Last Thanksgiving, I was stuck at Midway for 4 hours heading from Chicago to L.A. 4 hours is a long time but at least I made it to L.A.
Yesterday was probably the worst travelling day ever. I had a 6pm flight out to Toronto from O'Hare and I was checking the status of my flight throughout the morning and early afternoon as a thunderstorm passed through the area around noon. I already knew that the afternoon flights would've been delayed so I wanted to make sure that everything was on schedule for the evening flights. For the longest time, there was no new info and around 2pm, all of a sudden, my 6pm flight (operated by Air Canada) was cancelled with no details given!
Frantically, I called the United reps and after an incomprehensible conversation with a "local" United heavily accented Indian woman, I got transferred over to a really helpful lady over at "international". She quickly put me on the 6:15pm United flight and even warned me that there might be delays! I left around 3:15pm to make my way to the airport, hoping that it won't be delayed for too long.
The first screens that I saw at the O'Hare stop on the blue line said that my 6:15pm flight was also cancelled! Thinking that can't be (as the weather was fine at that point), the next screen said it was delayed. Phew!
As I was trying to check in at those self-serve machines, it kept telling me to see a rep. Finally, after that all got settled, the rep told me the flight was delayed until 7:15pm. An hour behind but I thought that was fine given the weather earlier in the day. JJ told me that the website said that the problem was due to "crew"... whatever that means.
The security line was long this time as they relaxed the restrictions and allowed liquids on carry-on if they were less than 3 oz and inspectable in a ziploc bag. One inspector kept yelling that he needed to see the stuff before you approached the actual security stuff and he was definitely power-tripping and made a lot of people upset. He made people throw out their liquids/gels of less than 3 oz IF they didn't have a ziploc bag! Honestly, what difference does the ziploc bag make? Maybe they were afraid of handling explosives if it leaked? I don't know!
I actually ended up having my bag checked (after it got scanned) because I forgot to take out a hand-sanitizer that I bought the other day. This other guy was nice and he looked at it and said "3 oz" (which it was) and let it go (the thing was full!).
Since I had extra time, I wandered into a duty-free shop and was hit by a mix of incredibly pungent perfume/cologne/whatever else and that's when my headache started to hurt. I quickly left and grabbed a salad for "dinner" and sat at one of those tables trying to study. At 5:30pm, I went to check the monitors again and low-and-behold, delay was now until 7:45pm. Fine.
I settle in a corner of one of those gates and tried to study again. It's not very productive or good studying but I still had to try. Racking up my cell phone long distance calls informing my parents that my plane got delayed to 7:45pm, I looked out west and to my dismay, see a whole load of lightning building up. This was the real fat lightning bolts that went confidently from the sky to the ground and the image of the bolt actually remained for a second. It still wasn't raining at the airport yet but this was no wussy storm and I was nervous that it would get here before we took off.
I watched out the window sadly as there was still no plane in sight (apparently coming from New Jersey) and minutes were passing our boarding time. 8pm came around and then, it hit. The thunder roared, the entire terminal lit up from lightning, the rain was sideways, the lights outside got tossed around in the wind, and above all, THERE WAS HAIL! PING-PONG-SIZED HAIL! And then, my flight was delayed until 8:30pm and that plane that was coming from New Jersey was diverted to Grand Rapids and waiting for the weather to clear so it can come here.
On the monitors, all sorts of flights were getting delayed and cancelled and I noticed that there was a 9pm flight scheduled to fly to Toronto that said it was "on time". I called JJ who was watching the various status of planes online who said I should try and get on that if that plane gets here while mine is still stuck in Grand Rapids. So I started lining up behind the counter and when I got to being 3rd in line, they made the announcement that the plane wasn't coming from Grand Rapids and my flight was cancelled. I quickly got on the 9pm flight which, by now, was delayed until 10:30pm. I still had hopes that I could make it out of there as the rain was slowing so I settled back at a different gate and tried to listen to my ipod (my eyes were strained and my head was really throbbing at this point too).
At about 9pm, I get a call from Air Canada informing me that my 6pm flight was cancelled (DUH!) and that I had been rebooked on a 10pm flight. I was completely confused and it was so loud that it was difficult to hear her because the airport was loud but told her that I was already rebooked on a United flight. I got all worried and checked the monitors again. My flight was still "delayed" but this time, until 11:20pm. I let out a heavy sigh and that's when the second round of hail came down and all the works and my hopes for getting to Toronto were dwindling. I wandered around the airport for a little and as it got worse, I returned to stand in line behind the counter but there were at least 20 people in front of me. As I stood waiting, the monitors showed that my flight had went from "delayed" to "cancelled". And that was the last flight that day out of here.
10pm and I'm waiting while the man at the counter (Jerry) patiently and smiling most of the time, gave efficient service to the various travellers going to various destinations. An entire Japanese tour group was stuck and I looked on as their tour guide gave instructions and waved around a stack of boarding passes. People around me were calling hotels for the night and most just wondered whether it was worth it to sleep over at the airport. A guy at another gate let out a loud frustrated yell and threw something against the wall with a loud boom and everyone turned and stared. For the most part, everyone remained calm but a few tempers flared. A girl was connecting through Chicago from Shanghai. Various business people tried to get on the first flight out to make their morning meetings. The guy behind me left Victoria, BC at 9am and was heading to Cincinnati; I told him to drive there as a joke but I think he was taking it seriously.
As I neared the counter, I could hear Jerry explaining to people that the first few morning flights are now standby and so I had to make the decision to ask for a refund and not attend my cousin's wedding. When it was my turn, he checked to see that I could get a refund and we made some jokes and he said that I brightened his day amidst all the chaos! It's times like these when we need great customer service like his and he had already been working since 5:30am! I will never work in the airline industry!
So that's pretty much a total of 7 hours at the airport with 3 flights cancelled and never making it out of O'Hare but the story doesn't end there. As I make my way to baggage claim, they inform me that it'll cost $14 to have my luggage delivered (COD so I have to be home) or wait "at least an hour" for the luggage. That woman was by the book - she was nice enough but no rule-bending of any kind I could tell. Fine. I filled out my form and went outside to check the cab line which I expected it to be huge and it was. Fine. So I went to take the Blue Line. As I was on the Blue Line, I got another call from Air Canada to tell me that they've rebooked me on the first available flight out of O'Hare (something like 10 or 11am?). Uh... I already refunded my ticket.
On the train, these four LOUD women with annoying voices were talking the entire way about O'Hare and trying to get to Midway and how ridiculous it was that they shut down the airport bla bla bla. They seemed pretty ignorant and they were definitely from out-of-town. They made my headache really really bad.
Getting off Belmont, I was worried there would be no cabs at that hour (quarter to midnight) and I was all ready to call for one when an empty one came by. The Indian man was all riled up from his day (his BMW was stuck in a flooded area on Elston and it cost him $150 to get it towed out and then another whatever to get it checked and he was worried bla bla bla). More headache. But anyways, he was not paying attention to where he was going and got on Lake Shore Drive! He had to do a loop all the way down to Fullerton and up Cannon before I got home!
There you have it. Nine hours wasted and I'm still waiting for my luggage!
