We went to Cincinnati, OH to attend the ordination of a very good friend of ours as a Rabbi. The events in Ohio involving the ceremony and the parties afterward went off without a hitch and we had a wonderful time. It was the approach and return which are the subject of this story.
We left on Friday from Danbury with two really good friends of ours, Barbara and Albert Uziel, for Laguardia Airport in NY for a direct flight to Dayton. OH. They picked us up in their car early Friday AM and we parked at a offsite lot in Queens and shuttled to the terminal. Ellyn and I checked our luggage with the airline, US Airways, and we all went for a leisurely breakfast in the terminal before heading to the gate.
As we were walking down the concourse, Barbara looked at one of the banks of screens showing the departures and arrivals and exclaimed "It's been canceled!". Um, what? She ran to the gate and then we headed for the service desk, where we could be rebooked on another flight. No explanation of why it was canceled, it just was. (I suspect equipment failure)
As we were waiting, Ellyn and Barbara got on the phone with Travelocity.com and US Airways respectively and tried to get new flights. Ellyn had some problems, but Barbara was able to get them booked on a flight leaving in just 20 minutes to Charlotte, NC and then to Cincinnati. We "piggybacked" on that move and were able to get onto the same flights. Great! But our luggage was ticketed to Dayton. Oops. And we had a rental car reserved in Dayton. Oops. Ok, those can be fixed when we get to Charlotte, since we had to hustle to make the flight.
The rental car was an easy fix. Ellyn's and my luggage had to be picked up by the airline and delivered to us in Cincinnati.
It took some explaining, first by phone and then at the Cincinnati airport before it was set up to be accomplished. However, we were going to services on Friday evening at the synagogue and need some appropriate clothing. Barbara and Albert got a cab from the airport to the hotel while Ellyn and I got into the rental car and went to a nearby mall to shop for clothes. Fortunately, we found a Macy's and they had many things on sale, so we were able to outfit ourselves pretty reasonably and just in the nick of time.Our luggage was delivered to the hotel that evening at midnight. We thought the worst was over. Silly us.
Since we had picked the car up in Cincinnati, we decided to save ourselves an hour drive to Dayton to fly back to NY, and changed our flights to go back through Charlotte. The day started out with a delay in Cincinnati, which turned our 2 hour leisurely stroll in Charlotte into a one hour hustle to get food and get to the gate. That flight also got off a little late but we were on our way. Then the pilot came on the intercom and told us that air traffic had us in a holding pattern near Virginia, probably due to weather in the NY area, although he never confirmed this. After a while he said we had spent too much fuel waiting and had to return to Charlotte. Uh.
When we landed in Charlotte, everyone, including me and Barbara, got on their cell phones and called US Airways for new arrangements. I talked with someone who said he had confirmed us on a later flight to Laguardia, but Barbara said they had told her that all flights for that evening into the NY area airports were all full. When we got inside the terminal, they sprinted off to try to get onto a flight to Newark, NJ on standby. Ellyn and I sauntered off to a US Airways ticket window to get boarding passes for our new flight.
A complication was that the crew of the returning flight told us our bags would be delivered to the carousels in the terminal, since they assumed many of us would be in hotels for the night, so, if we had a flight out that evening, we would have to re-check the bags. But, we needed the boarding passes to get back into the concourse if we went out to get the bags. So we waited patiently until someone was able to get us our passes. After visits to two different agents, we finally found out that the "Einstein" I had talked to on the phone from the plane had booked on the 9:55 PM flight on Monday, instead of Sunday. No wonder there was seats for us.
So know we are resigned to staying over and the earliest flight home would not be until 2:15 on Monday. Barbara and Albert were still trying to get on a flight standby but had also confirmed seats on a flight on Monday. But Barbara mentioned she had seen a flight to Hartford that evening, which would not help them, since their car was at Laguardia airport. We checked that out and decided to take a chance on it, although weather could still be a factor. Also, it was already delayed nearly an hour until 10:40 PM.
Still, there was the baggage problem, although the ticket agent thought the baggage would still be in holding for a flight. I grabbed my boarding pass anyway and headed for the main terminal. Sure enough. the bags were on their umteenth turn around the carousel. I grabbed them and ran upstairs to check them onto the Hartford flight. I had to jump ahead of a line of passengers trying to get onto any flights that night or the next day themselves, so I could get the bags checked and get back through security before it closed (!) at 10:15 PM. I just made that and Ellyn and I were able to get onto the flight and make it to Hartford. We also found out that Barbara and Albert had been able to get onto the NJ flight on standby.
A quick rental car reservation in Hartford was able to get us home by 2:30 AM on Monday (groan). The last we heard from Barbara and Albert was when we had gotten into the rental car, and they were in Newark trying to get a cab or other transportation to Laguardia to get their car.
Ellyn had to drag herself out of bed this morning so we could return the rental car and she could get to work by 9:00 for a meeting. On Thursday, we get to start the whole process over again when we fly to the bay area of California for her Father's 80th birthday celebration. Hopefully the travel plans will go off with somewhat less of a hitch this time. Keep your fingers crossed.
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