(no subject)
So, normally, I would be on a flight to Paris right now with my bestie. Turns out that life had other plans.
I arrived at the airport bright and early, made my tearful farewells and got through security with no fuss. I was at my gate by 11:10 for my 12:15 flight, which was to start boarding at 11:45.
Around 11:30 I noticed people starting to stand up, and that's generally when I mosey over to the boarding line. Lo and behold, the info screen behind the desk now read "DELAYED- departing at 1:25." As in, an hour and fifteen minutes late. This is without any announcement, mind.
A little while later they actually do make the announcement, helpfully including the location of the rebooking desk. I make sure to talk to one of the people, who straight up tells me that if the plane gets there on-time (which was estimated at 12:55) and it took the normal amount of time to deplane, clean, and board, the plane wouldn't be leaving before 1:45.
My flight to Paris wasn't until 5 (in Dallas) but I was still getting a bit antsy. This antsiness manifested itself by a constant wash of tears, that was as pleasant and un-embarrassing as you might imagine. (WHAT EVEN, SELF.) I eventually call a rebooking agent, since the line at the physical desk wasn't moving, and the woman assured me that if the plane arrived at the predicted time (3:55) I would have over an hour to make my flight.
I go back to the gate and read some more Storm of Swords (MWAHAHA JOFF) when I see our plane arrive. IT IS 12:55! I am now filled with hope that this might actually work out. The info screen now read that we'd be departing at 1:45, as predicted! IT IS ON.
It turned that this was not the case. For some reason I was on a completely packed flight full of people who had obviously never boarded a plane before. It was the longest boarding of my life. But I was in my seat! Things were looking up.
Things were not actually looking up. People continued to board slowly, prompting a flight attendant (sidebar: the flight crew was fantastic. There was one fabulously gay man, and these two really pretty women wearing really tight dresses and one of them had Farrah Fawcett hair and the other hand an amazing bouffant-y updo. It was great) to announce that a lot of people were making connections in Dallas, so everyone should try to hurry.
NO ONE HURRIED.
But it didn't matter, because when the captain turned on the fasten seatbelt sign, it turned out that in the aisle behind me, someone was missing half of their seatbelt. I don't even know how that could possibly happen, but it did, so we had to wait for a replacement.
That happened pretty quickly, and I was like, oh yay! We're going to leave soon! But no. We had to wait for a maintenance guy to come and sign off on the seatbelt thing.
Meanwhile, it is way after 2, and I know that my window of making my flight is getting smaller and smaller. I called my mom, who had been monitoring my flight status on line, and she reported that the estimated time of arrival was now 5:13... thirteen minutes after my flight for Paris took off. So I got up and talked to the Farrah flight attendant and she was like "What seat are you? Okay, take your bags and go up front."
Up front, the desk person I had talked to earlier was waiting (for me? I think?) and he was like, well, if I were you, I'd stay on this flight, spend the night in Dallas, and get on the flight to Paris tomorrow, and I was like :( but I can go home if I stay here. He was initially going to send me to the rebooking desk but then he was like, well, let me see if there's any availablity on our Miami-Paris flight and SURE ENOUGH THERE WAS. There was no way to retrieve my luggage, (which is now in Dallas and will join me, god-willing, in Paris on Wednesday morning,) but I was able to get off the plane and have my flight rebooked and it was very little hassle, which was quite a relief after the stupidly stressful few hours.
The worst part is that I was supposed to meet up with Melissa in Dallas and fly on to Paris together, whichw as one of the major highlights of this vacation! Ten hour flights are awful regardless, but so much less awful with someone. Also, Melissa was going to come back to my place with me and catch some shut eye before we went to get the key to her Paris apartment, and now she's going to have to do that on her own! I feel like a terrible person.
Checked the flight status and sure enough, that flight did land at 5:17, definitely too late to board. So now I get another night and almost entire day home! :D I'd also like to add that for the most part, American Airlines was stellar. I feel like the information was a bit slow to arrive, but the two people I talked to about the situation were both very courteous and tried their best to help me.
