AIRLINES

[Wis-Can 0]

I need to rant for a few minutes.....My sweetie and I are trying to make plans for Christmas, I check airfares two days ago for him, and a flight would be $680 something, now today I go on to book it, and its $1430, what the HELL! So I went back online and checked for me to go to him the same dates, and its $730. Same airports, same dates, just switching from which airport leaving from first. Its not like its Christmas week, its mid December to mid January. ARRRGGGGHHH! So I guess I am going to go to him as I refuse to pay over $1000 for a 5 hour plane ride. And, to top it all off, my last plane ride was with United Express, grab a coffee, this is going to take a while! I book my ticket, got on the plane in Halifax, two bags, no problem, one was a little heavy, she tells me she should charge me, but she'll let it go, just don't let it happen again. I go enjoy two wonderful weeks with my baby. Then coming home. Well, we get to the airport and I go to check my bags, $25 for second bag please. I said, no, on my receipt from United it shows allowable baggage two bags. Well that's changed now, we charge for the 2nd bag, and I say, that's fine. You can charge the next person, who doesn't have a receipt from united that says 2 bags allowed. Frustrated, I reluctantly pay the $25. I go and wait for my fight, 45 minutes late, I finally board the crop duster,...oh I mean the regional jet! We sit on the runway, start down the runway, plane slows down, pilot comes on, foggy at O'hare, airport closed to arrivals, we will be updated in 50 minutes. There we sit, then 50 minutes later, pilot says, still not open, update in 50 minutes. About 10 minutes after that annoucement...yippee As I looked at my watch I was concerned at reaching my connecting flight, but then I thought well if they are closed for arrivals, they must be closed for departures. So after a very rocky ride, (severe thunderstorms) we arrive at O'hare. I run to the other terminal to a sign that reads, Halifax, boarding in 1 minute. Thank goddness, as I sat for a minute and looked up again, boarding in 30 minutes,...

what the HELL! Fine, I pull out the laptop and start checking emails. We finally board, we pull out from the gate, start moving and then we slow down, pilot comes on, we are being sent to the penalty box, due to the backlog of international flights we have to wait till they all take off first, and they are being spaced about 10-15 minutes apart due to the thunderstorms. There we sat a couple hours. FINALLY after sitting on the runway for a couple hours the pilot comes on and says we are cleared for take off, we should have enough fuel! WHAT THE HELL!!!! Then he said good news though, the flight will only be about 2 hours 15 minutes. Makes you wonder how a 3 1/2 hour flight turns into 2 hrs 15mins. Anyways, I am happy....for a while. Its a rough flight, lots of turbulance. The sky was a light show of thunder and lightening. About 3 hours later, I asked the stewardess, why aren't we landed yet...oh we will be there shortly. Then the pilot comes on and says the "speech". As we are starting to go in for a landing the plane didn't seem right the way it was flying.....then just before touching down, we went back up again...well this happened twice, and then the pilot come on and said, due to fog he was unable to land, and that we would make another attempt to land, well 1/2 hour later and we are still up in the air and this time, no lights below. I leaned over to the guy beside me and asked him what he thought, he said, well if we get on the ground, I imagine we are going to smell jet fuel, as I think we are over the Atlantic dropping fuel. Well I turn back around in my seat, and as you can imagine, 1001 thoughts are running through my head. Then the pilot comes on to say he is going to attempt it again..Third time was the charm, we made it on the ground, but the minute that plane touched down we came to a grinding halt...and oh my gosh, the smell of jet fuel was overwhelming! Then the pilot came back on and said they hand lost partial steering controls which was why they had trouble landing, and that a tow truck would be dispatched from the airport to tow us in. I was so relieved to be on the ground. When we got to the terminal it was hours past when we were to initally arrived so there was no one left to do the luggage but a couple men, so I waiting almost two hours to get my luggage...oh sorry, to find out that the luggage I paid the extra $25.00 for, they lost!!!!!!!!! So, I drove the two hours to get home.....and waited a little over a week for them to find my luggage, which was returned damaged. I called United to complain, was told to drive 2 hours back to the United counter at the airport, and someone there would examine by luggage to see if they felt the damage was done by United before a claim would be considered. I flipped out....nothing ever came of that because I wasn't going to drive 2 hours, $40 in gas, to claim about $50 in damages. They did however send me a travel voucher for the "inconveniences I incurred" on their flights for $50. Apparently almost causing the death of someone is considered an inconvenience. Why am I sharing my story,....this is the funny part, "I'm sorry madam, you cannot use your travel voucher unless you are paying full price, its not redeemable on a discounted fare." What a joke!

So I think, I will pack my car and drive to my honey for Christmas...at least I know my luggage will arrive with me!