We sadly left Dan's parents house with the plan to get on our plane in Salt Lake, stop in Denver, and continue home to Houston. Kind of a long day, leaving at 11:30 am MST and getting home about 8:00 pm CST. Now looking back that timing looks pretty good.
We got to Denver right on time and ate and waited for our 2 hour lay-over. They were running behind and we got seated and settled about a half hour late. Then they told us we'd be sitting there, on the plane, for maybe an hour because they had to fix something that was broken. After a while they told us to get off, run 30 gates down the terminal and get on another plane cause this one wasn't going anywhere! We got to that gate and were told we'd board in "10 minutes-oops- make that 30-wait maybe an hour-there seems to be something wrong with this plane too! "
Dan and Ava, hour 7, Denver AirportThen they canceled our flight all together. Some lucky souls were booked on a later flight, others made it on standby on a different flight. Then there was us. We got nothin'! We stood in a huge line for a woman to tell us, they 'd be happy to send us on a shuttle to a hotel a half hour away and give us $30 bucks for food! Are you kidding me? And we could leave on a flight tomorrow morning. And I thought her reply to my request for a refund was classic. She told me, "We will refund your money only if you choose not to go to Houston." "Umm, we live there..." "Well then I cannot give you a refund."
We did a lot of this kind of waiting. Ava ran up and down those moving sidewalks about 7, 000 times.We got to our hotel at a quarter to 10. Wiped Luke's bum with toilet paper and headed out the next morning through the snow back to the airport. And we got home without incident yesterday about 3:45 pm.
This is me striking Dan's pose above, Day 2, Luke's situation speaks for itself. Just remember, no wipes!
"McDonald's again!"United Airlines: I thought you were awesome when you screwed up on our first flight and sent us straight on through to Salt Lake on Delta. You will be receiving a letter from me shortly. You stink.
I didn't write this for sympathy, only for venting. Thanks for bearing with me!
And I almost forgot, today I am grateful for: my bed
6 comments:
What an adventure! I can't believe the airline/airport isn't better prepared to help stranded people. They should have a fully equipped nursery with plenty of wipes and diapers and extra binkies. Plus, your shuttle driver could have stopped at a convenience store at the very least. Glad you made it home. Remember in the movie Signs...there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. I'm just saying.
Also, throughout the entire ordeal (and it surely was!), I bet you were thinking about what a great blog post it would make. Love the pictures. Chronicling life's adventures at its best.
HAHAHAHA! After I talked to you this afternoon, I thought to myself "Elise is going to write a great blog about all this!" You said you didn't want sympathy so all you're getting is some geniune belly laughs! So glad you made it home (finally)....I think for Christmas I may give you a supersize box of wipes! :)
Oh wow. I am soooo sorry. I once has a trip like that with Emma by myself...but not quite that bed. I did run out of diapers though and they wouldnt give me my luggage after being in the blasted dallas airport for 7 hours, when my layover was supposed to be about 45 minutes, just enough to catch my next flight...I sympathize with you. I'm excited to see your pictures, after you rest up!
Holy crow. It's one of those epic types of trips that is so hideous. You know you'll laugh about it someday, but the suckiness of it overwhelms you totally. Kind of like the time my Victoria's Secret water bra popped in a job interview with a school district. Yeah.
do you remember that we LIVE in denver?!?!?!? how did you not call us?!?!?! i'm telling myself that you forgot. and i don't want to hear any "we didn't want to inconvenience you guys" - that'll just make me mad! I'm so sorry for your crazy, crappy day! we'd DIE without binkis! and wipes! i'm so glad you survived and now get to complain about it for months to come, as you should!
but please, please, please don't write off denver so quickly... it really is a great little town :) just avoid the airport in the winter...or CALL US next time!!!
(ps, i just asked reid if he wanted to add anything, and all he said way "tell dan--go cougs"...i'm sure in his heart he's feeling your pain though)
ah, Emily, at the risk of making you mad...we didn't want to inconvenience you! I even had my mom look up your phone number for me, but as we waited and waited, it obviously just got later and by the time we got the final "you're not going anywhere", it was pretty late. I asked the baggage lady if Highlands Ranch was close and she said it wasn't. We had to be back early so...it's true, we remembered but didn't want to drag you guys into our messy situation! But we thought about you! And I have no malice against the city of Denver. Just United Airlines and the airport.
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