Murphy's Law
Due to extra construction at night on the entrance to the Airport in Toronto I woke up at 2am so that I could be driven to the airport at 2:30 and be there 3 hours before my international flight as it takes an hour to drive from St Catharines Ontario to Toronto.
As I stood in line to check and pay for my extra baggage the American airlines counter opened at 4:30 and not 4am. I then paid for my extra luggage bag and checked it Friday August 17th for flight number AA1169 not knowing that I would not see it again until Thursday August 23rd 2018 at 5:30pm.
I walked into the airport went through customs and looked around for a Tim Hortons and found nothing but Starbucks on both sides of the airport. Checking on my cell phone that battery was almost dead and I tried to find a plug but there was none so I turned it off and fell asleep.
I woke up around 7am to learn that my flight has been delayed and that they would be bringing out breakfast. I showed the lady at the counter that I had another flight to ketch in Dallas that did not leave until 6:45pm flight AA2313 and asked if there would be any problems with catching this flight? She said there would be no problems and I feel back asleep-ish. Then got up had some breakfast off the tray and sat there until 11am and had lunch again provided by you guys. To me, the day was not half bad so far!
Then 12:00 came and I went to the washroom and when I came back there was a line at the counter and I thought great the plane is ready. So not true and they said it was delayed longer and I stood in the back of the line to check that I would still ketch my next flight out of Dallas. You see I had a work trip in Dallas and although I had planned a trip to Canada just before my birthday when the plane tickets were half the price. Because my driver’s license and health card were going to expire and I needed to go home and have them renewed. Work had a last minute trip to a sales expo for me to present some new marketing tools. So by the time I received my credit card from work and paid off my plane ticket to Dallas, the price of a plane ticket to Canada had doubled and at least now I knew what flight I could book to go home to Canada and return. The travel agent insisted that I should take the plane trip back with a 12 hour layover in Dallas.
So now on Friday the 17th at noon waiting in line they announced that the plane was canceled and that they would be opening another counter on the other side of the airport to help with rebookings. As I walked all the way over there with some of the other passengers.
When I got to the counter the lady behind the desk said that I could take a flight from Toronto to Chicago to Dallas and would be there at 7:30pm as I explained to here that I would be left without a plane to fly back home and were they going to just leave me in Dallas? She said while it’s not a connecting flight I cannot help you with that. As I pointed out that one was paid for with a work credit card and one was paid for with a personal credit card. Making sure both were with your company and 12 hours apart to expect for delays. Then I told her that two weeks ago when I started this journey I had one promises to my family that I would be back home for my birthday to spend it with them on August 19th. AS she called her manager she said that she could get me a flight tomorrow and I asked will I be staying in a hotel and she asked me if I lived in Canada and I told her my parents lived in St Catharines quite a ways away from the airport. There I could see the empathy in her eyes as I thought of my wife and children who I had not seen for what felt like a very long time.
She booked me the flight to Chicago aa3080 and then the connecting flight to Dallas aa2501 that day and the next day August 18th at 10:05am I would fly home by noon and my luggage would be waiting in Mexico.
Of course, my Mexican cell phone could not get service and I could not find an opened WiFi single to use to tell my wife of the delay. Even sitting on the plane in airplane mode on the plane's WiFi I could not use Skype. I was told when I got to Chicago I would need to check where to board the plane as that spot was blank. Also, the seat was blank as I did not realize the printing was under the little square where the seat number should be as the boarding time was in the right spot. They also had a line when I found where my plane gate was of people waiting for seats. At this point at was 4:25pm and I had been up since 2am. I waiting for the plane to board and asked if my name was on that list and she said I already had a seat and should hurry on the plane to Dallas, as I had to check my carryon luggage by that point.
At 7something I arrived in Dallas and a guy tried to pick a fight with me on the plane as I was getting off. There were 4 people staying standing in their seats not going out into the lane on the plane. So the lady beside me walked past them. I assumed they must be waiting for someone further back in the plane as that sometimes happens and since I checked my carryon I went to walk past them as the guys checks me and swears at me. While I was just trying to get away from the pilot sitting beside me so I did not get him sick from this cough I had already started to have.
