Want to hear about how my weekend went from a nightmare to a blessing? Of course you do.
On Friday I had a red-eye flight scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at 11:57pm. The flight ended up being delayed and we didn't actually board the plane till 12:00am so that was a rough start to begin with. After being in the air for an hour, we were just about to descend to land when all of a sudden the plane picked up speed and started to ascend again. Shortly after, the captain announced over the PA "Sorry folks, there is construction on the runway and I can't see the short emergency runway due to fog so we'll be landing in PHILADELPHIA instead".
Um, what?
By this time it's a little after 1am and passengers were furious from the bad news. We finally landed in Philly and learned that there were ZERO flights available the next morning to fly us all back to our original destination, Baltimore. On top of that, the airline agents said because the flight diversion was caused by weather, they would not be providing us with a hotel or a flight voucher and that we were completely on our own to rebook and pay for a flight to get us back to Baltimore. Also, because it was close to 2am, the airport and it's surrounding areas were all closed...which meant no rental cars (and food for a hungry preggo like me!).
Basically, we were stranded. And US Airways weren't going to do anything to help us.
SUPERB customer service, guys!
To top it off, things started to go further downhill from there. On top of being stranded, there were no cargo people working the airport at that asinine hour of the morning so we couldn't get our bags off the plane. People starting YELLING and shouting at the two airline agents there and passengers even started to fight with each other! My father-in-law was waiting for me in Baltimore so I was too busy to care what they were fighting about - I was desperately trying to find a way to recharge my dying phone so I could find a way out of the mess.
Anyway, I guess all of the anger and commotion finally forced the airline agents into action because they then informed us that US Airways was going to fly us back to Charlotte (our connecting flight from earlier), and then fly us to Baltimore at 7am the next day and we would be able to pick up our suitcases then as well. Sounds like a somewhat good deal right?
Well. At this point my father-in-law had learned what happened and was ALREADY ON HIS WAY from Baltimore to Philly. But because his phone was also dying and he couldn't charge his phone, he had turned it off so I had no way of reaching him to tell him about the new flight plan. I also learned from several passengers that the toll booths didn't accept credit/debit cards, only cash, which he had mentioned he didn't have on him. So now I was worried that he wouldn't be able to make it through the tolls, I was going to miss the flight going back to Charlotte>Baltimore, and that I would be REALLY stuck in Philly all weekend without my baggage. Talk about too much stress for a hungry, exhausted, almost 8 month pregnant chick, right?!
Finally, the plane left without me as I decided to stick it out and stay in the Philly airport on blind faith that my father in law would make it. And by almost 4am my father in law actually arrived to the airport. He was able to make it through the tolls by having them take a picture of his license plate and agreeing to pay the toll fees by mail later. And luckily he made the drive from Baltimore to Philly pretty quickly because it was so late and there was absolutely no traffic. So we then proceeded to make the drive back from Philly all the way to my in-laws house in Virginia, right outside of DC. We got home around 6:30 in the morning and I passed out right away from all of the exhaustion and stress.
After I woke up, my mother-in-law had kindly taken me to the local drugstore so I could pick up some essentials and makeup to look somewhat presentable for my baby shower that day. And my brother-in-law made his way into Baltimore to try and locate my suitcase. By the time the shower had started, I was still wearing what I had worn to travel in the day before but that didn't bother me too much since I was having too much fun by then to care. And about halfway through the shower, my brother-in-law had returned with my suitcase so I just changed then. All was finally well at this point :)
So after my hellacious night of traveling, I realized just how truly and beyond blessed I am to have such wonderful in-laws there for me at crisis when I needed them most. I was so touched that they all sacrificed their night of sleep to be there for me and their generosity and love really started the day off right for me. They saved the weekend and I ended up having an AMAZING time at my very first baby shower. Words could not express just how loved and blessed I felt, my cheeks STILL hurt from smiling so much. I was so happy :)
And now for some shower pics! Can't have a baby shower without delicious food, right?
