Why I've been quiet lately

[Lonewolf Ed]

You've been awful quiet lately, Lonewolf Ed. Don't be afraid to speak up!

I saw this notice when I returned from a 3 week trip to Denmark yesterday. I was supposed to be back Tuesday, but thanks to United Airlines, I spent 18 hours in Dulles and Reagan National airports in D.C.

Everything went great until I got off my SAS plane in D.C. at 3:00 pm. My flight to KC was on time for a while, then it got delayed an hour because of bad weather (supposedly), then my flight got changed to a different terminal. The departure time was moved up 15 minutes, so I thought that was good. After sitting on the plane for an hour, we were informed that due to storms in the area (it was a bit overcast, but storms?) they could not load our luggage or fuel the plane. A few minutes later, the captain said our flight was cancelled and we'd have to go to customer service for the next step.

When I got back inside the airport, I saw about 200 people ahead of me in line. It was 9:00 pm, and originally, I was supposed to leave at 6:58 pm for KC. At 11:00 pm, I got to speak to one of the three agents that were dealing with us. Three is all they had! I should mention that there were maybe 100 behind me, too. So, I talk to the guy and he tells me he can get me on a flight to KC at 8:30 am. I asked when it arrived in KC. He said 3:30 pm, because I have to go to Denver first. I've already been up for 26 hours at this point, and I said I needed a hotel room, since I started out in northern Denmark. Well, the hotel rooms were all gone, long before I got to talk to anyone. Great, now I have to sit in the airport all night.

The couple I had chatted with while waiting got a direct flight to KC. I went back and said I wanted that, too. It was on US Airways, so he was trying to keep me on United. I had not thought to ask for another airline, but thanks to my new friends, I got a different line. The early flight was now booked solid, so I could get the 12:05 pm one, and arrive in KC at 1:30 pm local time. I said fine, because that was still better than a 3:30 pm arrival. Doing the math, I was now looking at a 21 hour stay in a fuggin' airport. I then discovered that while we were in line waiting, TWO flights left for KC, and my suitcase was on one of them. No agents came to tell us to try to get on the other flights. We had been told that the weather had shut the airport down. Well, it had, but for like twenty minutes, and it sprinkled some. A woman behind me got to the counter to talk to an agent, and she was pissy right away. She listed several demands, but none were met, so she went totally insane and began screaming at the agent, and beating on the counter. She cussed him, calling him everything in the book, and more than once. The entire terminal could hear her. F YOU! F YOU! YOU SON OF A BITCH! G DAMN YOU! G DAMN YOU! And she stormed off before security could come and taser her to death, continuing to cuss up a storm as she went.

The couple I had been chatting with said we could share a ride over to Reagan National, and we got 6 others to go as well. It was about 25 miles to Reagan, and we arrived at midnight. I tried to sleep, but the cleaning crews were busy, and when I finally did drop off for about ten minutes, my elbow slipped off the armrest of the chair, and I was awake again. The hours crawled by, and finally at 5:00 am, ticket agents began to arrive. I had seen that Midwest had a 7:00 am flight to KC, so I asked about it, hoping that if it was less than 200 bucks, I'd hop on it and shave five hours off my wait. It had been cancelled since the plane was unable to arrive the previous night. So, my only option was to try for a stand-by seat on the 8:35 am flight. Otherwise, I'd have to take the one at noon. I was far from the only one to be tortured. One lady close to me in the line had a small baby, a year old tops. She was trying to get to KC and had started out in Africa. I saw her when I arrived at 3:00 pm as they herded us to Customs, so I know she had to have been travelling at least as long as I had, if not longer. The agent told her at 11:00 pm when she got to talk to one, they could put her on a flight to KC at 5:50. She asked if it was in the morning. No, 5:50 pm. And there are no rooms anywere. How in the hell was she supposed to stay there in the airport for over 26 hours with a baby? The crowd spoke up and demanded that they do something for her, and it was getting ugly. No one was happy. They had no hotel rooms, no food vouchers, no cab vouchers, nothing. The dirty little secret is, if they blame everything on the weather, they don't have to compensate you. So, pay attention the next time you travel. EVERYTHING that goes wrong and causes delays is the weather. "Oh, the plane is stuck in Toronto because of a storm..." Uh, huh. Right. Sure.

I finally caught a break and got one of two stand-by seats, so my 18 hour and 35 minute stay in Washington D.C.'s airports was coming to an end. I didn't sleep much on the flight, because of the noise, turbulence, and the general discomfort of plane seats. I arrived in KC and went to the baggage claim at United. I told the lady my suitcase arrived almost a day before I did, and I'd have preferred the reverse. "Oh, no, we don't want that," she said. "Then we have to pay to drive your bags to you." But, me sitting in airports for 18 hours didn't seem to bother anyone. If I'd had the least bit of energy, which I did not after having been on the go for over 40 hours, I'd have told her a thing or two, but then, what would be the point? All I cared about was getting home, taking a much needed shower, and going to sleep. That was the last time United would ever be seeing me. I am done with them.

I hope that poor lady and her baby got a flight to KC earlier than I did, because I know she had only one carry-on bag with her, and I am sure she didn't have diapers and food to last her for a day in one place. All the words I know with which to express displeasure and outrage are not sufficient to describe what I feel. Now I am trying to readjust to seven hours behind Denmark, and am trying to recover from the most horrendous experience in an airport I have ever had to endure.