August 15th, 2010 Posted in General, Vacation | No Comments »
We are already home from our vacation, but since we were running around late every night, I am just now getting around to posting about it. (My apologies to those of you who were anxiously awaiting these updates.)
So…day 1. Day 1 wasn’t so great. Here’s how it was supposed to go:
9 a.m. Central: Leave home for airport.
11:55 a.m. Central: Plane leaves for LAX.
3:56 p.m. Pacific: Connecting flight to Fresno (airport code, amusingly, FAT)
4:53 p.m. Pacific: Land in Fresno, pick up rental car and drive to hotel in Oakhurst in time for dinner and a relaxing evening of planning our first day in the park.
Hmm. Not so much.
We got the first step right. We left home at 9:07, which for us is excellent because we are not a “morning family” and have a hard time getting out the door as a group. However, we were motivated and made it out on time. Probably the first indication that the day wouldn’t go as planned should have been when we got stopped by a train on the way to the airport. A loooooong train. But since we’d left on time, we were good. No problem. Dad drove us smoothly to economy parking in plenty of time. We were all excited! Hannah chanted the family vacation cry, “Woo! Vacation!” in the car. Life was good.
Dad dropped me and Hannah off at the train station in economy parking with one suitcase and our backpacks, and said he’d go park the car and bring the rest.
He was gone for a long time.
When he finally made it back to the train station, he was sweaty and out of breath. This is because he had to park apparently miles away, and I’d left the big suitcase for him (dumb), AND the wheel on said suitcase broke when he got it out of the car, so he had to lug a 50-lb. (right on the weight limit!) suitcase all the way across the parking lot on a bum wheel. Suitcases with bum wheels do not roll, and make the poor person dragging them expend a lot of extra effort. Which, for those keeping score at home, makes two little hiccups so far on the trip.
Still, we managed to get our three bags, three backpacks, and three people onto the train and to the terminal. We checked our bags and made it through security. At this point, we were cutting it a little close on time, but still doing fine, and still excited. We stopped to buy Hannah some Earplanes in hopes they would help her ears on our flights and make for a generally more pleasant traveling experience than we had last summer, when she flew for the first time and screamed throughout takeoff and landing because her ears were so bothered by the pressure.
We boarded the plane on time. Hannah put her Earplanes in. We were all excited.
At approximately noon Central time, hiccup number three happened. The airline’s “director of customer service,” whose job you could not pay me enough to do, shared with those of us on the plane that, well, the pilots had gotten off the plane. The reason they’d done this was because the plane had mechanical problems and, in fact (surprise!) should be grounded…so they really shouldn’t have let us board the plane. But gosh, they were going to get another plane here for us just as soon as possible, and we shouldn’t worry, because this is Chicago – a United hub – and it should be simple enough to get another plane.
Hannah took her Earplanes out. We all got off the plane.
Our new plane arrived from somewhere at 1:00 p.m. (We passed the time eating snacks, watching people, and playing games on our phones. We talked about how it was good we were a generally laid-back family who could deal with things like this without freaking out. How prophetic…) We all got on the new plane, in our same seat assignments. Hannah put her Earplanes back in and we got ready to rock. While we were waiting on everyone to board, our captain shared with us that the previous plane had about four major things wrong with it, including an “unknown issue” that sounded pretty ominous…I mean, shouldn’t you be able to at least figure out what’s wrong, even if you don’t know how to fix it? So we talked about how glad we were they’d figured that stuff out before the broken plane tried to take off with us in it.
The first exceptional news of the day came when we realized that Earplanes are truly magical things that kept Hannah’s ears from bothering her at all, and made all of us much happier during our flight. Hannah said the “ear popping came in through the window, hit my Earplanes and bounced right back out.” Sounds like a good explanation to me.
We passed a perfectly calm and lovely flight playing the DS, reading, watching “Oceans,” etc. We knew there was a good chance we might miss our connection to Fresno, but the flight attendant advised us to just run for the gate as soon as we landed and see if we could make it. She also said there were several other flights to Fresno that day, so we’d get out of LAX one way or the other. We decided not to worry about it, and do the best we could.
Our connecting flight was supposed to leave at 3:56. We landed at LAX at 3:50, but we were in row 21 so (as any remotely experienced air traveler knows) there was really no way we were going to be able to get off the plane in time. By the time we made it off the plane, our connecting flight wasn’t even on the board anymore. It was gone. There was no gate to run to (though Dad and I both admitted to being secretly happy we didn’t have to try to run anywhere). Hiccup number 4.
