We were very excited. We were finally coming home to the US after a year of living in China. Everything would be perfect. We would have the best seats on the plane. The flight would be so nice that the 13 hour flight time would just fly by and we would be with our loved ones in no time eating, laughing and enjoying ourselves..... that was the plan but, this is what actually happened.
Susan booked our flight to the US in January. Plenty of time for us to get good seats considering our flight was in June! Susan has always done things way ahead of time, it's her nature. As an example, we take our Christmas picture in November, no kidding but I digress. She books the tickets, economy class, because that is what the company pays for. No problem. I have about 500 jillion air miles so we can all upgrade to business class. If I wanted, I think I could fly to the moon and back on all my points. Five months go by and I think everything is good. I find out from Sue that, "Oh, by the way, we are on standby for business class." "Excuse me? Oh yeah, we are on standby". Now gentle reader I'm not a snob. It's not a status symbol for me to fly business class, it's a matter of survival. Thirteen hours on a plane is brutal. Everything hurts no matter how comfortable the seat is. And me being on the large side it's down right torture. So with panic in my voice I tell Susan, "PLEASE CALL THE AIRLINE AND GET US UPGRADED. WE BOOKED THE SEATS SIX MONTHS AGO HOW THE HELL CAN WE BE ON STANDBY?" No dice, no upgrades available, still on standby. Oh God this is not going to plan.
Okay, so we have to fly economy. Maybe it won't be too bad, after all, I'm in a aisle seat and it gives me a little more room to spread out, wrong. They sat us in the center of a five seat row, in economy class. Let me translate, no elbow room, no chance to go to the toilet because you have to wake up the guy next to you so you can get out on your seat, getting the picture? So I spend thirteen hours playing "claim the arm rest" with the guy next to me. At one point, he actually had his elbow in my ribs.
We arrive in Chicago and go through customs. Matthew sees his friend Jason at the airport as well and they have a brief reunion. Everything goes well and we're returning our luggage to the airline to be reloaded for the connection to New York. Susan looks at the board and says: "Our flight has been delayed by two hours." Ok. We'll just eat dinner at the airport and hang out by the gate. After dinner, Susan goes back to check the board and I see her standing in line to speak to a person at the counter. She slinks back to the area and tells me "Our flight has been canceled." Excuse me??? Canceled? What do you mean canceled?
The personnel were telling us that it was weather related. Huh? We spoke to people in New York and the weather was fine. No, the weather in Chicago the day before caused massive delays and this was part of the ripple effect. To make a long story short, we had to stay overnight in Chicago and try to reschedule our flight for Saturday. We decided instead of trying to fight our way out of the airport on Saturday, it would be better for us to stay an extra night and leave on Sunday when everything will be sorted out.
We spent the day in Chicago wandering around to buy clothes and we also enjoyed the incredible weather. We'll be leaving tomorrow to return to New York. Hopefully, our luggage will be waiting for us at baggage claim......if not, we'll have to embark on another adventure to find our luggage that has already traveled around the world.
Okay, so we have to fly economy. Maybe it won't be too bad, after all, I'm in a aisle seat and it gives me a little more room to spread out, wrong. They sat us in the center of a five seat row, in economy class. Let me translate, no elbow room, no chance to go to the toilet because you have to wake up the guy next to you so you can get out on your seat, getting the picture? So I spend thirteen hours playing "claim the arm rest" with the guy next to me. At one point, he actually had his elbow in my ribs.
We arrive in Chicago and go through customs. Matthew sees his friend Jason at the airport as well and they have a brief reunion. Everything goes well and we're returning our luggage to the airline to be reloaded for the connection to New York. Susan looks at the board and says: "Our flight has been delayed by two hours." Ok. We'll just eat dinner at the airport and hang out by the gate. After dinner, Susan goes back to check the board and I see her standing in line to speak to a person at the counter. She slinks back to the area and tells me "Our flight has been canceled." Excuse me??? Canceled? What do you mean canceled? The personnel were telling us that it was weather related. Huh? We spoke to people in New York and the weather was fine. No, the weather in Chicago the day before caused massive delays and this was part of the ripple effect. To make a long story short, we had to stay overnight in Chicago and try to reschedule our flight for Saturday. We decided instead of trying to fight our way out of the airport on Saturday, it would be better for us to stay an extra night and leave on Sunday when everything will be sorted out.
We spent the day in Chicago wandering around to buy clothes and we also enjoyed the incredible weather. We'll be leaving tomorrow to return to New York. Hopefully, our luggage will be waiting for us at baggage claim......if not, we'll have to embark on another adventure to find our luggage that has already traveled around the world.
