Sometimes airports suck
Current Mood:
Angry
I started my morning yesterday in El Paso. Boarded my flight a little late. Then we sat there. For an hour. Some mechanical problem the ground crew was working on. A bit over an hour later than our scheduled departure, we finally took off.
Landed in Houston with 55 minutes to make my connection. Of course I have to be the last off the plane because I’m waiting for the baggage handlers to bring up my wheelchair, which I check at the door to the plane. Finally they get my wheelchair up to me. Spent about another 5 minutes trying to get it put back together and running. Now we’re down to 40 minutes to make my connection. But the wheelchair wouldn’t power up. Finally we unplug it, and open up the battery case to see if there’s a wire loose or something.
GGRRRRRRR! Somebody must have dropped the battery pack. One of the terminals is completely broken off! 30 minutes left to make my connecting flight. Ok we can deal with this. Somebody has to push me to the bus which will bring me to the next gate. I’m assured there will be a wheelchair pusher waiting for me on the other side of the bus trip. Guess what.
Nobody was there. GGRRRRRRRRR…. So I get the security guard (who can’t leave his post) to push me into the elevator, thinking the wheelchair pusher is waiting upstairs. GUESS WHAT.
Nobody up there either. Ok now I just have to calm down, wait a minute or 5, and somebody will show up. You can guess what happens next. Nobody shows up.
So I pile my carry on baggage into the seat, check my watch, and start pushing the chair myself. By now I have 15 minutes to make the connecting flight. I can do this. It can’t be that far. WELL…
It was a looonngg walk to the gate. The flight is supposed to depart at 12:45. My watch says 12:40 when I arrive at the gate. (My watch is always 5 minutes fast) The gate attendant looks at me and says, “The door is closed, the plane is taking off now.” AARRGGHHHH! This is when I lose it. Totally.
The guy runs off to speak to somebody behind a closed, locked door. He emerges about 10 minutes later, pushes me and the chair to a very busy counter where somebody else is supposed to meet me to write a report for a claim etc. etc. Oh, he also rebooked me on the next flight to Milwaukee which is 4 hours later. Ugh.
So there I sit, like so much baggage, with people swarming all around me trying to check in and get to their flights. Tick tick tick tick. About 30 minutes pass, and finally this official looking guy comes along, introduces himself, and takes me behind this very busy counter to discuss my situation. Again, I tell my story, still unable to contain my anger and emotions. He’s trying his best to calm me down. So he calls up two different attendants, a man and a woman, and says one of them will stay with me until I am safely at the gate of my next flight. He also gets a “red coat” person to talk with me. I guess the red coats are like concierges (if I spelt that rite). The woman with the red coat gives me 2 vouchers for food. It’s 2pm and I haven’t eaten yet. The woman who volunteered to stay with me gets me to a bathroom, then to the food court so I can eat. Then she parks me in the “elite” section of the gate for my flight, and takes off. I sat there until 4:55 when they began boarding the plane. Mind you, the plane is supposed to TAKE OFF at 4:55.
The guy who booked me on the next flight assigned a seat way at the back of the plane. Oh great! More staggering around with all my stuff! So the flight attendant got somebody to switch seats with me, letting me sit in the 6th row instead of the 44th row. Cool. I think. Until I try to get in the seat. I’m stuck in one of those seats where the armrest doesn’t lift up. You know how impossible it is to get into those seats? Good thing nobody else had boarded yet, or they would have gotten a good laugh at how I managed to get in there.
So the rest of the passengers board, and we finally get clearance to taxi to the runway. And there we sit. Planes all lined up, waiting to take off… there must have been at least 20 planes out there waiting. We’re in for more sitting and waiting… might be a good time to nap. I try to recline my seat while we’re sitting there. More GGRRR! This seat reclines maybe 2 inches back at the most. So I try to rest, pillow against the wall, leaning against the pillow. But my head keeps bobbing forward which wakes me up. And of course, I’m right below the speaker, so every time the flight attendant talks over it with her grating, booming voice, I’m shocked back to reality. No sleep for me, I guess.
We all got one lil bag of peanuts as our ’snack’, and of course the complimentary beverage service. I ate the peanuts but declined the beverages. I have water handy. I just wanna get home.
I guess the stink I made at the Houston airport finally had some sort of effect. When I finally got off the plane in Milwaukee, THREE people were there to meet me. One pushed my broken chair, one pushed me in one of those very uncomfortable airport wheelchairs, and the third person carried my luggage. Two of them helped me all the way out to my van, and loaded everything inside including the broke wheelchair. I finally was on the way home.
I am intensely sore, lots of pain in every joint today. Part of me wants to sue Continental for pain, suffering, and emotional distress. The rest of me just wants to forget about it, it’s in the past. Well, except for the busted battery. They say they will pay for a new battery. I wonder how long that will take. I have another trip in about 3 weeks.
And now I won’t have the chair for the Rockford Thunder season opening game on Tuesday. I suppose I’ll try to haul the seats out of the back of my van, and just use my regular chair. *sigh*
I’m sittin in bed today. Too damn sore to do anything.