Live from an airport with no USO

Samantha175 · May 2011

I'm meeting my mother for a quilt show. I flew in earlier today as it was the only flight that I could get here today. My mom will be here in approximately 3 hours. The nest won't let me post from my iPod so I'm here looking for entertainment since people watching is getting old and some security guard on a segway keeps giving me the stinky eye.

So, what is your worst travel experience and/or your most entertaining experiece. I think this will be fun, maybe even helpful, for wives since we travel a lot and also wives to be since, if they don't travel a lot already, it's probably in the near future.

SarahP787 · May 2011

How about most embarrasing travel experience... just this weekend I was visiting Fi and instead of flying home on sunday night like I usually do, I found a cheaper ticket for Monday at 6.

So Fi drops me off at the airport absurdly early in the morning, he drives off to go to pt. I go through security, and wait at the gate for probably a good 45 minutes until 6am rolls around. No plane. No people waiting for a plane at my gate.

I'm confused and a little freaked out, wondering what is going on. I look at my boarding pass... and my flight was for 6PM. I bought the ticket a month ago! Emailed Fi the flight info! Who would even have guessed security would let you through more than 12 hours before your scheduled flight??

So of course I felt very stupid, and had to fly standby to get back home. I got back at 4pm instead of 9:30 like I had planned (but better than the 9:30PM my ticket was actually for!!)

mob2689 · May 2011

Mine was when my daughter and I flew to Lousiana to visit friends, when I booked it I had 2 choices of departure times, So we drove around New Orleans again took our time arrived 2 hours ahead of time, there was a long, long line to check your baggage.

My daughter forgot something in the car so my frind and her went to the car to get it and it was parked way away. While they were gone, I looked at my ticket, stood in line some more then I thought did I see the time correctly on my ticket? I looked again, and again, then went mad trying to find the time, when I did we had 8 min to get to go thorugh secuity and get to the gate b4 they closed it. IM mind I had the later flight : /

I paniced not sure to run to try and hold the flight or wait for my daughter to come back, I butted infront of everyone to try and have tthem hold the flight they couldn't. . After about 2 min there they came "strolling" in. I yelled at them what the problem was they came running told my daughter to just follow me as close as she could(she was 12) I took my shoes off and bolted down to security. We managed that no prb. (thankfully) and bolted agin to the gate, they were just touching the door to close it when I "got thier attention" We made it with not even a second to spare. We still talk about that:)

Hey that security guy on his seg way, ask him of his brother works at the mall LOL

kara811 · May 2011

H and I must have the worst luck with planes.

For our HM, we get a call at 3am from Delta informing us that our flight was delayed by 3 hours. So I call Alitalia to let them know the first leg of our flight was delayed, and for some reason, they said we had no flights at all. That our flight to Rome was somehow just cancelled, this was hours before we were supposed to take off for our HM. I spent 4 hours on the phone trying to figure it out. We eventually got to our destination. lol

Another one, we had a layover in Amsterdam. They must be one of the strictest airports I've ever been to. Immigration officers there asked us a bunch of questions, and they even said that H was not who he said he is. Because when they scan his passport, another person comes up for it! It was really weird, but they let us get on.

My last recent one was on my way to Tokyo just a little over a week ago. I had a layover in Detroit and got stranded there for a night because there was an unscheduled maintenance for the plane we were supposed to take. So I spent a night there with no bags, because the airline wouldn't release our bags or anything. So I bought clothes and toiletries at the airport and was sent to a Best Western to stay the night there and took a flight the next morning.

I've got more stories, but these are the most recent. lol

AmandaSC1988 · May 2011

When my FI had been at A-school for about a month I flew out to see him one weekend. A week or so after we bought the ticket we found out he was doing Night Classes and wouldn't get out of class until 10pm. Not really a problem because I had planned on renting a car for the weekend anyway. FI offered to pay for the rental anyway, I told him to make sure they take debit cards because I had not gotten my credit card yet.

I fly in at 3 and go directly to the rental car place, they give me trouble because I am under 25 (I'm 22), and after telling them I have good insurance and I didn't need all of their "extra" stuff, I tell them their should be a number on file for the credit card..because my FI talked with them the day before telling them our situation....They had told him the day before it wasn't going to be a big deal.

Apparently it was....I couldn't even call him to get verification because he was in class...Long story short they won't rent me the car until I get a credit card... I am freaking out because I am going to be sitting at the airport for 7 hours.

I call the enterprise because I have worked with them before and never had a problem with only having a debit card. I talk to them over the phone and get it all figured out... I then get the pleasure of going back to the rental car desk and talking with the enterprise people which were RIGHT next to the other company. The look on the other company rep's face when I priceless when I took my business elsewhere. AND he waived the underage fee and gave me the government discount (I was working for the Government at the time).

Moral of the Story--Always rent from Enterprise...I use them ALL the time and have NEVER had a problem.

SamiJoeB · May 2011

I was still AD, and taking leave. I was trying to fly space a to Japan to see DH, I didnd't have my car yet so I had to take the shuttle to Sea-Tac, which broke down, the Ferry was delayed because of the tides, and then the plane was delayed by 2 days due to a bird strike (That must have been an entire flock of hawks that got sucked into an intake for it to take 2 days, I worked with jets and we had bird strikes all the time), I only had so many days of leave on my leave chit, so H bought me a ticket like 6 hours before tje flight took off. Because of all the space a people, the USO was packed, they were only letting people sleep in the bunk beds for like 20 mins. I couldn't even sit down on a couch!! I finally just went to the United counter at like 2 am and sat down with all my stuff to wait for them to open at 5.

