The Phlight from Philly.....

Well...here goes. I was supposed to leave Philly on Friday March 16 at 4:10pm. I arrived at the airport around 2pm. There was a ton of sleet and slush. It just about halted traffic. Anyway, I was unaware of all the flight issues because of this. I had only flown 3 times previous and haven’t had any issues. So when I finally got into the airport I found a HUGE line for US Airways Express. Express it is NOT!!! So I just got in the back of the line, figuring it would take some time to get through it and my plane was suppose to take off in 2hours. I ended up standing in that line for 2 hours. I called Erin to let her know what was going on. When I told her that all of the planes were grounded and that I was stuck there for the night, she didn’t believe me. It took some convincing on my part, but eventually she listened to me. The kiosks weren’t working, of course, so everyone had to stand in the line. Once I finally got to the front of the line, someone decided it might be nice to let everyone else know that the flights for the rest of the day had been canceled. No one prior to this announcement let anyone know anything. Also, the boards still said that our flights were on time.

When it was my turn, I asked the ticket lady what my options were. She ended up handing me Manila paper with info on it for a new flight on Saturday March 17 at 9:40am to Akron/Canton. It wasn’t an official ticket though since the system wasn’t working well. I was told I had to come back in the morning and just check my bag. They wouldn’t let me check my bag that night since the new flight wasn’t the same day. That meant that I couldn’t even get through security for the night. I was left to stay in a small section of the airport with my suitcase and my carryon bag. I was told all of the local hotels were booked, some jacked the price up to $250/night since people were stuck and had to pay. I also heard it took 2 hours or more just to get a taxi to take you to a hotel. My thought was, “I just want to get the ‘H3!@” out of here so I am going to sleep here in the airport. Well, I walked around lugging all of my stuff for a while. Then I sat down and plugged in my laptop and watch the first DVD season of the Office, twice. Then listened to some CD. I called Erin to let her know what was going on. I then decided to go look for a bite to eat. I stumbled on a bar called ‘Jack Duggan’s’. I ended up getting a Roast Beef sandwich for dinner. I was there from 8 till close, which was 10pm. I watched some NCAA basketball and drank 4 beers, “”. They were good. At least something was good that night.

After that I wandered around a bit more. Found a bathroom and brushed my teeth. Then I figured I should go and find a place to sleep. I settled in on a walkway, where I had sat down earlier and watched the DVD. I called a few people to let them know about my story. I also watched ‘The Office’ again and listened to the CD’s again. I eventually tried to take some catnaps since I still had my luggage and my carryon and didn’t want anyone to steal it. Some workers were walking around at that time handing out blankets and pillows. So that was nice. The only problem was, they weren’t even big enough for a midget. Excuse me….little person to be PC. Well that was an awful sleep. Kept waking up to make sure everything was still there. I finally woke up around 5:30am thinking I would get a head start on whatever line may have formed. I went looking for a muffin place, but they were closed so I hit the bathroom and headed for the ticket counter. Low and behold, the line was just as long as the day before and the kiosks still weren’t working. I ended up in that line for 2 hours again. Finally it was my turn again. The lady that was trying to help me was very nice, but not too bright. She said they just changed the computer systems about 2 weeks ago so know one knew how to use it. Just lovely. Well I was able to get a ticket for the 9:40am flight, but then she had to cancel my ticket from the previous day. When she did that, she also canceled the ticket I just got. I was not very happy to say the least. I was with here for 45 minutes while she was trying to correct it. She ended up calling upstairs to the actual ticket-taking booth where you board the plane and explained to them the situation. Then I checked my bag (for Akron/Canton) and headed for security. I went through security and headed up to speak with the ticket taker so explain the situation and see if she would be able to get my ticket back. She tried her best and then had someone else come over to help. HORRAY!!! They were able to get me my ticket. I was pretty excited at that point. I was thinking I would be taking off soon since it was getting sunny out, there wasn’t any more slush or bad weather and I finally had my ticket again. Then I called Erin to let her know what was going on at that time and headed for some breakfast. I got an egg/cheese/sausage