So…we proceeded to customer service, where we learned we’d already been rebooked on the next available flight to Fresno, which was at 9:11 p.m. You know, in 5 hours. FIVE HOURS! There weren’t enough seats for us available any earlier. We were bummed, but decided to roll with it. What else can you do? We went off to find something to eat (at Baja Fresh, my typical LAX food stop). Hannah played in front of the moving LAX sign for a loooooong time. We hung out in the gate area for awhile, just reading, playing on the computer, playing games, coloring, whatever. I was feeling pretty proud of all of us, but especially Hannah, for being able to deal with the challenges so patiently. Hannah is a rock star. Don’t let anybody tell you differently. (Speaking of rock stars, one of my constant pet peeves about flying to LAX is that I never see any famous people. I’ve been through there probably dozens of times, and never one famous person. This time, we spent 5 stinking hours hanging around, and still no famous people. What’s a girl gotta do?!?!)
A little while before our flight, we got up to wander around a bit, stretch our legs, go to the restroom, etc. We were feeling very happy to finally be leaving, since 5 hours is an awfully long time to spend in an airport, and the United terminal at LAX has shockingly little to do. While Hannah and I were waiting outside the restroom for Dad, I got a voicemail on my phone.
It was a friendly recorded voice from United, informing me that the 9:11 flight to Fresno had been canceled. CANCELED. After spending 5 HOURS in the airport.
At this point, I started to lose it a little bit. We went back to customer service. I talked to an agent there, who told me the plane was broken. For those keeping score at home, that was our SECOND broken plane of the day. But, we’d been conveniently rebooked on the next flight, which was at 10:25 or something ridiculous like that, and hopefully that one would go out because it was the last flight to Fresno for the night and every single flight the next morning was full.
I informed the agent that this was our second broken plane of the day, and we’d been stuck in the airport for 5 hours with a 5-year-old (she didn’t need to know it was the world’s most patient and wonderful 5-year-old), and that I was getting desperate to get the heck out of there. She was super-nice and sent me lots of emails with free stuff for all of us to choose from, for BOTH flights on Wednesday. Props to her. And again, I guess it’s better to know the plane is broken before it tries to fly somewhere with you in it. But seriously. That’s just insane.
Then it occurred to me that our new flight was supposed to get in at 11:30, and the Hertz rental car desk in Fresno closed at 11, and so I asked the nice customer service agent how that worked. She told me I should call Hertz, because 1) this was a regularly scheduled flight and 2) usually they’ll stay open for people who are coming in late.
At this point, Hannah was massively tired (we all were) and starting to get a little cranky, but I was still so proud of her for soldiering through. Dad assured her that usually flying wasn’t like this.
So. It was 9:00 at night. We’d been in the airport forever. We were all tired. And our bodies were still on Central time. And we knew we had an hour’s drive ahead of us once we landed (if we landed) in Fresno, assuming we could get a car. None of us were in a particularly good mental place, if you know what I mean. Time to call Hertz.
I had actually already called Hertz once that day, back when we thought we were getting in at 10:00. Now I needed to get them to stay late for us. So I called the reservation number and talked to someone there who told me she couldn’t enter our new flight information because it landed after the agent closed, and that I would need to call the agent directly to ask them to stay open. She gave me the number of the Fresno agent. I called it.
It was the wrong number.
Feeling more frustrated all the time, I Googled the number on my phone (thanks, iPhone!) and finally got the right one. I talked to the person at the desk, who told me that all I had to do was have reservations enter the new flight info, and then they would stay open for us. She was happy to transfer me.
Feeling a little hopeful now.
And then it went bad.
I got a new reservations agent. I explained our situation for the third time. She tried to enter the new flight information but couldn’t because it was landing after the local agent closed. I explained that I knew all that, and I’d already called the local agent and the local agent had transferred me to her.
She put me on hold for a looooong time.
When she finally came back, she told me that, gee, they just couldn’t enter the information, and they’d been trying to call the local agent and couldn’t get through. “Two supervisors have been calling,” she told me, but they were just having no luck at all.
I explained, as patiently as possible (which wasn’t very at this point), that I’d called the local agent myself, and had gotten a live person on the first try, so I absolutely knew there was someone there to answer the phone. I suggested nicely that they keep trying.
