Graciously driven by our friend, Sandi, Karl, KJ and I were dropped off around 1:00pm at the Dayton Airport on Tuesday, June 10th for a 3:50pm flight to Philadelphia on US Airways. (I now hate US Airways so that gives you an idea of where this is headed...)
So we got to the gate in record time - the Dayton Airport is small and easy to navigate. Something seemed fishy when as we approached the check-in counter there were two US Airways employees standing behind the desk with concerned looks on their faces. There was also no plane in the dock - that didn't seem too troublesome since our flight wasn't to leave for at least two more hours. There was no sign stating "Philadelphia" so I inquired with the dynamic duo. "Where are you going?"... uh, "Philadelphia"... lot's of typing. "No, where are you connecting to?" "Zurich, leaving Philly at 6:20"... lot's of typing and mumbling. Then something along the lines of "you might not make that... there's a weather problem."
Let me back track. We were meeting a colleague, Brian, from CCM at the Philly Airport with whom we were to travel to Zurich and then to a quaint little town called Brunnen for a wee Swiss vacation before arriving to work in Lucca, Italy.
So I called Brian - they say that Philly has weather and we may be leaving late. To which he replies that they have crystal clear skies. So we go get a bite to eat.
As the time gets nearer to 3:50 and the gate starts to fill with expectant passengers and finally they start to board us (wheelchairs and, the only thing I do like about US Airways, familes with children). The first wheelchair passenger gets about 1/2 way down the gangway when the captains calls off the load because "they've shut down the Philly Airport". Back we all go to the waiting area. I call Brian with an update.... "hmmm, still crystal skies here." We start to do the math, as long as we leave by about 4:30 we think we can make the connection in Philly.
About 4:20 they start to board us again. Woo hoo... we make it onto the plane this time - I text-message Brian that we're on our way. After sitting for a while the pilot says that we're going to be holding as they've again shut down the Philly Airport because of severe weather... and they're going to power down the plane to conserve gas. So it starts to get a little warm.
Then the pilot comes on and says that we're going back to the gate and unloading because it is going to be a while and they can't legally hold us there (hadn't heard that one before but am happy that we don't have to sit on a runway for hours on end - that story belongs to one of my students). So we disembark back to the lovely Dayton Airport.
We've reached the no-return point of catching our connection. I call Brian while Karl tries to haggle with the folks at the desk about rebooking our connection (along with the other hundred passengers on our flight). REMEMBER THAT WE ARE DOING ALL OF THIS WITH A TWO YEAR OLD.
Oh, and I didn't mention that we had booked the Zurich hotel so Brian would now be stranded in Switzerland without hotel or even directions on how to get to Brunnen. So Karl called the hotel and spoke with them about missing our flight and that Brian would be coming on his own. And I called Brian to let him know how to get to the hotel.
We got re-booked on a 10:00pm flight out of Philly to London and then from London to Zurich. Still a little Swiss vacation left... or so we thought.
After a few more hours at the Dayton Airport we are finally boarded again and get set to take off around 8:00pm. We taxi to the runway and stop. The flight attendant comes on and says that we've been delayed again and asks if there are any passengers who would like to get off the plane. Of course some do. So we go back to the gate AGAIN, drop off the two passengers who want to stay in Dayton; we decided it would be better for us to get to Philly (thinking that if we were in philly we'd be better off getting a connecting flight should we miss our plane again - and we were getting sick of the Dayton airport, and we were pretty much stuck since we were dropped off from the get go.)
We finally leave Dayton around 10:00pm believing that we've missed our London connection. But hey, we're headed to Philly surely there are more flights out of Philly to Europe than Dayton, right? Right! No.
Sometime after midnight we finally landed in Philly. Exhausted (remember the two year old) and weary for being in an airport or plane for nearly 12 hours and no closer to Europe than Philadelphia. We drag ourselves off the plane being told that a customer service rep would be waiting to help rebook our flights (and by our I mean the entire plane's flights - the ladies in front fo us booked a cab to New York from Philly - that's how desparate it got.)
So we waited for our customer service rep - who was not waiting but ended up being a poor baggage carrier who spoke little English. So while the two people in line ahead of us (BTW - if someone is waiting in line with a two year old and it is midnight -let them in front of you) I heard an announcement, "Final boarding call for Heathrow, London". DING - I shout "That's us, that's our flight." They're calling for us. I pretty much budge in front of the dude in front of us and ask the "customer sercie rep" to call them and tell them we're here, we're on our way. He says, "I can't do that." I just about strangled him to the ground. Okay, how do we get to Gate A? He says, "take the shuttle". At this point I'm about to cry. "Final boarding call for Flight blah, blah, blah to Heathrow (subtext - get your butts down here Michele and family we're leaving)". So we start hauling to get to the shuttle.
Alas, the doors are locked and we can't get out of our terminal to get to Terminal A (we apparently landed in F or G or Z). And the squeegy man cleaning the windows says, "the shuttle shut down at midnight." Perplexed... we ask how to get to terminal A... he shrugs. A limo driver points - "it's that way". So we go. Still hopeful that they're waiting for us...
We stopped hearing "Final boarding calls" around Terminal B and a half - they'd given up on us. At Terminal C we finally give up hope and look for an agent to help rebook us. Cricket, cricket, cricket. There is not a US Airways employee to be seen.
But wait, there is a man talking to a woman and she's behind a counter. She will be our saviour. It is something like 1:30am now. She's off duty and should have left over an hour ago she tells us. I'm not letting her out of the Airport until she helps us. She sees this in my eyes (or in the eyes of the two year old) and takes pity on us. She tries to rebook us but our reservation at this point is so messed up she can't do anything and there are no remaining flights to Europe at this point anyway. Okay, can US Airways put us up for the night? She tells us that all the vouchers are gone. Now I'm going to cry.
We go to the hotel board with no ticket and little hope. I start making calls, all twenty hotel airports are booked (we were clearly not the only people traveling that night). At the prospect of sleeping in the airport I asked one of the hotels what the next closest hotel would be. They sent us downtown Philly. We borrowed a car seat from baggage claim (yes you can do this!) and took a $30 cab downtown.