Then I went and stood in line at the American Airlines counter to get my hotel room for the night. Very nice people behind the counter and the lady was, in the end, able to help me as I showed here all the tickets I had at that point. Where she said I had a complicated ticket and the lady asked for help from the other lady and I heard them say while what were we going to do just let him wander around this airport all night (again empathy) There I asked where to pick up my carryon luggage while I received my hotel room and 12.00 food voucher. I got my carryon and went to get on the shuttle.
When I got to my hotel it was 10pm and I called my wife who was still waiting in the airport to pick me up and I told her what happened and to go home. I asked the lady behind the desk at the Marriott how the food voucher worked and she said it would be 12.00 towards anything I ordered and I asked how much breakfast was and she said 12 or 13 bucks for the buffet and I had assumed that was what the voucher was for.
I went to my room in the basement and fell asleep by 11ish pm until 6am where I went for breakfast and ordered the buffet and when my bill came in it was $23.00 for the buffet. See after staying at the Hilton where it was only 9.00 for breakfast buffet I had assumed 13 bucks was fine not 23 for the same crap.
So I gave my voucher paid the difference got my luggage met this nice blind guy going the same way as me and went to the airport for 7am to make sure to be there 3 hours before an international flight again.
As I waited for the plane there was another delay in the fight aa387 at 10am for 2 hours as they fixed the plane. There I sat waiting and over the announcements I heard that on that fight they were offering 650 USA dollars in flight voucher for people to take the 6pm flight and I thought to myself with that kind of money I could take my wife to that las Vegas trip she always wanted to go on. But no amount of money could keep me away from my children at this point!
Then when they said the flight was delayed another 3 hours I stared at my children on my cell phone and asked the guy if this was going to be like my last flight where it would be delayed until it was canceled and he said it shouldn’t be as they were fixing it right now.
When the snake tray arrived all I could think of was oh no I am not getting out of here and got a snack and before I could finish it the plane was ready to be boarded and by that time my wife was going to meet me at the airport after her third trip there.
So I got on the plane and sat down in the front for the first time in my life. As a flight attendant came to me and asked me if I was traveling alone and would like to move to the emergency exit and the guy behind the counter came to her at that moment and said he found someone and just not to bug me. Again empathy from the employees. Something lacking in everywhere.
As the flight took off and the man lifted his arms to the most undelightful odor that had some hang time I turned up my air and looked out my window seat, not a middle seat. So we landed in the airport around 5pm and I thought at least I will get out of the plane first and they opened the back door for the first time I had ever seen in my life and half the plane exited before they got the front opened.
I got off the plane sat on the bus for it to fill up and went into the airport to wait for my luggage that never came. So after everyone left I called my wife waiting for me and told her to ask someone at the counter what to do because there was no one at the help desk inside the airport for American airlines as she was trying to keep a one-year-old and a three-year-old from running away from her the whole time.
Finally, a man comes to the counter and when it is my turn I did the shuffle back and forth between customs and that counter and gave the guy my cell phone having my full address on it and went out to see my children and wife. We went home had a pizza, cake, and a 12 pack of beer party that took me all weekend to drink.
The next morning for the first time in my life I had a decade birthday as I turned 40 with my own family as we went to a waffle house for breakfast and to the Japanese gardens until being home for after 3pm on Sunday, August 19th 2018.
Then Monday came around for work and I worked from home and Tuesday I could not stop coughing had a headache and went to the doctor for antibiotics that I have had to stay home from work all week to not get anyone else sick and cost 400 pesos. Everyday calling asking about my luggage getting the same call back in 4 hours. Wednesday they said it would be delivered by 11pm and when it was not I called on 23/08/2018 in the morning and asked what address was being used and they gave the city as real de valle when that is the name of my gated community that your planes fly over my house on every day. Giving the correct address he said they would be there between 2pm and 5pm as I needed to go for my next injection of antibiotic at 5pm and when I called they said it would be there in 10 minutes or so. So I waited and it did show up I had my bag.
So I went to the doctors got my shot and he said my blood pressure is 140 over 90 at this time. Why I cannot concentrate and stay focused at work right now.
The question is did everything go wrong? Or did everything end up right?
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