Travel Nightmare!

Going on vacation is a sign that things are going to be calm, relaxing and fun. The start of a vacation can be stressful, however. Travel days are the most stressful because you have no control over the mode of transportation you are taking to your vacation unless you are driving there. We chose to fly since we vacation in Vermont. Our flight wasn't until 10:15 am so we had a little more time to sleep over having a 6:00am flight. I receive an email notification from United Airlines that our flight was on time for take off. So off to the airport we go with enoughntime to spare to get thru security.

As we are now seated in the little restaurant in the airport in front of the tv to watch the world cup, I received another email notification stating our flight from Chicago to Vermont will be delayed 2 hours. No biggie. But then I receive yet another notification stating our current flight will be delayed for an hour, still no biggie. The notifications keep coming. Now this service is a great service, but in a span of six hours, I received seven email notifications regarding either my current morning flight or my connecting flight.

We did board our first flight but once all the passengers were on the plane, the captain announces that in Chicago, there is a no wheels up status which means no planes can take off, which is where we are headed to. He kindly informed us that he would try as hard as he could to get a time table for this situation so we would know to stay on the plane or if longer, we maybe able to deplane for a bit. Half an hour later, the captain announces we can deplane if we'd like to, but to be back by 12:15pm(it is now 11:45). We decide to stay on the plane, others deplane. As we get closer to 12:15, people start coming back on. 12:15 rolls around and an announcement is made that we are now waiting for three passengers and if they don't make it back in a certain period of time, we can lose our spot for take off and be delayed further. The three passengers finally board at 12:40. Lucky for all of us, we were cleared for take off.

So we landed in Chicago just fine after suffering thru a family of three sitting behind us that truly did. Ot know the meaning of using inside voices. The entire flight was the parents describing to their son, who was probably 10 or 11 years old very detail about take off and landing and laughing out really loud during the video show of The Office. It was quite irritating the syrupy way they spoke to their son and deliberately had to say his name after every sentence. We were glad the flight was only an hour!

Since our connecting flight was delayed, we had plenty of time to grab a nice lunch with the kids. As we were eating, I received an email notification stating I needed to rebook our flight since this flight was now cancelled. I called United immediately to rebook, my hubby called for hotel rooms in Chicago and a rental car just in case. Myself and three kids were booked with paid fares so when I talked to the United agent, I booked this set first for the flight out tomorrow. I then told her I needed to book my hubby on this same flight but he was using my reward miles. I told the agent(she was in The call center in India)so was really hard to understand her, but I got thru it, I told her to please send the confirmation of his flight to the same email as the four I just booked. When I got off the phone, I immediately received the flight confirmation for my hubby's flight. I waited for the other confirmation email for the four other flights. I never got it. So I called U tied again, told this agent I had just talked to someone a bit ago and booked flights out for tomorrow, but that she had failed to book four passengers and that I needed these booked. No more flights were available for all four passengers, she could split us up. Not an option since they were minors!

We decided we would drive to Vermont then, we already had a car booked from earlier. So my hubby cancelled the hotel for Chicago and I had to cancel his rebooked flight out. When I told the agent to cancel his flight, I stated to please make sure that the four passengers did not have any flights out for June 13th. She said ok, it's done. As we were on the shuttle to the rental car, my hubby and I started talking about the problems with understanding the agents from India because of their thick accents. Then for some reason, it hit us that the last agent I spoke with may have completely cancelled the entire flight itinerary of the four passengers. I called United again and sure enough, the previous agent had cancelled the entire trip for the four people, now we had no tickets to get home on the 20th! We arrived at the rental car place and the line was out the door full of people waiting. Just our luck. With. Othing else to do, I teed calling United again to ask for help regarding our return flights home for the 20th. The agent could book our flights but the tickets cost over $1,000 each!! I had told her it was the previos agent that had cancelled the tickets in the first place so we shouldn't have to pay that amount, just rebook us back onto that flight! She wouldn't do it.

As my hubby was busy trying to get help with the rental car, (and the Presidentail level was closed so he didn't get the immediate attention that comes with that level)I told him about the price of each ticket and so on. We finally got help with the rental car since my hubby had been on the phone with them demanding he gets the immediate attention that the President level is to receive. We get the car and we Re now on our way to Vermont, from Chicago-yeah....but now we had to figure out our tickets home situation so I called United again to try and speak to the agents' supervisor. The agent was not going to help me one bit so I kept asking to speak to her supervisor. A supervisor came on the line, I told her the situation and she still would not reinstate our tickets. That is when my hubby said he would like to talk to her since he knows how call centers works. Let's just say it was not pretty. The supervisor would not help us and did not take responsibility for the mistake the agent had made.

Things are not looking good for us. I am panicked thinking we are going to drive all the way to Vermont and not have a way home. I refused to pay over a $1,000 a ticket, three hours into the drive, we decide to stop for the night and find a hotel. Got two rooms and then had to make a run to the store for the bare necessities we would need since my luggage and my hubby's luggage was checked in. And by the way, you cannot get your luggage where the flight has been cancelled even if the luggage is there, you can only get it at it's final destination. Nothing like going to Walmart for underwear, toothpaste, tooth brush and a spare set of clothes to sleep in. And MacDonald's was right by Walmart so that was dinner. Back to the hotel. The kids went to their rooms and we still had to figure this mess out. We had to decide if we would be driving back to Omaha or Vermont in the morning.

We tried every resource we could think of to help us with this mess. No flights home tho. Both of us were on our computers looking at flights but they were all over $900 or more for just one way. I had made up my mind, we would be driving home, that was only eight hours, Vermont was 16 hours. BUT my hubby was determined to have his vacation and he kept searching for flights, he found some, now we just needed to see if there was room for five people. Flights home now booked. We would be driving onto Vermont. Thank goodness we had a nice car and plenty of room. We also decided to stop at the good ole Cracker Barrel and get a good lunch and also a book on tape to make the time pass by faster.

I will spare you the details of the 16 hour drive but as we were getting closer to the border of Vermont, we saw a sign reading, "Bridge to Vermont Closed"....what the heck? We drove all this way and now we can't even get into Vermont?? Then there were signs that read "24 hour ferry". What? We have to go on a ferry with our car? We were all antsy already and tired so we held our breath as we approached the ferry, sure enough, there was the ferry and cars waiting to get on. Wow! We all were just giddy over this as we had never experienced this before in our lives, living in Nebraska, how would we? We were taking pictures left and right, looked like lightening storm in our car with all the flashes. Well, we did make it to our destination after 17 hours of driving.

I can say I slept like a rock, was able to finally laugh about the whole mess and had a good first day of vacation. That's what it's all about. Memories.