bagel, hash browns, a ruby red juice and a chocolate chip muffin. I ate everything but the muffin waiting for my flight. While I was waiting, the flight in front of me was canceled. All of the planes on the hanger had 6 inches of ice in the engines/props from the slush. The slush had frozen overnight and none of the planes would start. I then heard that the plane at my boarding location was number 30 out of 31 in line for the heater to de-thaw the ice from the engine. Oh great! I figured I am never getting out of here. All of a sudden they announced that my plane had landed, so we just had to wait for de-boarding, refueling, cleaning the plane and stocking up on food. We were all excited. That was brief. All of a sudden they announced that 3 flights were canceled and mine, again, was one of them. I was not very happy again by this news. They told everyone to look for an available ticket person and try to rebook a later flight. I walked down to another counter and stood in line again. About 20 minutes later she told me there were no open flights to Cleveland or Akron/Canton the rest of the day. What am I suppose to do now? I asked. I asked how I could get my bags because I had had enough and could have rented a car and driven home by now. She said I had to head over to the ‘Special Services’ line and ask for my bag over there. Talk about ‘Special Services’. I believe you all know what she meant by ‘Special’. Anyway, I headed over there. When I finally located the line it was even longer than the 2 previous lines I was in. I got to the end and waited. And waited. And waited some more. And still finally waited some more. 4 hours to be exact. Sometimes 1 or 2 or 3 people were working that line. But they were slow. When I was finally in the front, I was told that half of the US Airways staff called off. LOVELY!!!! Some French-speaking guy was going to help me figure out what I needed to do. My first thought was just get me out of Philly. I asked for a flight to Akron/Canton, Cleveland, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Buffalo. I figured it would be quicker if I could just get out of Philly and then drive home x number of hours. I was able to get a flight to Columbus at 8:10pm that evening. I was somewhat relieved. That was about 2pm Saturday. I had been there 24 hours at that point. I then asked what about my bag? He told me that it would eventually go to Akron/Canton since I had checked it and it was tagged to go there. There pretty much was only dirty close in it so I wasn’t too worried. I walked around a bit then and called my sister-in-law, Lindsay who lives in Columbus to see if I could have a ride to their place and to stay the night. She was very gracious as I explained my situation. Then I called Erin to let here know what was going on. Boy was this trip exciting. Never a dull moment. At this point, I was in gate ‘F’ of the airport, but my new flight was over at gate ‘C’. In order to get over to any other gate at the airport, other than ‘F’ you have to go back through security or take a shuttle. I located the shuttle and just made it on before they took off. After I got off the shuttle I walked around a bit. I did have time since it was around 2:30pm and my flight wasn’t until 8:15pm. I got a Dr Pepper and called Erin again to let her know what was up. I also called my boss, so I could let her know in case my flight was canceled again and I wouldn’t get home until next week. I walked around a little bit and found a place where I could plug in my laptop. I sat down on a bench and plugged it in. My phone was almost dead at this point so I turned it off to save the ‘juice’. I thought I had my charger for my phone so I looked though my carryon. It wasn’t in there. I had either placed it in my suitcase, which was going to Akron and I didn’t have it anymore, or I had lost it at the security checkpoint back at gate ‘F’. I figured I would go back over that so I just watched ‘The Office’, AGAIN. And listened to the CD’s again. I met some more people and chatted with them. There was this lady who was headed back to Columbus and some other guy she met earlier in the day also going back to Columbus. They were nice people. He was gay though, and I think she was gay now too. She was married and has a 4 year old daughter, but while we were talking she mentioned ‘her partner’ so I figured she turned gay. Anyway, we hung out a bit; I did have some more time to kill. Then some young college girls needed to plug in their imac’s so they asked if they could borrow one of the plugs. They were headed to Florida, just coming back from Spring Break in Denver. They had no idea what had happened earlier in the day since they just arrived, so I filled them in. They couldn’t get a flight back to Florida, so they were looking at other options as well. They thought about a train, but that was going to be 23 hours. Then thought about renting a car, but they weren’t 25 yet so they were