sorry to leave you all on a cliffhanger, but... well I'll tell you in a bit.

 

No luggage. We ask where the AA luggage office is and walk down to it.  The office is surrounded by rows and rows of bags. Like a cruise just disembarked at Regan airport.  

 

Was it just the day before we got off the ship?  Even now, it feels like the journey home was longer than the entire cruise.

 

We were met by a rather abrasive AA employee. She asked for our tags. She said point out the bags that you think are yours, and she'll check them against the tags and give them to us. So we did. It actually didn't take that long to find 9 of them (they were mostly all together).  I have no clue what flight our luggage came in on. I hope our clothes enjoyed their separate vacation.

 

Did I say we found 9 of them?  Didn't we have 10?  Yes, we had 10.  Our nice garment bag was  missing. The one that had our suits and dresses. You know, the more expensive items of clothing. We search all around, can't find it.  The abrasive AA employee says there's no garment bags, it must be lost, go file a claim.

 

I go into the office, and our garment bag is sitting against the desk.  I tell the desk agent that the bag sitting there is ours.  The abrasive lady comes running into the office, grabs a hold of the bag, and says she needs to see the AA tag. But there's no AA tag on it.  She doesn't want to give it to us because there is no AA tag. I pointed out the name tag that we have on it, and she said that she needs to match it with one of the tag receipts. But the tag must have gotten ripped off!

 

Finally the desk agent intervened and said to give us the bag, it has our name on it. The abrasive lady relented, and I picked up the bag... and immediately realized it was broken. The bottom platform is cracked, and the two legs won't stay straight. I pointed this out to the desk agent, and she nodded, as if to say, "so what?"

 

I asked about filing a claim. She said, "OK, I need your luggage tag." But the one on the bag was missing, and the other lady took the receipts and never gave them back!  

 

Luckily, another passenger who was in there pointed out a small sticker they put on the luggage that had the list of flights and an ID number.  The desk agent said that would suffice.

 

She fills out something on the computer, hands me a receipt, and says I need to bring the garment bag back to the office in the next 30 days (so that I can bring it home and empty it first) and they'll either fix it or replace it.  We'll see.

 

We made our return to our car.  We had a terrific spot when we arrived at the airport.  Right by the baggage claim area. For Jet Blue.  It was a bit of a walk from the American baggage claim, the entire length of Terminal 2.  Regan airport is pretty small though, so it wasn't too bad.

 

We loaded our car, drove home (narrowly avoiding 3 accidents, which is the norm for the DC area).  Stopped at McDonalds near our house to get a quick dinner, and finally arrived home. 

 

[lazydayz]

Are you still exhausted?  Hope you all recover quickly from that ordeal.  

[pcvtmom]

Dear heavens!! What a terrible experience! I've come to hate flying, because you're at the mercy of the airlines, and they don't seem to care. I know weather and other issues happen, but there's no excuse for the customer service attitudes. We've had several bad experiences, but NOTHING like yours. Wow...just WOW!

[SenatorsFan]

What a horrible way to end your cruise! I can't believe the troubles you had getting home. Thanks for sharing the whole story with us. 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Kids missed their first day of camp, but were able to go today (though they were a bit tired). In fact, I was picking them up while leaving you with that cliff hanger earlier. My wife didn't have an issue with the emergency leave she had to take.  

 

I'll come back later to post a few pictures.

 

Also, we are taking another cruise in August. I'll give a preview of that cruise as I would like to do a live review of that also.

 

Stay tuned!

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

27 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Are you still exhausted?  Hope you all recover quickly from that ordeal.  

Thanks.  I'm still wiped.  

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

4 minutes ago, SenatorsFan said:

What a horrible way to end your cruise! I can't believe the troubles you had getting home. Thanks for sharing the whole story with us. 

Thanks. I enjoyed doing this and look forward to doing it in August.

 

Honestly, the cruise was so great. I'll take this horrible end in exchange for how great it was until then.  I guess things balance out?

[karriec]

I am so sorry you had such a horrible experience at the end of your cruise.  What a nightmare!   By the way I was so engrossed in your story I almost forgot to start dinner.  Love your writing style.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by karriec

[Haljo1935]

Not that it will in any way make you feel better, be less tired or remember your ordeal any more fondly, but I have never heard of smooth travel through Charlotte  - every flight I've every ecountered that involves Charlotte had delays. Returning from a cruise out of FLL last year, flights were delayed in & out due to thunderstorms. The gate agent handling my ticket exchange said "those people (she sweeps her hand toward the right side of the gate) have been here for 2 days and may not get out for 3 more." She was serious. Common denominator? All went through or had flights coming from Charlotte. 

As I read your saga, I felt like you time traveled and were stuck in the Great SWA Flightmares of 2022.

Happy to hear y'all finally made it home, the kiddos got to camp and hopefully you've had some sleep. I need some after reading all that!

Seriously glad the cruise itself was good and trust the next will be, as well. 

Can't wait for the next chapter - Tales of a Garment Bag...

Edited July 18, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[mkcurran]

1 hour ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Kids missed their first day of camp, but were able to go today (though they were a bit tired). In fact, I was picking them up while leaving you with that cliff hanger earlier. My wife didn't have an issue with the emergency leave she had to take.  

 

I'll come back later to post a few pictures.

 

Also, we are taking another cruise in August. I'll give a preview of that cruise as I would like to do a live review of that also.

 

Stay tuned!

So, you'll be driving to the port for that cruise? 😆😆

[Jamman54]

So sorry that you had so many obstacles in your quest to get home. Very impressed on how you all kept it together while you went through all this! We are blessed to have the extra time to drive to all our cruises, except to the west coast of course.  No worries about luggage weights,  cancellations, and such. We are planning a mega road trip in 2025 that will take us to New Orleans and Galveston. We're getting too old for all that flying stress! 😁

Edited July 18, 2023 by Jamman54