A LONG and Stressful Trip Home

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016--Athens to San Antonio

Fortunately, I didn't have to get up extra early to start my trek home today.  My flight was scheduled from Athens to depart at noon, so I got up at 7:00.  I had eaten and cleaned up myself and the apartment by 8:20, so I walked to the nearby metro station and took the airport metro at 8:41 arriving at the airport around 9:15.  Fortunately, the check-in counters were already open for Air Canada and had no lines, so everything went smoothly.

Air Canada made an announcement about downloading their app on computers or pads for viewing videos on the flight.  I thought about opening my computer and downloading it, but then I realized that my battery, which was already depleted some, would probably only last about 4 hours.  I didn't think about my phone at the time.  By the time we were on the plane, I realized that I should have done it, because there were no screens on the seatbacks for viewing films.  I tried to connect to wi-fi from the plane, but we were too far from the terminal, I guess.  So I had to pass the 10-hour flight to Montreal with no screen access.  That can make for a LONG 10 hours!!  I slept off and on for the first 4 hours.  Finally, after about another 3 hours, I pulled out my computer and played games on it.  But it seemed like forever before we landed.

The US has been setting up customs and immigration preclearance points outside the country over a period of time.  Well, Montreal is one of the places where it has been established, and it was very convenient.  There is a whole set of gates for U.S. destinations that is walled off from the rest of the airport.  To enter, you have to complete an online version of the paper form that you are given on the plane in which you declare you are not bringing anything illegal into the country.  Then you stand in a holding room watching a screen until you see that your name under your destination in the US has been cleared to continue (by turning from orange to green on the screen).  Next, you go to a normal immigration booth where they pull your information onto a screen from your passport, look at it, ask how long you were out of the country and what was the purpose of your visit, double-check that you are bringing nothing illegal into the country, and stamp your passport.  (Luggage is not retried for this process, it is sent through a scanner behind the scenes to make sure nothing illegal is included.)  Then you wait for your flight to a US airport where you arrive not at an international terminal but at a regular gate for either transferring to another flight or exiting the terminal.

By the time I got from my plane, through preclearance (see above), and to the gate for my flight to Chicago, the time had been changed to show a 30-minute delay--with a new departure of 17:00 Eastern Time and a 2 1/2-hour flight time.  I knew I only had less than 1 1/2 hours to change flights in Chicago, so I began to worry.  I heard a woman at the service desk explaining that it was weather related, so I started checking:

1.  Radar showed a line of storms that were passing through Chicago.
2.  The weather forecast showed that there had been a 90% chance of rain in Chicago a couple of hours earlier (with no information for before that) and 30% for the past hour with sunshine forecast for the rest of the day.
3.  FlightAware showed that the plane I was supposed to take to San Antonio was already in Chicago (indicating that my flight was scheduled to leave on time at 19:15 Central Time).
4.  FlightAware showed that the plane I was supposed to take from Montreal to Chicago had been in Montreal since a morning flight from Halifax, meaning that the delay in our flight was questionable with the weather already clearing in in Chicago.
5.  FlightAware showed that my flight to Chicago would arrive at Gate E5 and that my departing flight to San Antonio would leave from Gate B20.
6.  The O'Hare website showed maps that made me realize it would not be too bad of a run to get from gate-to-gate for my connection, but it would require running.

We did not make our 17:00 departure.  We didn't start loading the plane until 16:45.  So it was 17:30 before we took off.  Still, I thought, maybe I can run and make my connection.  And in the back of my mind, although FlightAware was not showing anything just before we left, I kept thinking that maybe the departure to San Antonio would be delayed.

We flew about 1/3 of the way to Chicago, and the plane turned back toward Montreal!  Then the captain explained that, at the request of air traffic controllers in Chicago, we were going to make two loops to delay our arrival because of a lack of available gates at the terminals.  Those loops ate up another 15 minutes of time.  I was still thinking maybe I could just make it to the gate for my San Antonio flight if I REALLY ran, since our new anticipated landing time was 18:46--giving me 29 minutes.

After the two loops, we headed straight into O'Hare.  It was 16:48 when we touched down, and then we taxied and taxied and taxied (strangely without seeing much action on the runways).  Then the plane paused, because another plane was in the way keeping us from heading straight to our gate.  When we landed, there was the usual too-long delay before they opened the door of the plane.  I RAN!  I paused briefly to look up San Antonio on the screen, and the gate had changed to B5--15 gates CLOSER!!!  I ran again.  I got to B5 and couldn't tell what was happening.  There was a crowd.  But the whole airport was crowded.  I had had to twist and turn to be able to get through the crowds in the concourses as I was running.  It was 19:16, and I thought, "Maybe the plane is loaded already."  So I rushed up to a man to ask the status, thinking maybe the door is still open and I can be the last person to get on the plane.  That's when I was told it was delayed and wouldn't leave until 21:15.

Why was it delayed, since the plane was there and had been there for hours?  They were waiting for the crew to arrive by plane from a Washington Dulles flight.  And the whole airport was a mess with delays.  There were no gates available for arriving planes.  The service counter had about 6 lines of people (each as long as the longest airport security lines anyone has ever seen) waiting for assistance to change flights.  There were actually three groups of people at the gate for my San Antonio flight (which was the one posted on the gate screen)--others for an Orange County flight and for a Houston flight which had both been scheduled for the same gate.

At 20:15, they announced that the Orange County people should go to Gate B4.  They were going to try to get them out by 20:45 so they would avoid "the curfew" at Orange County.  Apparently, they are not allowed to land planes there after a certain hour.  At 21:00, they announced to the Houston people that their flight had been canceled and that they needed to either go to the service desk or call the toll-free number to make new travel arrangements.  They also announced that our crew had landed at 8:35, and that we were just waiting for them to get to our gate so that we could leave.

The crew didn't arrive until 21:35, because their plane which landed at 20:35 was stuck in a traffic jam of landing planes and couldn't get to a gate.  By the time they boarded us and we took off, it was after 22:00.  We landed in San Antonio at 00:25--after midnight.  Then there was a further delay!!!  As usual at the San Antonio Airport, no administrator was on the job at night watching to make sure everything went okay.  Therefore, no one told the people who were stripping the floors that another flight was expected in Terminal B, so they had a wet mess blocking the exit doors from the secure area of Terminal B to the outer area for picking up bags or leaving the airport.  We had to stand while a big vacuuming machine was ordered (after they saw us come up and stop) to suck up and dry the floor enough for us to walk though the area and out the doors!

It was about 00:35 when bags started coming out on the carousel.  In the meantime, I had found three sets of men's rooms blocked off--the ones upstairs near the exit from the Terminal B concourse, the ones downstairs in Terminal B, and the ones downstairs in Terminal A.  Again, no one was there supervising.  Plus, the airport is open 24-hours a day.  It's not like it is normal and okay to close all those rest rooms at once.  The maintenance people told me to use the nearby Family Restroom which was open, and I did.  But what about everyone else who may have wanted to use a restroom--especially out-of-towners arriving and wondering how an airport could be having all these problems with blocked exits and closed restrooms for arriving passengers?

Anyway, my sister Sue was waiting for me in the Employee's Parking Lot (since we get to park there as volunteers at the airport).  She brought me home.  I arrived 24 1/2  hours after I had left the apartment in Athens.  It had been a long, tiring trip, and it was good to be home!