Sunday, February 28, 2010

To sleep: perchance to dream...

I'm home, home at last!
I stayed up until 1:30 am the night before we caught our 8:20 flight on Thursday.  Ben does this thing where we sits in the suitcase and pulls all the clothes out while I'm trying to fill it.  You know, because he's a baby, and it's fun.  So I have to pack when he's not around.  I was very very tired the next day, and Ben was, too. 
Our first flight went off without a hitch.  And I'll just say now that I am so very grateful to TSA for allowing families with strollers to cut in line.  We wouldn't have made it to our flight on time otherwise.  I was traveling with my sister in law, Velvet, and her two little ones.  She also stayed up until 1:30 am the night before to pack.  Nonetheless, we were a cheerful group.  We were headed home!  We had a two and a half hour layover in Dallas.  We were dreading it, but it went by surprisingly fast with the help of the most awesome airport play area ever!  On our way to catch our 12:25, we heard that our gate had changed, and we needed to get to a completely different concourse.  DFW is pretty huge, yo.  We made it at 12:08.  Hooray!  But wait, they weren't yet boarding, and the man and woman at the counter ignored us when we went to get tags for our strollers. 
We thought maybe it was delayed, so we just sat and waited.  Fast forward 15 minutes, and I see two lines of people at the counter.  Hooray!  We must be boarding!  I go over to the counter, and see that the flight information on the board has changed.  El Paso?  Huh?  "What happened to the SLC flight?" I asked.  Gone.  It left already.  Wh-wh-what?  We've been sitting here waiting for boarding to start!  Apparently they boarded everybody that was there at precisely 11:55, and shut the doors.  The lines of people at the counter consist of angry travelers who were supposed to be on that flight, just like us. 
We spent the next several hours trying to get answers or a least a freaking meal voucher (for now, we had to wait for a 9:20 pm flight- MUCH to our chagrin) to no avail.  I was told that we simply didn't hear the final boarding call- when we were sitting a merely twenty feet away, in view of the counter at the gate.  We had come in on a connecting flight, so their staff knew we were in the airport.  Why weren't our names called?  I've submitted a complaint to American Airlines, and I hope to receive a favorable reply. 
What we went through that day was outrageous.  A complete and utter lack of customer service.  I will never fly with them again.  We spent twelve hours in an airport with three small children through no fault of our own and without any compassion from the airline for our situation.  Luckily, our kids did really well.
The next day I caught a flight back home to Idaho.  I'm so happy to be home.  I've missed my husband, and I've missed my house.  Oh, I have missed my bed so much.  

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you decided to come back home instead of staying in Georgia.

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  2. I'm glad that you decided to come back to Idaho. I thought you were going to stay in Georgia forever.

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