Flying Trainwreck. Sleeping at the Airport
Florida Trip Travelog #3
MDW Airport - Wed, 21 Sep 2022, 1am
Well, our trip to Florida to relax at the beach for 5 days is off to a disastrous start. We were supposed to connect in Chicago en route to Ft. Meyers, but a weather diversion sent us to Indianapolis instead of Chicago. Long story short- and I'm leaving out a lot of trial and tribulation here, longer version below- we got to Chicago 4 hours later than scheduled. We missed our connection. We're rebooked on a 7:50 departure to Tampa in the morning. We're staying overnight at the airport tonight because it's not worth going to a hotel.
Longer version, gory details:
1) Timeout! We had to disembark from the aircraft at IND because the captain and first officer "timed out". They'd been working longer than the FAA safety time limit and were not permitted to commence another takeoff. We exited the plane to wait in the terminal for another flight crew to be shifted over to our aircraft to fly us to Chicago. This wait added hours to our delay.
2) Rebooking, re-rebooking, all a mess. In the terminal at IND I got busy rebooking things- though ultimately the plans turned to shit anyway. First we rebooked to a two-hop flight on Wednesday that would get us in to Ft. Myers after 4pm. "Is there a nonstop flight to a nearby airport? I asked. We had to book a new rental car, anyway, and I was happy to drive 90 minutes to save 4 hours of connection. Next an agent booked me on a nonstop to Tampa... but in the time it took her to move my booking, someone else took the last seat, so there was no seat available for Hawk. The agent struggled with trying to get Hawk a spot for seriously at least 45 minutes, calling multiple supervisors to help. The flight reboarded while she was on hold with Chicago. She told me to board the plane and she'd keep waiting on hold for me. "How will I know if you're successful?" I asked. "Check your reservation when you land," she said. I was the last person through the door into the aircraft.
3) A second chance? It was just after 10pm as we approached MDW for landing. I still had a status screen open in one of my apps for our original connecting flight. It was delayed until 10:42. And it was departing from the gate right next to the one we'd land at. Maybe, just maaaybe, we could get back on that flight!! Of course, we'd need an agent to help undo the broken changes we'd made in Indy. I started kicking myself for all the scraping and clawing to rebook earlier. If I'd just waited maybe we would have been fine! Maybe.
4) So close and yet so far. On the ground at Indy we had an agonizing wait to disembark. First we had to wait for a tow the last 30' to the gate, then we had to wait for a jet bridge driver to connect us. Together these took 20 minutes. We'd already traveled 2,000 miles from home, and the last 30' took 20 minutes. I dashed off the aircraft as quickly as I could, made a beeline for the customer service desk- and my heart sank when I saw a line 20 people deep. The flight I wanted was parked right outside! I asked the gate agent, who wasn't busy, "Is there any way we could get on that aircraft?" Alas there wasn't. The cabin door had already been sealed, the flight manifests finalized. I joined the 20 person deep line- now more like 23 people deep- and waited to talk to an agent. I also called Southwest while waiting, since sometimes the phone agents can fix problems faster than the onsite agents. Especially when there's a long line.
5) Overnighting at the airport. The phone agent was able to get us fixed up for tomorrow. Hawk and I are both on the same flight now. It only took, like, 20 more minutes. We finished just as I was, like, #2 in line. We'll be going to Tampa, a 60-90 minute drive from Fort Meyers, as the only flight available to the latter arrives 4 hours later. For tonight we're just going to sleep at the airport. It's not worth getting a hotel because a) we'll have to pay last-minute rates, b) we'll only have time for maybe 4 hours of sleep if we're lucky, and c) we'll have to spend an hour or more getting back to the hotel and clearing security tomorrow. It's just not worth it. Of course, I might feel differently after a night of getting virtually no sleep sitting in an uncomfortable airport chair.
Update: BONUS suckage: Bag likely MIA. Yes, there's a bonus suck in addition to everything else that sucks. The bag we checked is likely to go to... well, nobody knows for sure. An agent cautioned that its routing has been deleted from the system. It's tagged with a physical tag that says RSW (Ft. Myers, Florida), though, so when someone deep in the bowels of the airport sees it tomorrow morning they're likely- in theory- to create a new system entry and route it to Ft. Myers. Or maybe it just sits there in a "Not My Problem" penalty box for 5 days. 🤷♂️ The agent suggested we call Ft. Myers when we land at Tampa.
Update 2: BONUS suck #2: Oh, I forgot to mention that we are paying for the privilege of sleeping on hard chairs in the airport tonight. We're paying for a hotel room in Ft. Myers that we can't get to. It was too late to cancel it. (Cancel window closed 48 hours ahead.)
