There's nothing like a stressful beginning to a trip to make you enjoy that trip even more. Ian was in Chicago up until 2 days before we were supposed to leave for Berlin. He was returning on Friday night, and we were to leave on Sunday afternoon for Europe. Because we were trying to be frugal, we booked him on a flight that would give him a layover in Charlotte, NC. Not the most logical thing in the world, but hey, what can you say to cheap tickets??? (I suggest you say, "No!")
Anyways, he called me from Chicago to say that his flight was going to leave late and that he wasn't sure if he'd make his connection in Charlotte. I left for Louisville (where he was flying to), but 10 minutes into my drive, he called to say that they had just landed in Charlotte and it didn't look like he would make his connection. His plane was waiting for a gate, and he only had 10 minutes till the next one took off. It turns out that he got to his gate, and the plane was still there, but they wouldn't let any of the people from his plane onto it!
He had to stand in line for about an hour to figure out what to do next since they had booked him on the next available flight...on Monday morning! It turns out that his flight from Charlotte was the only one ontime from that airport because of some storms earlier. So now many people were trying to get out of Charlotte. When Ian got to a service agent, he told them that he had to get home that night because he was leaving the next day for Europe. (A little white lie, but we had to do his laundry on Saturday!) The best they could do was fly him to Knoxville, TN (3 hours from us). He jumped at it, and I started driving right away to get to Knoxville. It was about 10pm when I started that drive.
All throughout the drive, Ian would call me to let me know that their plane was delayed yet again. I didn't know until I had already arrived at Knoxville's airport that his plane had taken off at 1:00am! Luckily, my mom is in a different time zone, so I talked to her during the hour wait to keep me awake. He finally landed at 2:00am, but his luggage didn't come with him. After filing the report and stressing to them how important it was that we got the luggage the next day because we had to do the laundry for our Europe trip (otherwise, little Ian would have to go naked around Germany...a pasttime that is approved at beach resorts only!). We finally started driving home about 2:30 and got home safe and sound at 5:00am. Needless to say, we were exhausted, but hopeful the luggage would be on our doorstep when we woke up.
Wrong. Ian got up and called the automated number they gave us, and it said that the luggage couldn't be found. He tried talking to a real person, but the guy just kept rerouting his call to the same number. When Ian asked to speak to the man's supervisor, the guy refused, giving the excuse that all of the supervisors were in a meeting together at the moment. Finally, I decided to call the baggage claims at both Knoxville and Louisville to see if they happened to have it there. No answer at Knoxville. And no phone number for Louisville. I called a rental car agency at the airport (because conveniently, although there was no useful number listed for the airport itself, there were numbers galore for rental agencies). The woman there gave me the extension to the baggage claim. When I told the woman that I was looking for Ian's luggage, she said, "It's right here...we have it." So why didn't you scan it into the computer or send it to us already???!!! I asked her when it would be sent to us, and she said that it would be at least 3 hours. It was already almost 2pm by this point, so I asked her to hold it and we'd pick it up. So once more, we packed ourselves into the car and drove the 1 1/2 hours each way to pick up Ian's luggage.
Finally, we were able to do laundry at 6pm the night before we were to leave for Berlin!
By the time we got on that plane the next day, we were so happy to be in one place, that the flight wasn't torture! And we learned our lesson: cheaper tickets aren't always better and never, never fly US Air if you can help it!
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