OT American Airline and Ski bag

[monadnocky]

OT from this OT, but every time I get frustrated with flying I'm also simultaneously awed at how things can work out, even during the worst of times. Here's my story from last week:

Wife and I attempted to leave Manchester, NH at 6 am, headed to the DIA via ORD. There was a big, messy, icy storm the day before, so there's still quite a bit of ice on the ground. Tug can't get enough traction to push the little EMB away from the gate, I can tell immediately that it's not going to work because of the bump-bump-bump sensation without moving an inch. 45 minutes go by since they need a bigger tug. No problem, I have a 1.75 hour layover in ORD.

Well, you might have heard that the beginning of last week was a sh*tshow at ORD. I was a little nervous about this, but by Wednesday the worst seemed to be over. Right?

So we're making out merry descent into ORD, no problems, although through some slop. Literally 5 minutes away from wheels down and we're climbing again. Oh sh!t. "blah blah ground hold.... blah blah blah not enough fuel.... blah blah diverting to South Bend."

Oh! South Bend! So pretty this time of year.

Well, in South Bend we get word that another United flight has taken a little unexpected journey off the end of the runway, causing the hold. Word also is that ORD is still such a mess that we might be spending the night in South Bend. fortunately, this doesn't happen and we're off again in a little over an hour, for the short hop to ORD. I figure that with the ground hold there's still a good chance of making the connection to DIA.

Well, we land in ORD and I've never seen such chaos in an airport in my life (and I'm a seasoned user of Newark...) People everywhere, crying, apocalyptic stories of not being able to catch an outgoing flight until March. We did meet a cheerful young woman who had been in the airport for 48 hours. Frustrating thing is, if that tug in Manchester had the proper traction, we would have made it to ORD before the ground hold. Of course we do miss our flight, by about ten minutes. Not good. Lines about six miles long at the customer service desk. Gah. Fortunately, we're club members, so we head into the club to get re-booked. Amazingly, there's no line at the club to do this. We are helped by a simultaneously incredibly intimidating and incredibly helpful woman who manages to get us on standby on a flight that is leaving right now. We're doubtful that we'll get on, since we're sure we're going to be numbers 37 and 38 on the list. Anyway, we run our asses off from the club, through three terminals, to the gate, where amazingly- incredibly, we're numbers one and two on the list, which was about thirty or forty people long. I don't know what kind of magic the woman in the club invoked, but at this point we're not complaining. We do make it on the flight, and arrive in DIA only two hours late.

Two hours late. After a diversion to South Bend, an hour sitting around, and having to navigate a United cluster-F in ORD after one of the worst travel days ever. I'm thinking there's no way our luggage will arrive, and at this point that's fine with me. But we're heading by the carousel anyway, so let's have a look. Pop! out pops our bags. I cannot imagine the logistics involved - or the speed at which our bags must have travelled across an entire freaking airport - to make this happen. Just amazing.

Overall it was not a pleasant travel day, but experiences like this always balance out my frustration and rage at the airlines (much of which is completely justified and completely avoidable if the big carriers even remotely gave a crap) with awe at how some of this stuff can work out. I credit the "working out" part to individuals like the woman who helped us get on that flight or the unseen baggage people who I'm sure must have to deal with a lot of awful corporate garbage and abuse by passengers.

*Oh, and an edit. The captain who flew us into DIA was literally making his last flight as a United pilot, after 25 years service. His last flight. I might mention that it was the smoothest landing I've ever experienced, just beautiful. Must have been so emotional for this guy.

[EricKeller]

That's a nice story. With the little insults supplied by the business types, it's easy to forget all the hard work that's going on.

[Chad]

Always makes me think of that gem.

I travel frequently, normally by personal vehicle, i can bring whatever i need, no fees. Flying makes me feel so powerless, just sit down and shut up sir. Then you see the a-hole travelers the airline employees deal with and I can feel their pain. My personal favorite is the race to stand up as soon as the plane stops moving. That extra 4 feet should help, oh, it's ok, I'm not in a hurry either, you must have much more important things to do here than the other 125 people on the plane. Humans, we're a weird bunch.

My recent flights have been pleasantly uneventful.

[vertical_doug]

i think this one is even more hilarious