At least I was first in line...

calindi · May 2011

I was flying home for Easter, and FI dropped me off at 5:30am for my 7:30am flight. Usually I'd have him drop me off at like 6:30am since I wasn't checking a bag but he wanted to work out, so he dropped me off early. Well, it's a darn good thing he did! I get to the security checkpoint and can't find my license. I even had the woman in line before me go through my wallet to see if maybe I was just missing it. Didn't have it. So I called FI so he could run home and grab it and bring it back (we only live 10 minutes from the airport) but he wasn't answering, which meant he left his phone at home. So I ran downstairs and flagged down the first taxi and told him to rush me home and back and I'd tip for quickness! On the ride, I remembered that I had taken my license out the previous weekend for a 10k race I was doing so I could get my race packet. I had left it in the race bag, but I wasn't sure where the race bag was so I just was going for my passport. I ran in the house, and FI was on the other side of the door with a baseball bat since he wasn't expecting anyone to try the front door! I shouted, "It's just me! I forgot my license!!!" Luckily he put down the bat and helped me get my passport and I ran out the door. The taxi driver was great and got me back and I made my flight. I literally walked straight on the plane - they had already started boarding. I had priority boarding, so I just walked past everyone and got on. Phew! Close call!

shan87 · May 2011

I have so horrible stories... My family travels a lot so I'll only share my Top 3.

#3 -- My family and FI were traveling to my Uncle's lake house in IL. From MN we took a plane to Chicago then we were getting on the Amtrak (4hr ride) and my Uncle was picking us up from there. (My Dad loves to make the trip as cheap as possible, including trains planes and automobiles LoL) Well at the time I was living 15mins from the airport so FI and I were going to meet the fam at the airport. My roommate didn't want to drive us to the airport, so we took a taxi. I got there to check in and I didn't have my wallet. FI and I went to the gym the night before and I never took it out of my gym bag and put it back in my purse. FI was super mad at me, long story short he checked both our bags (YAY SOUTHWEST!) and we took a taxi back to my apt my roommate met us at the door took the taxi back to the airport. They had just started boarding by the time we got there. I flight like we were on the amazing race, minus luggage haha.

#2 -- My trip back to the States from Ireland. I studied abroad for a full semester in College in 2007. I went the fall semester and their finals go all the way up to the week of Christmas. Unlike in the states that usually let out Dec 12th ish. My Flights back were scheduled for 6AM Dec 23rd. Which is 9 hrs ahead of US time. I got the the airport at 3AM. I was flying through London and there was some nasty weather. 6AM came and went and my flight was never called. They called my name over the intercom, when I checked in they said no flights were going through London but they did find us a direct flight to Chicago that left after lunch. The problem it was a different airline so I had to go to baggage claim get my 2 huge suitcases and recheck in. I did and waited for my flight. We had to stop in Dublin and go through customs at which pt they found a problem with the plan and waited a few more hrs. I had a feeling I was going to be WAY late for my connection in Chicago. Get to Chicago (9PM central time but I am already on the next day on Ireland time) and all flights are cancelled to MN because of the storms and snow, so bad that Minneapolis had to shut down all the run ways because they couldn't keep up with the snow. It was one of the largest storms and caused a major Charlie Foxtrot (Cluster F---) to get out of. I cried at the desk and the lady more out of exhaustion and the mess and it was Christmas time!! She got me on the first outbound flight at 7AM. People were camped out in tents and I had about 5 pieces of luggage -- Thank God, I have family in Chicago, my uncle came and picked me up and let me crash at his place for a few hours then brought me back to the airport to catch the early morning flight. I ended up back in MN before lunch on Christmas eve. I just wanted to sleep for days but couldn't.

#1. By far the worse and why I will never fly Northwest. I gave Delta a shot when they bought them out, but 3 more bad experiences and I am done with them too. Coming back from Puerto Rico (mom, sister and I went on a cruise). First they shuttle everyone from the ship to this tiny airport all at once. The airport can not handle that many people, but w/e. We have to hang out for 4-6hrs until our flight leaves. We get on the flight and the engine wont start. Don't worry folks the pilot says, we got have to manually start it. WTH! Since they can't start the engine we have no moving air, AC, toilets, NOTHING. Waited over an hour with no air and they bring the wrong size truck over to start it. Another 2 hrs and they get the engine working. Then we go to take off and there are iguanas on the runway. Which apparently a plane can't run over or they will hydroplane, because they let our this sticky oil like substance as a natural defense. We again wait HOURS for people to come shoo them off the runway and all the planes take off. The flight attendants were terrible. During this long wait my sister asked for some water or something to drink and the lady snapped at her and told her to stop being a brat. umm What? We've been stuck on this plane for 6 hours now? Then we they did finally hand out drinks by the time they got to us they ran out. They gave no apologies and were the rudest people I have ever met. I had a panic attack because I am claustrophobic and couldn't breathe with the lack of air exchange and they told me to suck it up. I had to manage it myself for the 6 hr flight. Total Time on the plane = 12hrs. This was before the airlines came up with new regulations on wait time.

Live from an airport with no USO

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