United we fly, divided we get delayed
If there’s anything I learned from my trip to Italy with my Latin class, it was: Don’t fly United Airlines. Ironically, we study the Odyssey in class… but we ended up experiencing an odyssey of our own.
Here’s the story of the whole ordeal. My group and I were supposed to fly from here to Washington DC and then from Washington DC to Rome. The time between our flights in Washington DC was barely over an hour (Lesson learned: 1 hour is not enough) However, due to the chaos with Southwest Airlines being sued for not inspecting their airplanes, our own airplane was late arriving because it was being inspected. [Delay: 45 mins] It finally came, we boarded, and the plane was heading out onto the tarmac to take off. Just prior to take off we are informed by the pilot that we can’t take off because a “ground stop” has been instituted at the DC airport. We don’t know why or for how long, but no planes can take off for DC until the ground stop has been lifted. We groan and wait for it to lift. [Delay: 20 mins] Finally, the ground stop is lifted, but due to the amount of flights delayed by the mysterious ground stop, our flight is at the end of a long queue. Our pilot tells us we are set to take off in 2 HOURS. I pull out the tissues cuz I am ready to cry. We will miss our flight to Rome for sure. However, there is some negotiating between our people and their people, and we get put on a priority list so we can make our flight to Rome. Yay! But hold the applause.
Relieved, we land in Washington DC about 2 hours later. As we taxi to the gate, I look at all the other planes lined up to take off. There are lots of enormous planes bound for overseas. We get to the gate, and we dash to the gate for our Rome flight. We arrive, stressed and breathless, to find the gate as barren as a desert. The flight? It’s gone. We passed it on the runway.
They were supposed to hold the flight for us (we were only 15 mins late and we were put on the priority list primarily to get there on time). However, they did not want to take 15 minutes to transfer our luggage from one plane to the other. There’s only one flight to Rome a day, so we are screwed, screwed, screwed. We must stay in Washington DC for 24 hours and then hope and pray for spots on the following day’s flight. That’s okay, I didn’t want to see the Island of Capri anyway. What’s ironic is that we missed our flight because they didn’t want to transfer our luggage and have it arrive a day late– however, when we were layed-over in DC, we didn’t have our luggage anyway. [Delay: 24 hours]
So we stayed in DC for a day. The airlines thankfully put us up somewhere and gave us meal vouchers– if they hadn’t, I’m pretty sure we would have slept on the streets. DC was okay, but it was no Italy. At last, we return to the airport. There are some spots on the next direct flight to Rome merely because a large schoolgroup missed their connection because of storms in Chicago. (sucks, but THANK YOU) However, they can’t fit us all. Half the group goes straight to Rome, and the rest have to fly to Frankfurt, Germany first. Guess what group I’m in.
So my shrinking group of companions takes off for Germany. We arrive at around 6 in the morning and chill out at the airport for 5 hours until the flight to Rome. After a few gate changes, we arrive to the right gate only to find that our entire group of 12 people is on standby for what might be an entirely booked flight because United didn’t book it properly. We spend 20 agonizing minutes watching others board, wondering if we’re going to be stranded in Germany for another day. (This is where a stress ball would have come in handy.) At long, drawn-out last, we are allowed to board the plane. One of my friends didn’t even have a seat, and had to sit next to the flight attendant. But 20 minutes later, we were in the air and on our way.
[ TOTAL DELAY: 32 HOURS ]
Thus ended that part of my personal Odyssey. Unfortunately, just about the same thing happened on the way back to the U.S., but our time in Italy was worth it.
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