Special shout out to the Cleveland airport for the free wifi! What am I doing in the Cleveland airport? Allow me to explain…
Soooo it all started yesterday afternoon. I went to check in online to my red-eye flight from LAX to Washington DC airport (with a connection onto Raleigh) and discover it’s canceled! Of course they hadn’t notified me. No email, no phone call… nothing! Thank goodness I went to check in online that early. So with a phone call from a special helper I got a new flight with a layover in Newark. This one would leave 90 min earlier and get me in an hour later. A small sacrifice, still very doable.
Last night the flight left a touch later than expected due to excess baggage. They made the last 25% of passengers gate check their bags (including myself). But I deal with that just fine. I don’t have to pay for it and now I don’t have to lug the thing around. No big deal. We made up for the delay in the air and arrived in Newark on time (about 6:15am). Only as soon as I get there and look to the monitors to find where my Raleigh connection gate is, I discover that flight has been canceled. :( MAJOR bummer. It really feels like the floor has been taken right out from underneath you.
I get in a MONSTER of a line at customer service and when I finally get to the front they tell me that they can put me on STANDBY for a 4pm flight to Raleigh- mind you it’s 7am! I say okay (what choice do I have?) and they set me up. They also get me a ticket/seat for a 7:30pm flight in case I don’t make the 4pm. Ugh!
I walk off on my way, make a few phone calls, cry a little (yeah, whatever, I’m exhausted, deal with it). Then I look on my phone and see there’s a flight leaving Newark at 10am for Cleveland with a connection to Raleigh at 12:45pm. That’ll put me into Raleigh at 1:30pm! So I run back over the the agent and they set me up for that. They also check in on my luggage and tell me it’ll be on the 4pm flight and wait for me in Raleigh.
I get to my gate for the flight to Cleveland and everything seems to be moving on time. I’m confused why my flight to Raleigh at 9am was canceled and this one appears okay. If it’s weather, what really changed? In my humble opinion, it was BETTER when I arrived than it is now. I figure at least I’m getting out of Newark and Cleveland should be clear and good to go.
Unfortunately my luck in this whole ordeal settles in and we end up sitting on the tarmac for over an hour while other planes take off, they try to de-ice the runway, etc. It was a real joyous occasion. When we are finally cleared for take-off, it’s quite clear I won’t make that 12:45pm flight from Cleveland to Raleigh and I am correct.
I land in Cleveland at 1:15pm and go straight to customer service. I learned my lesson this time and I was the first one in line. :P
I get some new flight details from a jolly agent. I have to admit, Cleveland has been treating me pretty nice thus far, granted my scale is probably a little out of whack.
Anyway, that’s where this story ends (for now). I’m sitting in the Cleveland airport waiting for a 3:30pm flight to Charlotte (it’s 2:30 now) and then I have a connection there at 7:50pm that puts me in Raleigh at 8:42pm. There is an end in sight!
It’s time to get my boarding pass…. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
***UPDATE***
I knew it! Can’t be sure of anything these days… I went to get my boarding pass with the confirmation/schedule I was given by the customer service agent and because it was a different airline, I guess the seats didn’t show accurately because the flight was full. Arg!!
I walked back over to the customer service desk and talked to someone new. Now I’m on a 6:35pm flight to Charlotte with a connection to Raleigh that will get me in at 11:30pm. COME! ON! This time I have boarding passes for both the flights. And the lady took pity on me and gave me a meal voucher. That was nice. Gonna get dinner and probably a brew in an hour or so.
I don’t want to go without mentioning once more how thankful I am that this place has free wifi. Phew! I found an outlet and I’ve got a netflix movie loaded. Let’s kill some time!
Again, keep good thoughts for me PLEASE! With Murphy’s Law clearly in effect, I need all the help I can get.
Cleveland - looks A LOT better than Newark did