I arrived at the airport bright and early, made my tearful farewells and got through security with no fuss. I was at my gate by 11:10 for my 12:15 flight, which was to start boarding at 11:45.
Around 11:30 I noticed people starting to stand up, and that's generally when I mosey over to the boarding line. Lo and behold, the info screen behind the desk now read "DELAYED- departing at 1:25." As in, an hour and fifteen minutes late. This is without any announcement, mind.
A little while later they actually do make the announcement, helpfully including the location of the rebooking desk. I make sure to talk to one of the people, who straight up tells me that if the plane gets there on-time (which was estimated at 12:55) and it took the normal amount of time to deplane, clean, and board, the plane wouldn't be leaving before 1:45.
My flight to Paris wasn't until 5 (in Dallas) but I was still getting a bit antsy. This antsiness manifested itself by a constant wash of tears, that was as pleasant and un-embarrassing as you might imagine. (WHAT EVEN, SELF.) I eventually call a rebooking agent, since the line at the physical desk wasn't moving, and the woman assured me that if the plane arrived at the predicted time (3:55) I would have over an hour to make my flight.
I go back to the gate and read some more Storm of Swords (MWAHAHA JOFF) when I see our plane arrive. IT IS 12:55! I am now filled with hope that this might actually work out. The info screen now read that we'd be departing at 1:45, as predicted! IT IS ON.
It turned that this was not the case. For some reason I was on a completely packed flight full of people who had obviously never boarded a plane before. It was the longest boarding of my life. But I was in my seat! Things were looking up.
Things were not actually looking up. People continued to board slowly, prompting a flight attendant (sidebar: the flight crew was fantastic. There was one fabulously gay man, and these two really pretty women wearing really tight dresses and one of them had Farrah Fawcett hair and the other hand an amazing bouffant-y updo. It was great) to announce that a lot of people were making connections in Dallas, so everyone should try to hurry.
NO ONE HURRIED.
But it didn't matter, because when the captain turned on the fasten seatbelt sign, it turned out that in the aisle behind me, someone was missing half of their seatbelt. I don't even know how that could possibly happen, but it did, so we had to wait for a replacement.
That happened pretty quickly, and I was like, oh yay! We're going to leave soon! But no. We had to wait for a maintenance guy to come and sign off on the seatbelt thing.
Meanwhile, it is way after 2, and I know that my window of making my flight is getting smaller and smaller. I called my mom, who had been monitoring my flight status on line, and she reported that the estimated time of arrival was now 5:13... thirteen minutes after my flight for Paris took off. So I got up and talked to the Farrah flight attendant and she was like "What seat are you? Okay, take your bags and go up front."
Up front, the desk person I had talked to earlier was waiting (for me? I think?) and he was like, well, if I were you, I'd stay on this flight, spend the night in Dallas, and get on the flight to Paris tomorrow, and I was like :( but I can go home if I stay here. He was initially going to send me to the rebooking desk but then he was like, well, let me see if there's any availablity on our Miami-Paris flight and SURE ENOUGH THERE WAS. There was no way to retrieve my luggage, (which is now in Dallas and will join me, god-willing, in Paris on Wednesday morning,) but I was able to get off the plane and have my flight rebooked and it was very little hassle, which was quite a relief after the stupidly stressful few hours.
The worst part is that I was supposed to meet up with Melissa in Dallas and fly on to Paris together, whichw as one of the major highlights of this vacation! Ten hour flights are awful regardless, but so much less awful with someone. Also, Melissa was going to come back to my place with me and catch some shut eye before we went to get the key to her Paris apartment, and now she's going to have to do that on her own! I feel like a terrible person.
Checked the flight status and sure enough, that flight did land at 5:17, definitely too late to board. So now I get another night and almost entire day home! :D I'd also like to add that for the most part, American Airlines was stellar. I feel like the information was a bit slow to arrive, but the two people I talked to about the situation were both very courteous and tried their best to help me.