unable to. Not sure what exactly happened to them, but they left and we wished each other good luck. By this time it was approaching 7:30pm and our plan was suppose to be arriving. It was on the board as being on time, but no one was at the ticket-taking booth we could ask. We had heard from some people that the flight was supposed to be coming from Dulles Airport in DC. It was supposedly on it way. Then nothing. Then more of nothing. Meanwhile some people had become irate and where storming around and swearing left and right. I was very surprised at myself that I was not one of those people and was able to control it. When someone finally came to the booth, they stated that the computer system wasn’t working so they had no information for us. The lady I was hanging out with decided to try to find a car we would rent incase this flight was cancelled. So at least we had a backup plan just in case. Eventually they said over the loudspeaker that our plan was in the air in route to Philly. Everyone just about jumped up and started screaming. I was getting excited, but didn’t want to jinx anything. The previous times, I had gotten a little closer to the plane, but was still stuck at the airport. So some more time passed and I called Erin to let her know the updates. Finally they said out plane was going to land and that they needed to deplane, refuel, clean the plane and restock the food/beverages. We all got a little more excited and decided that we only needed a pilot and to refuel. We didn’t care about a new staff or a clean plane or food. Just get us out of Philly. Well the time had finally come. The plane was ready for us to board. It was around 10pm at that point. The closest I had come to actually leaving Philly. Not getting too excited I boarded the plane. We sat there. And sat there. And sat there. The pilot then said they had 100 bags to still load. A little longer and he came back on to say we were 4^th in line and just waiting for paper work to take off. I called Erin to let her know we were really close to flying. We didn’t actually take off until 11:25pm. BUT I was so excited that we were finally in the air. They said the flight was to be only 1hour, so that was pretty good news. I ended up sitting next to a guy about my age who was from Denver, but heading to Columbus to see his girlfriend. We talked a bit. He was pretty cool. Eventually the stewardess came on and said that for all of our troubles we would be given the chance for 1 free alcoholic drink if we were of age. Oh boy! That was all we would get. Come on. I need more that than. I was at the Philly Airport for 36 hours. 36 HOURS. No shower. No clean clothes. A tiny bit of sleep. No toiletries. YUCK. Then she came back on and said that they were out of ice so the drinks might be warm. Lovely. Then she came on again and said they didn’t have a ton of alcohol so everyone might NOT get some. Come on already. Don’t tease us. Me and the guy next to me figured she would eventually get on the horn again and state that they only had Non-Alcoholic O’Doul’s and that it was after the Born On date so it would be flat. That would have been icing on the cake. Ha ha ha! Well low and behold I was able to have a cold, Bud Light. It was fine, but definitely not worth my weekend. So I arrived at Columbus airport around 12:30am. I called Lindsay so Zack could come and pick me up. I got off the plane and head for the bathroom. I then headed for the exit. So very excited to be out of Philly and in Columbus. I went up first, not knowing where to locate Zack. Then I went down to the first floor. I headed out looking for him. Just them I heard a voice. “Look up here”. “ Hey you, Look up here.” Just like in Three Amigo’s (Anyone from High School should remember this). Well I spotted Zack and walked up to the second floor. We headed to his car and went to Taco Bell. Finally arrived at their apartment, ate some tacos and headed for bed. Finally a decent place to sleep. It was probably 1:30am at this point. I was lucky the next morning. Lindsay and Zack had their friends over from Akron and they were heading back on Sunday morning. I was able to hitch a ride with them back to my parents. I had to borrow their phone since mine had died by now to let Erin know she could pick me up at my parents after 12 noon. She showed up and we hung out a bit. Then off to Akron/Canton airport to get my car and my bag. Well, my car was there, but my bag was not. They said it wouldn’t get there until 5:30pm Sunday. I told them to give me a call since I wasn’t going to go pick it up since I was just there. They called later that night. I had my mother-in-law pick it up on Monday. I still don’t have it as I am writing this story, but at least I am home and my bag is in good hands. Thank GOD everything worked out in the end. I wish NO ONE to EVER take a flight by US Airways or fly to Philly. Thank you everyone who helped me on my journey. Good luck and good night.

TODD