Flight delay!
Steven and I are flying from Kansas City to Chicago today. Our plane arrived at the gate, all the peeps got off, then they announced that we have an hour and a half (so far, ha ha) delay because of high winds in Chicago. They know in advance we cannot land when we are supposed to, so they aren’t putting us on the plane.
Fine with me. I have a lot to keep me entertained:
(one of these photos is more entertaining than the other)
Of course, some people seem to be freakin’ the eff out. Sigh.
What is your best flight delay story?
On Steven’s birthday (December 22) in 2007, we had a flight to Kansas City to see his family for the holidays. We got to the airport early, and our flight kept getting more and more delayed (because of snow?). The airport was super crowded, and we did not want to lose our seats… but they were unfortunately next to a garbage can that was full of approximately 3782 dirty diapers. Gross. So we sat all day, for about eight hours, until the flight was finally canceled. We couldn’t get on another flight to get to Kansas City, or get a rental car, so we stayed in Chicagoland for the holidays, by ourselves. We hadn’t planned on having it be the two of us, so we had to go buy gifts to give each other the next day. Ha ha.
That story isn’t even that bad! It was kind of a bummer we could not be with family for the holidays, but it was our first married Christmas together and we ended up enjoying it just being the two of us.
In other news, I finally got to see my sister’s new place in Lenexa, KS this weekend! She moved there in the beginning of May for an internship. It was a lot of fun to see her place and check out the stuff around her home. I particularly enjoyed the T-Rex Cafe (store and restaurant). I found something even better than the Sipper-Saurus to bring back for my fave coworker.
I also really liked having my sister and her fiancé hang out with me and Steven’s family. It feels more acceptable to act as goofy as I would like to with my sister there acting goofy as well. Thanks, snister!
Themocracy
OK, is it totally scary that my “best” (worst?) flight delay story occurred on the EXACT SAME DAY?? And because of the exact same reason? (All I remember them saying is “the weather in Chicago”)
Matt and I were in Vegas for vacation (12/17-12/22/2007) and we had flown Delta thanks to some miles from his mom (otherwise we would have taken Southwest direct). Anyway, for us this automatically means “connection in ATL”.
Well, we get to the airport in Vegas to find out we are delayed. And while we are sitting there, the delay keeps getting longer and longer and longer. Like I said above, we just kept hearing “because of the weather in Chicago” (that’s where our plane was coming from). Well, our generous connection in ATL was dwindling to nothing and I knew it was basically going to take a miracle to make our flight (which was the last one of the night back to Birmingham).
When we landed of course all of the a$$holes in front of us did not listen to the “please let others with connecting flights off first memo” and we started running across the concourses and when we got there our plane was still on the ground…but the doors were closed and they would not let us on. 🙁 I may or may not have audibly used some obscenities at this point which was NOT my finest moment but I was so tired and frustrated. (It was easily after 11:00pm at this point)
We only live 2 hours away by car and we got in the long rental car lines to find that not a single company did 1-way rentals. So then we had to get in the Delta line where they gave us a voucher to some seedy airport hotel (they did not fully pay for the hotel b/c the issue was due to “weather” and technically they did not have to compensate us at all). Our hotel shuttle never came as we were standing in the cold waiting for us and finally another hotel shuttle took pity on us and took us to our hotel which was so gross I just wanted to sleep in my clothes rather than risk exposed skin touching the sheets! LOL At this point it was after 1am and we had to be back at the airport around 5 or 6 to get on standby for our flight.
Luckily we actually got on our flight (being on 12/23 we know this was beyond lucky) and did not have to get our family to drive to ATL to come get us! But it was so weird to be stranded in the middle of the night SO CLOSE to home but yet no way to get there.
OH MY GOSH! First of all, it is crazy that it was the EXACT same day. And your story SUCKS so much more than mine. You poor thing. You must have been pissed all night long… and so happy to finally get home. Ugh. I still don’t know what was going on with the weather that day. After we waited in the airport all day we drove back to our house and it was fine!!!
haha! At least we made it home to our families; it sucks that you didn’t make it at all 🙁
I was all “I’m never flying Delta again…POS a$$holes” which of course is totally not true b/c I’m all about the most convenient flight times and/or cheapest flight. Oh well!
Here’s my (abbreviated) flight delay story: my family was going to Mexico for Christmas (me, sis (who had just found out she was pregnant with Finn), brother-in-law, mom). . . our flight from SF to Dallas that connected to our flight from Dallas to Cancun somehow did not line up and our first flight arrived AFTER our connector! So they re-routed us, upgraded us, and then while sitting on the tarmac at the Dallas airport, we were delayed by over an hour. We arrived too late to connect with our next flight even though all of us RAN through the Mexico City airport trying to catch the flight. IT HAD LEFT FIVE MINUTES EARLY! We ended up, many hours later, being given a room. But it was Christmas Eve and in Mexico City that apparently means shooting off fireworks all night long. Our hotel hallways smelled like sulfur. We woke up super early and got to the airport hours before take off to ensure we got on the flight.
