Total Drama Airplane

I really hate to start out a trip blog on a downer, but...

"Why does anyone fly United" - quote from US Airways nice lady in Rochester.

We were diverted from Dulles to Harrisburg, PA (Hi Deb!) due to a thunderstorm over Washington. We got refueled and were back in the air within a half hour. Then got to Dulles late, so the connection to Albany had already left. So we rebooked to Albany, found a hotel, and slept. (Hi Jane!) This was about 2am, got up about 5am to catch a taxi back to the airport.

The rescheduled flight, which we were lucky to get on, was United to Rochester, then US Airways to Albany. Go look at a map.

You know how you think you've seen people before, but they aren't wearing the same clothes, so you don't know if you really recognize them? Not a problem on this flight. About 6 of our fellow passengers were still in yesterday's clothes.

Got to Rochester with no problems. Great airport. They had a playground for the kids, even, right next to the gate. Problem was, the idiot the night before had printed a "needs paper ticket" ticket for the US Airways flight, so they couldn't let us on the plane. With 10 minutes before takeoff, the nice man and lady from US Airways called United to get a number so they could let us on the plane. United didn't want to give them that number without doing "research." We all protested. I got on the phone and gave them what-for. He accused me of yelling at him. I almost said, "if you think this is yelling, you should wait until you make me miss the flight." At that point, the nice lady got on the phone and gave them what-for. At the same time, the nice man took our boarding passes from the last flight and figured out the number. He said "go" before he had finished the transaction. I like those people. I'm going to write a letter to US Airways about them. And another letter to United explaining the great "opportunity" to increase customer relations. "Opportunity" is code for "big problem" in the corporate world.

Ok, then it turns out that the plane to Albany stops in Buffalo. Look at the map again. Yes, it's about a 20 minute flight from Rochester to Buffalo. Faster to drive, but ok, they can stop there, it's a nice day and I'm going to make it to my 7:30pm meeting in Yorktown Heights. Problem is, the copilot for the second leg is over his hours for the week. So the nice pilot from the last flight has agreed to fly us to Albany. Pilots? Check. Passengers? Check. Paperwork? Uh oh. We sat on the ground for another hour waiting for paperwork. I should have got emotional on them like I did with the United guy. The good news is the kids got to go up to the cockpit like we did when we were kids. They both think it looks a lot like the flight simulator video game on Granny's computer.

Made it to Albany. You think the drama's over, do you? Not yet. We had called the car rental place to make sure we'd have the minivan the next day. They had then changed our reservation and the new price was $600 higher. I booted up my laptop and showed her the original reservation (we didn't have a print copy because the printer died just before we left) and everything turned out ok.

Oh, and the bags made it to Albany before us, on the early direct Dulles-Albany flight, the one that the nice man in Rochester said that United had booked us on without telling us. sigh.

And we made it to Yorktown Heights without falling asleep at the wheel. And I made my meeting. And the last day of the conference. And my session went well. And we slept. Oh, how we slept.

We are now back outside of Buffalo and I need to get the kids up so we can go see Niagara Falls. I'll take pictures for you. No more drama.