Yesterday, I noted that my trip with my fiancée went quite well, until the return trip. It was quite simply one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had while traveling. Here, step-by-step, is everything that happened:
1) Our flight from Ontario, California to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport got delayed for an hour and a half because of bad thunderstorms in Dallas. Annoyance Level – Low; weather will be weather, and I wouldn’t want to fly if there’s a chance we wouldn’t be able to land.
2) My fiancée left her cell phone on the airport shuttle. Annoyance Level – Low; she is sometimes a bit forgetful, and with our flight delay, I had more than enough time to go back to car rental station to get her phone. Plus, we got a good laugh out of it.
3) When we landed in Dallas, we discovered that our connecting flight had already left. Annoyance Level – Moderate; it was a storm in Dallas that delayed our departure from sunny, clear-skied California, but apparently did not delay our connecting flight.
4) Our new connecting flight didn’t leave until six a.m. the next morning, meaning that we needed to stay overnight in hot, muggy Dallas. Annoyance Level – Low; at least American Airlines was trying to accommodate us.
5) The shuttle to our hotel didn’t show up, even after we waited outside for an hour and a half. Annoyance Level – High; we waited so long, watching so many other shuttles passing by for other hotels, and yet, the Baymont hotel at which we were staying never sent out a shuttle for us. Every time that we called, or any of the other passengers who were staying there called, we were told that the shuttle was on its way, although it never arrived (at least, not until after we and the other passengers gave up and just slept in the airport).
(Special Bonus Annoyance: I discovered, after looking at a map of the airport the next day, that there was a perfectly suitable Hyatt hotel located within the airport grounds itself. The Dallas/Fort Worth airport is shaped like a figure eight with three rings, with the Hyatt inside the middle ring. Instead, they sent us to the Baymont Inn, which was half an hour away.)
6) Eventually, we spent the night staying in the airport lobby, sleeping on some of the chairs near the baggage claim. Annoyance Level – High; not only did we have to stay in the airport, but since the TSA officers had gone home for the night, we couldn’t even get past security to sleep on, say, the comfy-looking kiddie play area seats.
Finally, we caught our flight, and were able to get back to Pennsylvania. I had to drive back home on almost no sleep (airport lobbies and planes aren’t the most conducive places to sleep), but then we were able to rest properly. It was one rather sad way to spend our return trip after we went out to California.
Sorry for all the venting, but I just needed to put this out there.
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