I will say that the 9 days we spent in Tulum almost erased all of that. Hammocks, cards, drinks, beach, swimming, bliss!
I am sensing a connection in all these blunders being around the holidays… bad travel time? 🙂
And since when do flights leave early?!!!!?
Did you blog back then? I would love to see those trip pics! 🙂
Oh man – when I was coming home from Milwaukee (via Stockholm) my flight from Milwaukee to Minneapolis got in to the airport late. I booked it off the plane, figured out I had to get to a different terminal, waited 157 long seconds for the tram to arrive, started crying on the tram, and then booked it to my gate. ONLY to find out that my second flight was delayed in leaving. I was pissed, out of breath and extremely tired. However, it was really great that the second flight was delayed – otherwise I might have missed it.
Once me and my whole team got stuck in Colorado for three days due to a snowstorm! It sucked, especially because we were in college and missing class another three days.
You seem like the most chill airport traveler! I usually want to get home so bad that I can’t stand any delays. Although, the “worst” one was the time I got stuck in Cincinnati (technically Kentucky) overnight when trying to fly home from D.C. The other time was when I purposely missed my flight to Italy because I was waiting for my parents to fly in to Chicago from San Francisco and their plane was delayed.
I hate flight delays. I am a terrible traveler. I was stuck in NJ for what felt like forever last year. Sitting in NJ after a 16 hour flight is not fun. We boarded and exited the plane once after the flight was delayed numerous times already and then boarded again to sit on the runway for over an hour.
Ugh! That is why I didn’t mind the wait so much – because we got to wait in the terminal, not on the plane. Planes make me feel a bit claustrophobic!!! 🙂
It looks like you guys had so much fun. The TRex restaurant is my sons favorite place to go. He could spend hours there!! Im sorry about the delayed flight and I hope the you get home sooner rather than later. Hope to see you soon!
I could spend hours there! I did not want to leave! We looked upstairs too and it is such a cool place! Did not see much for vegetarians on the menu though 🙂
We just got home an hour ago! Yay!
Hope to see you soon too! Stay cool this week! 🙂
It was on our way home from our wedding. We were flying from the Virgin Islands to Nashville with a connection in Charlotte, NC. When we got to Charlotte, the flight was cancelled due to crew shortage. Not delayed. Cancelled. This was on a Saturday night. The quickest they could get us out of there was 8:00 THE NEXT NIGHT, and even then it was flying us to Atlanta to catch another connection to Nashville. Well, in talking with some of the other people standing around, we ended up meeting another couple trying to get to Nashville. The four of us talked to the ticket counter and found out that they had a flight leaving for Knoxville very soon. We got on the flight to Knoxville, rented a car, and drove the three hours to the Nashville airport. It was a pain in the ass, but we got a $500 travel voucher out of it when I called and complained. (This was United, btw.)
Wow! And the next flight was not until the next day?! Ugh! So you all rented a car and drove together? That is cool. Do you still talk to those peeps? 🙂
Just one thing…WHAT could possibly be BETTER the SIPPER-SAURUS!?!
You will see on Wednesday!!! My sister picked them out! They are actually useful! Can you believe it?! Something from me that is… gasp… useful?!??!??!
HA! Love that picture of you and Christina!
It’s funny to read best and flight delay in the same sentence. I guess my “best” flight delay was my last trip from Dallas to NYC. We were on the runway when we had to go back to our gate and deplane. With a 13 mth old, not an easy task but our flight attendant was the best ever! He helped us move out our crap, slipped us some sodas on the sly and kept Luca entertained by playing peek-a-boo! Luca loved him! The flight attendant’s positive attitude really helped to make up for the delay.
I am glad you had such a wonderful weekend in Kansas City but so sorry to hear about the flight delay, those are the worst!
I once was flying out to Vancouver on business late on a Sunday night. The flight itself got delayed about 2 hours, which wasn’t good when it was already such a late scheduled departure. Then when we finally boarded, the plane pushed back and we heard this sickening crunch.
The pilot got onto the loudspeaker and told us that they forgot to disconnect part of the plane from the jetbridge when they pushed back. In short, part of the plane’s nose had gotten ripped off! Seriously, I wish I were joking about this but I am not.
We all had to deplane since this plane was obviously no longer functional. It took another hour and a half before they were able to get us onto a new plane. Then it was the four-hour flight to Vancouver.
We arrived in Vancouver at 5:00 AM LOCAL time. And we were scheduled to be in the local office just a few hours later! I felt like I was in college again and had just pulled an all-nighter! Needless to say, it was a miserable, miserable 36 hours and a horrible way to start the workseek. =(
OH MY GOSH! Your story takes the cake. Wow. They broke the plane. LOL. Can we laugh about it now? 🙂
My friend and her husband just ate at the T-Rex Cafe tonight!
Schweet!