Thursday, June 12, 2008

Too Much Info for One Title


It has been a long couple of days, which leaves me to want to write and tell everyone what has been going on.

First of all I am of course pregnant and I want to know the sex of the baby so I ventured out and took this new age "gender predictor" test called Intelligender. It is a urine test that can test for the sex of your baby as early as 10 weeks into your pregnancy. So I did it on Monday morning and the results came out green, super green, so green that there was no denying that it is a BOY!!! So I still have to be scepticle until I have an ultrasound but I am still excited and have already purchased a few boy clothes.

My next article of business is my past 2, thats right TWO, days of traveling home. I am pretty distraught as the way things have panned out and I have to vent. I left yesterday afternoon to drive to Sacramento to make my 4:59pm flight to Denver and then on to Dallas from there, successfully done this would have landed me home a around midnight Texas time. Well the flight comming in to Sacramento was late and so our flight leaving was of course delayed. Knowing this I asked the lady at the counter if 30 minutes was going to be enough to catch my connecting flight, initially I was going to have an hour. She assured me that everything was going to be fine, there were 10 people on this flight that also had to catch the Dallas flight and that they would not leave without us knowing that we were on the delayed flight. I sat down a little scepticle yet also knowing there was nothing I could do about it. As predetermined our plane touched down in Denver at around 8:30pm giving me approximately 30 to taxi, deplane and RUN to my next gate. as the plane was Taxiing they gave me no news of what gate we were arriving at or what gates any of our connecting flights were at so of course I get off in Denver and have no idea where to go and have to ask for directions, this takes an extra few minutes and am told if I run I can still make it. Did i mention that all this is done with a 3 year old and a 2 year old being dragged at my side!!! So i take off down the terminal in hopes that i can run 20 gates in a matter of minutes, stopping occasionally to pick up Ann Marie, my 2 year old, because she is tired, I then drag my Emma, my 3 year old, on. Asking only once for help from one of those shuttle drivers who gave me the "one second" finger which I obviously didn't have judging by the fast pace I was already carrying, I continued on with no assistance. We made it to the gate 10 minutes before departure to find that there was not a single soul in sight, and just in time to see our plane pulling away from the gate and eventually taking off from the ground 4 MINUTES EARLY!!! So now I am a frantic, balling pregnant woman with 2 young children exhausted from running and completely amazed that United Airlines would, knowing that there were more passengers coming, take off EARLY from the gate as we sat there and watched. 2 other gentlemen were there at the gate hoping to get on the flight and missed it.

So I walked, crying, back another 10 gates to find the United Airlines Customer Service Counter. not wanting to stand in a line 50 yards long but not knowing another way I was going to get home I sat my bags down and cried. A kind lady stopped and offered her assistance, and shortly after and young man who worked for United stopped and directed me to a flight counter and began to help me. He found me a flight leaving out of Denver at 8:30am the following morning, and offered me free hotel stay. I didnt really anticipate staying in a hotel with no baggage, except my carry-ons, so I called my brother who lives in the area and he picked me up and gave me a comfortable place to sleep and a ride to the airport the next morning.

As we drove to the airport the next morning I called my husband to inform him that we were on our way, he mentioned to me that for some reason he had recieved an automated call stating that I had been given a flight that left at 1:30pm. I brushed it off as a mistake and told him that I was flying out at 8:30am and would be home soon. He called back monents later and said that he had found out that my 8:30am flight had been cancelled and that I had indeed been put on a 1:30pm flight out of Denver. Being minutes from the airport and not wanting to sit for 6 hours to wait for my flight I resigned myself to talk to more United Employees and get this matter resolved ASAP. Seeing the lines in the Baggage check area I decided I was going to find a shorter line and found one labeled Re-Issues, Refunds and something else, I stood here being only second in line. Meeting a nice enough lady who found me a flight on American Airlines leaving at 9:30am and 3 meal vouchers for breakfast I then continued on my way. I wont bore you with the extensive lines to get through security and the pat down I had to go through, I mean pregnant women with children are so dangerous. I got on my flight and finally made it home to Dallas and was never more happy to be home.

My bags, surprisingly, made it on the flight to Dallas the previous night and were sitting very nicely waiting for me at the lost luggage counter. The world amazes me sometimes. Needless to say the people on American Airlines were far more accomidating than most of those I encountered with United Airlines and I will be doing my best to NEVER fly United again.

1 comment:

Liz said...

Well, first, congrats on the boy! I hope it's right. Boys are awesome!

Second, oh my HECK! I can't believe you went through all that travel crap with two toddlers in tow. I would have been a mess (picture strange lady dragging two young kids along the runway after a taxiing airplane). I have a bit of flying coming up what with the family reunion in Colorado and Sara's birth in Oregon. I sincerely hope that nothing goes wrong with any of my flights! Sleep well now that you're home and safe.

P.S. I loved the telling of the story. It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I just couldn't believe all the bad stuff that happened to you!