MDW Airport - Wed, 21 Sep 2022, 1am
Well, our trip to Florida to relax at the beach for 5 days is off to a disastrous start. We were supposed to connect in Chicago en route to Ft. Meyers, but a weather diversion sent us to Indianapolis instead of Chicago. Long story short- and I'm leaving out a lot of trial and tribulation here, longer version below- we got to Chicago 4 hours later than scheduled. We missed our connection. We're rebooked on a 7:50 departure to Tampa in the morning. We're staying overnight at the airport tonight because it's not worth going to a hotel.
Longer version, gory details:
1) Timeout! We had to disembark from the aircraft at IND because the captain and first officer "timed out". They'd been working longer than the FAA safety time limit and were not permitted to commence another takeoff. We exited the plane to wait in the terminal for another flight crew to be shifted over to our aircraft to fly us to Chicago. This wait added hours to our delay.
2) Rebooking, re-rebooking, all a mess. In the terminal at IND I got busy rebooking things- though ultimately the plans turned to shit anyway. First we rebooked to a two-hop flight on Wednesday that would get us in to Ft. Myers after 4pm. "Is there a nonstop flight to a nearby airport? I asked. We had to book a new rental car, anyway, and I was happy to drive 90 minutes to save 4 hours of connection. Next an agent booked me on a nonstop to Tampa... but in the time it took her to move my booking, someone else took the last seat, so there was no seat available for Hawk. The agent struggled with trying to get Hawk a spot for seriously at least 45 minutes, calling multiple supervisors to help. The flight reboarded while she was on hold with Chicago. She told me to board the plane and she'd keep waiting on hold for me. "How will I know if you're successful?" I asked. "Check your reservation when you land," she said. I was the last person through the door into the aircraft.
3) A second chance? It was just after 10pm as we approached MDW for landing. I still had a status screen open in one of my apps for our original connecting flight. It was delayed until 10:42. And it was departing from the gate right next to the one we'd land at. Maybe, just maaaybe, we could get back on that flight!! Of course, we'd need an agent to help undo the broken changes we'd made in Indy. I started kicking myself for all the scraping and clawing to rebook earlier. If I'd just waited maybe we would have been fine! Maybe.
4) So close and yet so far. On the ground at Indy we had an agonizing wait to disembark. First we had to wait for a tow the last 30' to the gate, then we had to wait for a jet bridge driver to connect us. Together these took 20 minutes. We'd already traveled 2,000 miles from home, and the last 30' took 20 minutes. I dashed off the aircraft as quickly as I could, made a beeline for the customer service desk- and my heart sank when I saw a line 20 people deep. The flight I wanted was parked right outside! I asked the gate agent, who wasn't busy, "Is there any way we could get on that aircraft?" Alas there wasn't. The cabin door had already been sealed, the flight manifests finalized. I joined the 20 person deep line- now more like 23 people deep- and waited to talk to an agent. I also called Southwest while waiting, since sometimes the phone agents can fix problems faster than the onsite agents. Especially when there's a long line.
5) Overnighting at the airport. The phone agent was able to get us fixed up for tomorrow. Hawk and I are both on the same flight now. It only took, like, 20 more minutes. We finished just as I was, like, #2 in line. We'll be going to Tampa, a 60-90 minute drive from Fort Meyers, as the only flight available to the latter arrives 4 hours later. For tonight we're just going to sleep at the airport. It's not worth getting a hotel because a) we'll have to pay last-minute rates, b) we'll only have time for maybe 4 hours of sleep if we're lucky, and c) we'll have to spend an hour or more getting back to the hotel and clearing security tomorrow. It's just not worth it. Of course, I might feel differently after a night of getting virtually no sleep sitting in an uncomfortable airport chair.
Update: BONUS suckage: Bag likely MIA. Yes, there's a bonus suck in addition to everything else that sucks. The bag we checked is likely to go to... well, nobody knows for sure. An agent cautioned that its routing has been deleted from the system. It's tagged with a physical tag that says RSW (Ft. Myers, Florida), though, so when someone deep in the bowels of the airport sees it tomorrow morning they're likely- in theory- to create a new system entry and route it to Ft. Myers. Or maybe it just sits there in a "Not My Problem" penalty box for 5 days. 🤷♂️ The agent suggested we call Ft. Myers when we land at Tampa.
Update 2: BONUS suck #2: Oh, I forgot to mention that we are paying for the privilege of sleeping on hard chairs in the airport tonight. We're paying for a hotel room in Ft. Myers that we can't get to. It was too late to cancel it. (Cancel window closed 48 hours ahead.)