Why am I still posting to the blog? Our trip ended a few days ago. We posted our comparisons of the different cultures we've been exposed to. The end, right?
Don't I wish. As I write this, we still haven't made it home. American Airlines should be looking forward to lots of friendly emails to their customer service department, as we will be arriving, optimistically, 44 hours after our scheduled time. Although, as I sit in our Chicago hotel watching snow fall, I'm not letting myself get too helpful.
Original plan, for your reference, was leaving El Salvador at 2pm Saturday, stopping in Miami, and arriving in Detroit just before midnight Saturday night.
So, the plane to take us from San Salvador to Miami apparently had some engine problems, and it took them about three hours to get a replacement. By the time we made it to the USA, we were too late to catch our Miami to Detroit connection. Night in Miami.
The next available MI flight was via Dallas (logical, right?) the next day. Checking in for our Dallas flight, we were told that two of us hadn't been rebooked successfully, but thankfully we had arrived two hours and fifteen minutes early, which ended up being just enough time for them to get it sorted out, and to get us on the plane.
We were told we had to get our seat assignments there for our Detroit flight. They didn't tell us, though, that when we got there, we would have to deal with the fact they were overbooked by 18 people. We didn't have seats. The supervisor said he'd "try really hard to get us on the plane," though. That made us feel a lot better.
We were given the option of giving up our non-existent seats for a $300 voucher, and we would get guaranteed seats on flights to Chicago and then Detroit, arriving at midnight Sunday night. There were only a few seats left, though, and if we didn't take that option immediately, there were other people in line who were asking about it at the same time as us, and if they took it, the next available flight wouldn't arrive until Monday afternoon. Since we didn't have seats on our flight, we decided to go for the guaranteed seats via Chicago.
Since I'm in Chicago now, you've probably figured out things didn't go according to plan. But here's the scoop. Our flight to Chicago was a bit late, and they had closed one of the runways there due to fog, but we made it to the gate about 10 minutes late. Not too bad.
We went to the gate for the Detroit flight and they told us we'd board in 15 minutes. But then they announced boarding for Flint, MI. It turns out, there was a flight to Flint before ours leaving out of the same gate. No problem, they promised. It'd be a quick turnover, and we'd made it out, arriving at about 12:30am instead of 12am, and they were sorry for the inconvenience.
Flint passengers boarded. But the plane sat there. And sat there. And sat there. For two hours, they waited to get de-iced (oh how I felt for those passengers on board!). We sat at the gate, waiting for them to leave. We were finally told that our plane was on the ground, waiting to take us, but it didn't have a gate to pull it. It was next in line, though. Finally, it got assigned to a gate, and we were able to board, now about 3 hours late, getting on board about 11:30, Central Time, 12:30am Eastern Time.
I'll finish this saga later with a dramatic end later, but it's time to catch an airport shuttle!
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