Travel Tuesday
Tuesday was travel day to Hawaii. It got off to an interesting start and just got more interesting from there. First, we were almost sideswiped on the highway going to the airport. Some guy with Manitoba plates moved across all three lanes at once and didn't notice that I was in lane 2 right next to him.
And the instant we got through security, our plane showed on the board as delayed by 40 minutes.
So we got food from the pub at the Edmonton international terminal (3 burgers, fries and chicken fingers - $54). And then we just waited. And prayed that we would make the connection.
Then our plane out was delayed until 3:30, arriving at San Fran at 5:30, which was a problem as our plane to Kona was to depart at 5:15. (Frustrating? Sure. But we got robbed on our first day in Hawaii in 2007, so it's all relative.) And we prayed some more. I sent a note on Twitter to United asking them to hold our connecting flight.
Of course, it can always we worse. We could have had this flight:
The pilot told us that they'd try to get us to San Fran in two-and-a-half hours, which would have given us about 15 minutes to make the connection.
The in-flight entertainment consisted of an anal retentive flight attendant who scolded passengers (over the PA system, no less) who lined up to go to the bathroom. Apparently that's not allowed on international flights. So, instead, we had to all look to see if the bathroom was free and run to it before someone else could. Utterly bizarre.
We touched down in SanFran at 5:20. We were told our connecting flight was at gate 80. We sprinted to gate 80 like we were on the Amazing Race to find it empty.
Crestfallen, we walked over to United customer service next door. We told them we just missed our flight. "Which flight?" she asks. "Kona." "That's at gate 82. It's delayed."
Hallelujah! We got our miracle! Praise God!
You've never seen four people happier to have another delayed flight.
Our flight was on a mechanical delay. After talking with the gate agent we knew we had at least 30 minutes until they set a departure time so we went to go eat.
Of course, at 6:45, the plane was still broken and we were still waiting.
At 7, we broke down and ordered more food.
United gave us period updates on our delay. Those consisted of someone announcing, "The plane is broken. They are working on it. We'll have another announcement in 30 minutes." Lather, rinse, repeat.
It was at this point we realized that we'd spent nearly 8 hours today waiting for late planes and only 2.5 hours actually on one ... and that we still had 5.5 hours of flying to go. At some point.
At 7:30 we were told (wait for it) that the plane was still not fixed. However! If it wasn't fixed by 9, they'd put us on the inbound flight from Hawaii and go back. Or something. But there's hope.
And the instant we got through security, our plane showed on the board as delayed by 40 minutes.
So we got food from the pub at the Edmonton international terminal (3 burgers, fries and chicken fingers - $54). And then we just waited. And prayed that we would make the connection.
Then our plane out was delayed until 3:30, arriving at San Fran at 5:30, which was a problem as our plane to Kona was to depart at 5:15. (Frustrating? Sure. But we got robbed on our first day in Hawaii in 2007, so it's all relative.) And we prayed some more. I sent a note on Twitter to United asking them to hold our connecting flight.
Of course, it can always we worse. We could have had this flight:
The pilot told us that they'd try to get us to San Fran in two-and-a-half hours, which would have given us about 15 minutes to make the connection.
The in-flight entertainment consisted of an anal retentive flight attendant who scolded passengers (over the PA system, no less) who lined up to go to the bathroom. Apparently that's not allowed on international flights. So, instead, we had to all look to see if the bathroom was free and run to it before someone else could. Utterly bizarre.
We touched down in SanFran at 5:20. We were told our connecting flight was at gate 80. We sprinted to gate 80 like we were on the Amazing Race to find it empty.
Crestfallen, we walked over to United customer service next door. We told them we just missed our flight. "Which flight?" she asks. "Kona." "That's at gate 82. It's delayed."
Hallelujah! We got our miracle! Praise God!
You've never seen four people happier to have another delayed flight.
Our flight was on a mechanical delay. After talking with the gate agent we knew we had at least 30 minutes until they set a departure time so we went to go eat.
Of course, at 6:45, the plane was still broken and we were still waiting.
At 7, we broke down and ordered more food.
United gave us period updates on our delay. Those consisted of someone announcing, "The plane is broken. They are working on it. We'll have another announcement in 30 minutes." Lather, rinse, repeat.
It was at this point we realized that we'd spent nearly 8 hours today waiting for late planes and only 2.5 hours actually on one ... and that we still had 5.5 hours of flying to go. At some point.
At 7:30 we were told (wait for it) that the plane was still not fixed. However! If it wasn't fixed by 9, they'd put us on the inbound flight from Hawaii and go back. Or something. But there's hope.
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