Showing posts with label delays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label delays. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

One small step at a time....


Another update from the same day, but no free wifi here. No I'm not on a plane, even though I should be. I was supposed to be on my way soaring over the Atlantic towards Copenhagen, but instead I'm in this nice Hilton in the windy city. Yes, Chicago. I'm here for the night because the flight from YVR was delayed and so of course I missed my connection.

Reasons for this:
1) I sat at the back of the plane and had to wait about 3-5 mins to get out
2) We arrived in Terminal 1
3) I have never been in Chicago O'Hare
4) I had to find the metro thing and take it to Terminal 5
5) Find out O'Hare is a huge-ass airport with many corridors
6) Surprisingly had to go through security, AGAIN.
7) The gate I had to run to was not as close to security as I thought.
Conclusion=missing my flight by about 4 mins

I was hopeful while on the metro thing as I chatted with a man who had missed 2 flights already that night. He had gone back and forth between terminals a few times already. Then security appeared and took their sweet time, even though I was the only one. I pleaded with them to hurry and asked if they could please call the gate to tell them to wait. Nope, the man just looked at me and drawled and asked me to take off my jacket and shoes. Shoes, jacket, and laptop all had to come out. Then I had to wait till they scanned it slooooowwwwly and then picked everything up, threw on my shoes and ran down to the gate. Too late. The plane wasn't even there anymore. SIGH. Efficient Danes.

So tonight I will enjoy the luxurious beds and free toiletries, and a complimentary meal in the morning. Rather than going to Denmark, I will explore a new airport when I leave here at 2:30pm to go to Frankfurt. No SAS, so I hope the United flight is good and maybe they will serve German food or something. :D Then it's down to Madrid via Spanair as well, arriving at 9:55am on Thursday rather than Wednesday night. Oh well.

Tomorrow I will have to go make sure my luggage (poor things are sitting in hold somewhere...) gets out of Chicago and goes to my ultimate destination!! Don't want them to be lost and stuck here forever....that would be bad, very bad....

The only blip in this is the hassle this is causing my friend who has graciously offered to pick me up and deliver me to my destination!! Hopefully he gets the messages and won't leave his house without checking.....

Okay, next update hopefully from Spain!!! It sure is taking long to get there.....

A slow start...

Well the wonders of technology has its ups and downs, as I am sitting here waiting for my flight that has been delayed for 1.25 hrs, but am able to amuse myself and take advantage of free wifi to rant about this to the masses. :) So take your highs and your lows.

Well this is a bit of an irritating start because my 2 hour leisurely stroll through Chicago's O'Hare airport will now turn to a 40min sprint through the terminals, looking for my gate. Hey, with this great technology, I am going to make myself useful and look up the airport map.

Okay, so it looks like I will arrive in the domestic section Terminal 1 and have to bust my butt over to International Terminal 5....end-to-end action folks.....hope I can get a breakaway. =P


Luckily, there is the Airport Transit System (ATS) and after a bit of searching, the city tourism website promises that it will take just under 9 mins. So if I push past the sluggish wheelie-suitcases to haul myself out of the plane asap upon landing, I should arrive at the gate with about 20 mins to spare. Let's hope they don't close the gate, but they should be expecting me. Maybe I will even hear my name announced oh-so-annoyingly over the loudspeaker. ;)

With over an hour to go till takeoff, I'm debating what to have for my last Canadian meal for a while.... Tim Horton's? :) There's also an Asian cafe thing, but it's so pricey......

A surprise sighting upon entry to the gate area: Science World giftshop at YVR! :) I remember hearing about it, but didn't know it was en route for me. Nice, but not as many cool and quirky things as Kaleidoscope of course. No giant fuzzy microbes! Plus it's joined to a Disney-like kids store that sells Hello Kitty, Disney princesses etc....kind of lowers the scientifically-educational level. :)