Here I am in the clothes I wore to travel in (black dress, tan cardigan)...
On Friday I had a red-eye flight scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at 11:57pm. The flight ended up being delayed and we didn't actually board the plane till 12:00am so that was a rough start to begin with. After being in the air for an hour, we were just about to descend to land when all of a sudden the plane picked up speed and started to ascend again. Shortly after, the captain announced over the PA "Sorry folks, there is construction on the runway and I can't see the short emergency runway due to fog so we'll be landing in PHILADELPHIA instead".
Um, what?
By this time it's a little after 1am and passengers were furious from the bad news. We finally landed in Philly and learned that there were ZERO flights available the next morning to fly us all back to our original destination, Baltimore. On top of that, the airline agents said because the flight diversion was caused by weather, they would not be providing us with a hotel or a flight voucher and that we were completely on our own to rebook and pay for a flight to get us back to Baltimore. Also, because it was close to 2am, the airport and it's surrounding areas were all closed...which meant no rental cars (and food for a hungry preggo like me!).
Basically, we were stranded. And US Airways weren't going to do anything to help us.
SUPERB customer service, guys!
To top it off, things started to go further downhill from there. On top of being stranded, there were no cargo people working the airport at that asinine hour of the morning so we couldn't get our bags off the plane. People starting YELLING and shouting at the two airline agents there and passengers even started to fight with each other! My father-in-law was waiting for me in Baltimore so I was too busy to care what they were fighting about - I was desperately trying to find a way to recharge my dying phone so I could find a way out of the mess.
Anyway, I guess all of the anger and commotion finally forced the airline agents into action because they then informed us that US Airways was going to fly us back to Charlotte (our connecting flight from earlier), and then fly us to Baltimore at 7am the next day and we would be able to pick up our suitcases then as well. Sounds like a somewhat good deal right?
Well. At this point my father-in-law had learned what happened and was ALREADY ON HIS WAY from Baltimore to Philly. But because his phone was also dying and he couldn't charge his phone, he had turned it off so I had no way of reaching him to tell him about the new flight plan. I also learned from several passengers that the toll booths didn't accept credit/debit cards, only cash, which he had mentioned he didn't have on him. So now I was worried that he wouldn't be able to make it through the tolls, I was going to miss the flight going back to Charlotte>Baltimore, and that I would be REALLY stuck in Philly all weekend without my baggage. Talk about too much stress for a hungry, exhausted, almost 8 month pregnant chick, right?!
Finally, the plane left without me as I decided to stick it out and stay in the Philly airport on blind faith that my father in law would make it. And by almost 4am my father in law actually arrived to the airport. He was able to make it through the tolls by having them take a picture of his license plate and agreeing to pay the toll fees by mail later. And luckily he made the drive from Baltimore to Philly pretty quickly because it was so late and there was absolutely no traffic. So we then proceeded to make the drive back from Philly all the way to my in-laws house in Virginia, right outside of DC. We got home around 6:30 in the morning and I passed out right away from all of the exhaustion and stress.
After I woke up, my mother-in-law had kindly taken me to the local drugstore so I could pick up some essentials and makeup to look somewhat presentable for my baby shower that day. And my brother-in-law made his way into Baltimore to try and locate my suitcase. By the time the shower had started, I was still wearing what I had worn to travel in the day before but that didn't bother me too much since I was having too much fun by then to care. And about halfway through the shower, my brother-in-law had returned with my suitcase so I just changed then. All was finally well at this point :)
So after my hellacious night of traveling, I realized just how truly and beyond blessed I am to have such wonderful in-laws there for me at crisis when I needed them most. I was so touched that they all sacrificed their night of sleep to be there for me and their generosity and love really started the day off right for me. They saved the weekend and I ended up having an AMAZING time at my very first baby shower. Words could not express just how loved and blessed I felt, my cheeks STILL hurt from smiling so much. I was so happy :)
And now for some shower pics! Can't have a baby shower without delicious food, right?