The Big Apple

Well, the Soup has been on vacation for the past few days. Want to know more about this debacle, please read on:

For Christmas, my Brother give our Mom and me a trip to the Big Apple for 3 days (airfare, hotel and theatre tickets to the Odd Couple included). What a wonderful and thoughtful gift! We had big plans of going shopping, pre-theatre dinner, the show, relaxing, Little Italy...etc.

Here is what really happened:

Friday
Mom (who has the flu, mind you) and I get to the airport at about 5:30pm for our 7:05pm flight to LaGuardia. We Express Check-In at United and our flight is already delayed till 11:30 pm. We go talk to the "information booth" and they tell us that Air Traffic Control has delayed the flight and there is nothing we can do. We proceed to our gate where the flight time has changed back to 7:05pm. We are skeptical, but decide to eat at TGI Fridays and check the monitors periodically.

Once dinner is finished (and I finish my beer that I *really* needed), our flight is still scheduled to leave at 7:05. We go to the gate and await boarding. Then the ticket agents change the time to 8:00pm. A little later than expected, but still OK with us.

Mom then checks the board which now says our flight is cancelled. She goes to the ticket agent and says, "The board says the flight is cancelled" they go oh really? Then look at their monitors and announce the flight is cancelled due to "weather" and we are sent to the "Customer Service" desk with about 100 other people.

We had (hands down) the rudest "customer service" representative from United ever! He informed us:
1) The flight was cancelled due to weather
2) There were no flights Friday or Saturday
3) It wasn't United's fault we couldn't get there, so they can't get us on another airline
4) "I guess you can't go"
5) You should go get a refund for our tickets and buy tickets on another airline

With no other options, we go to another "customer service" line. As I stand there in line with about 200 other domestic and international flyers with cancelled flights, Mom decides we should call Expedia (dot com) to see if they can help us.

I am connected to the nicest woman ever-- Holler at you Desiree! She contacts United herself and after much ado was able to find us a flight the next morning from Dulles-- Boston--LaGuardia.

She then contacts the Park Central Hotel and informs them that we will not be there the night and asks about a refund. After some more drama, they refuse to refund us for the night, but since she feels so bad for us she has Expedia refund the night! We then shuttle back out to long-term parking and head back to Great Falls for the night.

Saturday
We arise at 5:30am to get to Dulles for our 8:00am flight to Boston. The line for security is like 3 miles long and by the time we get to the front Mom and I are determined to be a security risk
because of our changed itinerary (along with about 35 other people). So we get blown with air to test for bombs or something, our luggage gets searched and we wait in a pen for the middle school drop-out TSA employees to wave us along.

We arrive in Boston with no drama at about 10:00am. By this point we have made friends with the other LaGuardia refugees. We are herded onto a bus once the plane lands and taken to the US Airways terminal to catch our 11:00am flight to LaGuardia.

As we proceed up the escalator, we see the departure terminal that says:

Gate 7a To: LaGuardia/NY Departure: 11:00 Status: Cancelled

So this now becomes high drama because we are not only stuck, but we are stuck in Boston and the time until the Odd Couple begins is getting close. The 4 of us (2 other refugees, Mom and me) head to the ticket counter where they book us on the 1:00pm flight that is "flying in from Dulles, so we don't know if it will even arrive" Great.

Well, the flight does arrive from Dulles about 30 minutes late, but by 3:00pm we have arrived into LaGuardia airport.

Finally, we make it to the hotel. Here is a transcript from our conversation:

me- Hi, we're here to check in, last name Bordeeeen
lady behind desk- (typing) I'm sorry ma'am, check in isn't until 4:00pm and we only have smoking rooms available
mom- (groans) I just want to lay down *note still sick with the flu
me- I'm sorry NO, it has taken us 24 hours to get here from Washington DC. We had 2 cancelled flights, ended up in Boston, missed our first night here and you all wouldn't refund our money. Therefore, that room should be vacant waiting for us or you all got paid twice, which is it?
lady behind desk- would you like to speak with the manager?
me- yes
manager- can I help you?
me- yes, we just went through hell to get here for a trip that should have taken 2 hours. Your hotel refused to refund our money last night, therefore, our room should be available.
lady behind desk- your room is ready

Here ends the story of our trip to NYC. We did make the show which was hilarious, we made it to Little Italy and we made it back to VA without any problems.

Merry Christmas to us!