If You Hate Air Travel, Please Press 1 Now...Part 2
Well, that was short lived. I'm just too tired to waste a lot of energy on the joke that is US Air. I'd rather spend that energy on talking about how great the trip was. However, the tale is so unbelievable - even for US Air who is typical for this, that I need to run through the short version. I just don’t have the momentum to go through the long-drawn out, often comical, more often ridiculous process it took for us to get home....at least not in narrative form. So, I summarized - using extremely poor sentence structure. Once it's out of my system, I can get on to the more exciting part of just awesome Antigua is.Recall that my comanion's alias is Kiki.
Plan A
Friday February 24th.
- 10:20 am flight, aboard Caribbean Sun (via US Air) to San Juan, arriving at 12:25pm
- Immigration and Customs
- 1:45pm flight, aboard US Air, to Philly, arriving 4:58pm.
- Meet driver
- Get bags
- Go home
- Enjoy a nice relaxing Friday night.
Plan B
- Agree, upon the suggestion of Caribbean Sun rep, to take later flight at 10:40am to San Juan, arriving earlier at 12:05pm.
- Wait around until flight is combined with another flight, making a stop in Tortola.
- Leave an hour late, still scheduled to arrive by 1:00m.
- Arrive at 1:45pm in San Juan
- Walk REALLY fast to Immigration and fly through non existing line (things are looking up)
Wait for bags…
Wait for bags….
Wait for bags…. rut roh...
- Start to see a pattern emerging and ask remaining passengers if they were also on flight that was combined. Hey, they were! Shocked.
- Go through rig-a-ma-roll with baggage woman about bags.
- Go through Customs without bags (except for carry-ons - we got to carry them around ALLLL DAY!)
- Walk 3.4 miles to US Air counter on the other side of the country terminal.
- See other passengers who also missed connection. Quicky reunion. Wait for ticket lady who went to check on new flights for all of us.
- Give ticket lady our tickets. Wait some more.
- Listen to ticket lady tell us we might be staying in San Juan overnight, without luggage, because US Air can’t get us home …..spout off at her a little bit….listen to ticket lady say she’ll check Delta.
- Wait some more.
- Wait some more.
- Listen to ticket lady say she got us on Delta and she’ll be right back.
- Wait some more.
- Ticket lady returns with new tickets.
- Listen to ticket lady – who did baggage in another life – tell us our bags will be in Philly.
- Optimistically believe ticket/baggage lady.
- Check-in, with Delta, without luggage, for new flight.
- Call car service….change pick-up time and place.
- 4:00pm flight, aboard Delta, arriving in….ATLANTA!!!….at 7:00pm. Our seats are, literally, 30 rows apart.
- Arrive in Atlanta.
- Find Budweiser Brew house near gate and make a beeline for the bar.
- Find seats….Kiki goes to smoke….I order a drink….wait for Kiki to return.
- Kiki returns.
- Order food. And another drink.
- Ton of bricks flies through air and hits me…..I look at Kiki….”I wonder if our bags will be at the US Air or Delta terminal.” I say.
- Blank stares all around.
- Put my head down in my arms….shed a few tears of frustration for release.
- Ask Kiki to please start making calls to Caribbean Air / US Air….write down exactly what I want to know from them….while I go to the restroom. Poor Kiki.
- Back to table….little progress on bags. Caribbean Air told her to call someone else in Antigua.
- Eat food. Try to start making calls and am told to stop it and eat. I do.
- Take over phone duties…..get absolutely no where.
- Drink more.
- Return McG's phone call...we both chat with her for a bit.
- Drink more. And what the hell....one more after that.
- Leave and buy a magazine.
- 10:00pm flight (that’s right, a 3 hour layover in Hot ‘Lanta), leaving Atlanta on Delta, arriving in Philly at 1:00am.
- Actually manage to sit together on this one.
- Can finally get some sleep after I find out what is going on between Jessica and Nick.
- Arrive in Philly at some God awful time….I no longer have the skills to tell time.
- Meet driver.
- Optimistically go downstairs for bags while telling driver what happened.
- Driver convinces me to go straight to the Delta bag counter….bags will NOT be there, he assures me.
- File claim with Delta.
- Ask Claim Lady THREE SEPARATE TIMES – “If our bags arrive at US Air, will you know it and get them?”
- Receive THREE SEPARATE ANSWERS of “Yes.”
- Optimistically believe Claim Lady.
- Informed that bags should be delivered around 11:00 in the morning.
- Threaten Claim Lady not to knock on my door before noon.
- Take longing look at baggage carousel and follow driver to car.
- Sit in zombie state for most of the ride home. Kiki sleeps.
- Get home, pet cat who was brought home that morning, take showers, go to bed.
It’s a brand new day!!!!
It’s 1:00pm!!!
We’re awake and happy to be home!!!!
No bags have been delivered.
- 2:00 - Reluctantly accept that I must start making calls.
- Caribbean Sun first. They don’t have the bags. They’re positive. Absolutely sure. They don’t have them. They're holding no bags. They were sent to San Juan.
- Check Delta claim….no progress, says the sweet Georgia Peach woman on the recording…as though just the friendliness of her tone is supposed to make me feel better about this, ya'all. - Call US Air - Michael can't check where the bags are but he really wants to help and will try his best. He'll call me back (I never hear from Michael again. Maybe he'll send a Christmas card.)
- 3:00ish – US Air calls and leaves message…. “We have your bags at Terminal C. What would you like us to do with them? Do you have a claim? Call me back at blah blah blah….”
- Call US Air schmuck back….phone rings for 13 minutes and 43 seconds…..no answer, no voicemail, no nothing, NO KIDDING.
- Call US Air…..finally, a person!
- Following is summary of conversation: You have our bags. Please send them to us. No, we don’t have a claim with you because you couldn’t get us home and we had to fly Delta. We have a claim with Delta. Oh, we have to file a claim? Let’s do that. IN PERSON?!! Are you kidding me? (He’s not.) Can anyone else there help me? (No, they can’t.)
- Hang up and curse airline industry for a good solid 8 minutes.
- Call Delta back…cannot reach human being.
- Curse some more.
- Call US Air AGAIN…."Please have someone pick up our bags and take them two terminals away and give them to Delta." He will forward a note to baggage telling them to forward our bags to Delta and to call us.
- 5:00 – no word from anyone.
- Kiki and I look at each other with the same thought. The bags are in Terminal C. Let’s just go get them before they send them back to Antigua.
- 6:00 – leave for airport
- 6:30 – find bags cowering by themselves next to corral of other bags. Comfort them for a few moments and assure them we are there to perform a rescue. They're safe now.
- The pictured tag is attached.
Good thing they were rushing!
- Confer with helpful baggage lady who is wandering around, show her I.D., inform her that we’re taking the bags.
- Leave airport with baggage. Vow never to travel US Air again unless forced. Rant and rave about the letter I will write to them.
- Have a nice dinner with Kiki.
Monday....start therapy for anger management.
