After our flight debacle on the way to Michigan, several people kept asking if we had called to complain yet. We always replied that no, we still had a return flight which we felt confident would give AA another chance to mess up. They did not disappoint!
Our early morning flight out of Marquette left on time with no hiccups. We arrived in Chicago on time and sat on the tarmac for nearly an hour before pulling into the gate. As we get off of the plane, we immediately start running for our gate to try to make our connection. We hear the announcer make the final boarding call for our flight. We are still in the wrong terminal. We are running, pushing strollers, and I'm yelling, "Beep beep, coming through, 'scuse me!"
Did we miss our connection?
Of course we did!
The gate is closed, the gate attendant comes back through it and confirms that yes, the plane is pulling away from the gate. We watch it leave. Sigh....
We go over to the re-booking center (a bank of phones) and call for re-booking. I take everyone to the bathroom and by the time I get back, Brian has us re-booked and every single phone, which was previously empty, has a disgruntled passanger attached to it and there are plenty of people waiting.
With the MANY flights between Chicago and Dallas each day, were we able to get a direct flight?
Of course not!
We boarded a plane to Northwest Arkansas to connect to our flight to Dallas.
We arrive in Northwest Arkansas on time, but what do you think we did?
Oh yes, we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes waiting for the gate to clear.
Fortunately this is a very small regional airport and the gates are right next to each other, so we literally got right off of one plane, walked down two gates and got right back on the other plane.
We FINALLY make it home!
Now, the good question... where is our luggage?
Oh, it made our original connection (can I just laugh at how our luggage made the flight that we did not make?. It is at another terminal. They can call and have it transferred here - Great! Oh, just kidding, the person from last shift with the key to the luggage locker took the key home so they are having to find another key.
At this point, we are just laughing... I mean, seriously, it is just comical how many flight issues we have had - it's like the scene out of some comedy movie that you think, "oh come on that would never happen", but it does. :)
We took the shuttle out to our car in remote parking and swing back through the terminal to pick up luggage.
Hallelujah!
PS. The girls were troopers through it all yet again. I could not have asked for better! Thanks girls!
Also, for the record, we have complained to AA and in addition to the automatic award of additional airline miles that everyone on our first flight got, we also got some airline vouchers to use in the next year. We tried to get baggage fees refunded for our flight out, but the finger pointing between AA and Delta seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
Whew!
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