The World Needs More Ninjas

After the amazing first act matched by an equally entertaining second act, I could hardly wait to see what my latest trip had in store. This one was to San Antonio. The first leg of the flight was Champaign to Chicago on American. Then, there was a twist where I had to transfer to United for the second leg of the trip. First time I can remember switching airlines like this…and hopefully the last.

The flight to San Antonio went fine…nothing out of the ordinary to report. Then came the return trip, which started with United. The takeoff leaving San Antonio was delayed by about 30 minutes because the plan was late showing up. At the gate, they said this was due to weather. When Leigh Ann checked online, it said that it was due to crew change problems. This seems to be a reoccurring theme that when flights get delayed, airline employees have no freakin’ clue why and immediately start pulling out any standard excuse they can think of…maintenance, weather, crew problems.

So the flight goes fine and we touch down in Chicago about 25 minutes late at 8:15 pm. My flight to Champaign was scheduled to leave at 8:52 pm. In another reoccurring theme, there was no gate available for our flight to deplane. So, we pretty much just sat there. And sat there. Then the pilot pretty much took a leisure drive all the way around the terminal until we finally pull up to the gate at 8:35 pm. That’s 20 minutes of good old ground sitting for no particular reason in addition to the previous 25 minutes delay. Then, of course, I have to wait for them to get my carry-on out since I had to plane side check it. So, a little after 8:40 pm, I finally get my bag and head off to try to catch my flight.

Here’s the bad thing about switching airlines: you have to go across kingdom come to reach your new gate. From my gate at Terminal 1 to my gate at Terminal 3 in O’Hare was at least a mile which some stairs and escalators thrown in for good measure. I ran the entire way with my laptop bag and rolling carry-on, stopping only to ride the escalator a couple of time. I was sweating by the time that I finally reached the American terminal and didn’t see my flight listed on the departure screen. This was 8:57 pm. I immediately went to the first American agent I saw and asked what was up with the flight. She said that it had already left. The supreme irony comes from the fact that American loves delaying and cancelling the Champaign flight to their heart’s desire. Now, the one time that I could have used even a ten minute delay, they take off not just on time, but five minutes early. She said that it left the gate at 8:48 pm. And, just for the record, that’s the last flight to Champaign for the night. I begged to see if there was any way to get on the flight since it was only five minutes past its scheduled departure time. Of course, the answer was no.

So, I had to ride the shuttle home from Chicago again (I got a voucher from American). This in and of itself was a mini-adventure. The shuttle comes every three hours. It departed at 9 pm, but of course I couldn’t catch that (the shuttle placed is a long way from the terminal). So, I waited around for the midnight shuttle. I called the shuttle service about 10 pm to make sure that it would be coming at midnight and she said yes. So, about 12:10 am, I call the shuttle company again to see when the driver will be there (in my experience, they are never late). She tells me that the driver didn’t come to O’Hare because a couple of people with reservations had cancelled. The catch-22 is that people with vouchers aren’t allowed to make reservations and, evidently, the shuttle doesn’t always come when there aren’t explicit reservations. So, basically, I had to wait for the 3 am shuttle to come and didn’t get back to Champaign until 6 am where Leigh Ann lovingly came to pick me up. I even broke down and paid $7 for WiFi access in the airport after I found out that I’d be there until 3 am with nothing else to do. Oh, and I ended up with some nice shin splints from my futile running. So, let this be a lesson that if you’re going to run through the terminal, you should try to set aside some time to do stretching in preparation

So, if you’re keeping score at home, the past three times in a row that I’ve flown through Chicago, I’ve ended up riding a shuttle back to Champaign instead of the original plan of using a plane.