This weekend is Oktoberfest in Cincinnati. When my little sister, who went to school in Cincinnati and still lives there, was a freshman in college, we went to parents weekend. It was held the same weekend as Oktoberfest (and a Bengals / Packers game, which is an entirely different story). Oktoberfest in Cincinnati is nuts. It is a lot of beer, brats, cream puffs, rubber chickens, chicken dances, chicken hats and buffoonery. I try and make the pilgrimage yearly. I was looking forward to the trip and some sister bonding time. I had been sick all week and my sister didn’t want me to drive by myself, by sheer luck, I find a cheap flight on American.
This morning, I woke up, did 2 quick loads of laundry, packed my suitcase (minus the clothes that were being washed), did the dishes, and took out the trash. I went to the laundry room to get my clothes, so that I could finish packing. One set was dry, the other drier was open and stopped and not one lick of the clothing was actually dried. I was left with 10 minutes before I need to leave, soggy underwear and no other clothes clean. I threw the soggy clothes into my suitcase and darted out the door.
I jumped on the bus to the blue line, which was slow as hell (thanks Cubs / Cardinals). Took the blue line to O’Hare and got to the airport with a little more than a half an hour to my flight. I dashed through the millions of miles of sidewalks between the conveniently located “L” and my terminal – god forbid a moving sidewalk ever work. Checked in at the terminal, hauled through security and ran to my gate, which of course was nowhere near where I had to go through security. Covered in sweat, I approached the gate as the lady was closing the door. I apologized for my delay and asked to check in. The guy (Carlos) at the gate told me after a minute that the flight was closed. I asked how that was possible since the door had just started to be closed as I was at the gate. He said that they close 10 minutes before the flight. Fair enough, but I was there before 10 minutes before the flight and I had already checked in – it wasn’t as if they weren’t expecting me. After talking about this for a few minutes, I pointed out that it was just 10 minutes before the flight now, to which a lovely (actually rude) woman held up her cell phone to show me that it was in fact 12:48 – my flight was at 12:57. Interesting that I could stand there and have a conversation with the people at the gate for several minutes and still only miss my flight by less than a minute. I would like to thank American for being completely accommodating and helpful. Oh, wait, that would be a lie. What I want to know is how I ended up on one of the only American flights running on time. Crazy.
Carlos, a.k.a Mr. Customer Service, put me on stand-by for a 4:34 PM flight. I asked if there was anything earlier on another airline. He said that I would have to talk to a supervisor at the terminal. By the way throughout all of this, the damn plane is still at the gate. Back to the terminal I go and I stand in line to talk to an agent. She tells me that the next flight is 3:45 PM on United Express, but asks me why would I bother, since there is not a big difference in time and since I would have to go standby on the other flight. Heeding her advice (she was actually nice), I kept my flight and went out to find a place to kill the next 3 hours at the airport.
I found a nice little bar, watched the first have of the ND vs. MSU game and killed time. At 3:30 PM, I headed to the gate just in case this one boarded and closed early. En route, I check the screens. Shock of all shockers, my flight’s gate has changed and it is now delayed until 5:10 PM. That is the American Airlines I know and love. Once again, I wander the airport, bored, because “G” is apparently the ghetto section of Terminal 3 and there is not a lot to do. Finally, close to 4, I decide to head over to the gate, figuring that they will start boarding in about a half an hour. Well, it is 4:43 PM, 9 minutes after the flight was supposed to leave and almost 4 hours after my original flight, and I am still sitting here. In true American fashion, we are now on our second delay. I was supposed to land in Cincinnati at 3:10 PM Eastern time. Now, I will be lucky if I am there by 8 PM. At this point the United Express flight will be landing before we board.
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