She put me on hold again. At this point, Dad was bribing Hannah with Doritos. She was very, very tired.
When the Hertz “customer service” agent came back, she explained to me that they were not able to reach the local agent, and that all I could do was run for the Hertz desk as soon as our plane landed and see if anyone was there.
And then I lost it for good, and there was no going back. Here is a rough transcript of our conversation:
Me: If the plane is landing after they close, how will it help anything if I run there after the flight has landed? Because they’ll be closed.
“Customer Service”: Ma’am, it’s just the best we can do. We can’t get through.
Me: I know there’s someone there. I talked to her. She transferred me to you.
“C.S.”: Ma’am, we’ve had two supervisors calling and they’re not getting through.
(Here I should have asked if they were using the right number, since they’d given me the wrong one before, but that seemed too smart-mouthed even for me.)
Me, officially starting to cry: So. IF I run to the desk, AND there’s no one there, WHICH there won’t be because they’ll be closed, what are my options?
“C.S”: Well, you’ll just have to come back in the morning.
Me, now fairly hysterical: If I don’t have a car, WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?
“C.S.”: Ma’am, I just don’t know, but that’s all you can do. It says here they will stay open late for regularly scheduled flights only, and with a minimum of four hours’ notice.
Me, completely gone: Look, I know this is not your fault, but I have been stuck in the airport all day with my family, and I need a car when we land. I need you to help me! (If I knew how to punctuate this with the sounds of my crying all over my phone, I would.)
“C.S.”: Hold please.
I went back on hold. Hannah, looking very worried, came to give me a hug.
When faux-customer service lady came back, she transferred me to her manager, Nicole, probably realizing that she was no match for a hysterical woman who’d been trapped in LAX all day. Nicole put me back on hold, but came back fairly quickly to let me know she had spoken to the woman at the local agent, Rebecca, and that Rebecca would be there to meet us when our plane landed.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanked Nicole profusely. I probably should have also suggested to Nicole that she have a stern conversation with her subordinate, who gave me perhaps the worst customer service I have ever received in my life. In what world is it acceptable to tell a customer that her best bet is to run for the desk and hope that somehow the space-time continuum will break, thereby making the agent stay open after closing time just because someone like my poor, tired family might happen to arrive late? UNACCEPTABLE. I was furious at that woman. I wish I’d written her name down, but it was probably for the best as it would have ruined my opinion of anyone else with that name for the rest of my life. So it’s better that I don’t know it.
So, that taken care of, we walked to our gate, and I called the hotel to tell THEM we’d be late (a nice desk clerk named Luann was very helpful and sympathetic, and suggested we get something to eat if we needed it because everything in Oakhurst would be closed by the time we got there). At this point, it wasn’t much longer till we’d be ready to leave on our last shot out of LAX.
Dad got up to walk to the restroom…and then he came back and said, “Uh, they’re boarding that other flight right now. The one we were supposed to be on at 9:11.”
At this point it was 9:30, and we didn’t know what was going on but we ran down to the gate and I got in line at the desk. Turns out they’d fixed the plane. I admit to a moment of misgiving where I thought, “What could be wrong with a plane that they could fix so fast?” But really, we just needed to get the heck out of LAX. I got our boarding passes switched and we cheered as we got on the plane. And then the plane took off, and it landed in Fresno at 10:50-something, and we made it to the Hertz counter by 11:00 after all.
Rebecca turned out to be very nice.
We got our car, an obnoxiously colored gold Toyota RAV-4. The electronic adjustment thing for the passenger side mirror was broken, but whatever. We got everything loaded up (including Hannah, who was passing out at that point), and drove off into the dark. An hour later, we were in Oakhurst.
It was exactly midnight. It had taken us 17 hours to go from our house to our hotel room. It was a horrible, awful travel day…but my family came through it like champs. Hannah was unbelievable in her patience. I was very thankful for our little trio and how we’d rolled with the punches. After all, the only one to totally lose it and go crazy was me, and I happen to think I was quite justified. I was pretty impressed that we all kept our spirits up for the majority of the long, long day. Hannah was our savior, I think, keeping her excitement and enthusiasm, even getting really jazzed about flying on a plane in the dark and making us smile up to the end. And after all, we made it safely…just a lot later than we’d expected.
Stay tuned…after this, the story gets a lot more fun.
Mom
It won’t last, but as of right now, I’m up to 2 days in a row.