NW Airline Travel Hell
Wednesday, December 26, 2007, Minneapolis airport, 9:00 PM
This entry doesn't fit my usual driveaway topic, but our trip from Roanoke, VA to Choteau, MT during Christmas vacation deserves some record. Our plan was to fly out of Roanoke on Christmas day at 4:07 PM and arrive Great Falls, MT via Detroit and Minneapolis, MN. This would have been the same flight sequence we took last year, which basically worked out fairly well. Not the case this time.
Our flight out of Roanoke was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Low staffing, and no more flights meant we couldn't get out on Christmas Day and we were rebooked for an early flight the next day leaving at 6:05 AM. We were comped a room in a nearby hotel, got up at 3:30 AM, and the flight left on time. However, this flight was to land in Detroit, which had icing fog and we were diverted to Flint, MI, where we were basically dumped with no way out. With the day after Christmas being one of the heaviest travel days, there literally were no seats available on any airline to get us out. So, at the time, it seemed we were stuck. They started busing passengers to Detroit, but we had been automatically booked on a flight for 3:30 PM, so I hung in there. Turned out that, after a lot of soul searching on whether I should take the bus, get a rental car, or wait, that two planes landed in Flint that had been diverted also. We were able to get seats on one and got back to Detroit.
I decided to just proceed straight to a gate showing a plane destined for Minneapolis since that was the hub we'd likely have to go through on NW to get to Great Falls. As luck would have it, the gate I chose was loading the plane that I'd previously been booked on, since it had been delayed also. I don't know why, but rather than putting us on standby, the agent ushered us on and we were quickly on our way to Minneapolis.
We arrived there by 1:45 PM, but the only flight out to GTF wasn't leaving until 9:36 PM. I wasn't able to find an alternative. So we waited. The 9:36 scheduled flight became 10:36.
Since we had over 8 hours to kill, I decided to continue working any angles I could find. I ended up outside of security at the ticket counter trying to find an alternative flight and/or get some complimentary food vouchers and tickets for the mechanical failure. After talking to a supervisor, I was given two free tickets and $50 in food vouchers.
Beth is keeping count, and we've now spent 24 hours in an airport. We've been a day and a half trying to get to Montana and still haven't quite made it. But I'm hanging in there. Its currently 9:45 PM and our flight is scheduled for 10:31.
We'll see.
Later......
We made it to Great Falls, but it was about 2:00 AM on Thursday. After finally boarding the plane around 10:45 PM, NW couldn't get the headcount, or weight, or something figured out, so we sat in the plane for an hour. Finally, after the runway we were lining up for closed, and having to move the plane to an open runway, the pilot just took off. Our luggage actually made it, the Dollar rental was closed but left a car for us to pick up in their parking area, and we made it to Choteau about 3:00 AM. We'd been up about 26 hours.
This entry doesn't fit my usual driveaway topic, but our trip from Roanoke, VA to Choteau, MT during Christmas vacation deserves some record. Our plan was to fly out of Roanoke on Christmas day at 4:07 PM and arrive Great Falls, MT via Detroit and Minneapolis, MN. This would have been the same flight sequence we took last year, which basically worked out fairly well. Not the case this time.
Our flight out of Roanoke was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Low staffing, and no more flights meant we couldn't get out on Christmas Day and we were rebooked for an early flight the next day leaving at 6:05 AM. We were comped a room in a nearby hotel, got up at 3:30 AM, and the flight left on time. However, this flight was to land in Detroit, which had icing fog and we were diverted to Flint, MI, where we were basically dumped with no way out. With the day after Christmas being one of the heaviest travel days, there literally were no seats available on any airline to get us out. So, at the time, it seemed we were stuck. They started busing passengers to Detroit, but we had been automatically booked on a flight for 3:30 PM, so I hung in there. Turned out that, after a lot of soul searching on whether I should take the bus, get a rental car, or wait, that two planes landed in Flint that had been diverted also. We were able to get seats on one and got back to Detroit.
I decided to just proceed straight to a gate showing a plane destined for Minneapolis since that was the hub we'd likely have to go through on NW to get to Great Falls. As luck would have it, the gate I chose was loading the plane that I'd previously been booked on, since it had been delayed also. I don't know why, but rather than putting us on standby, the agent ushered us on and we were quickly on our way to Minneapolis.
We arrived there by 1:45 PM, but the only flight out to GTF wasn't leaving until 9:36 PM. I wasn't able to find an alternative. So we waited. The 9:36 scheduled flight became 10:36.
Since we had over 8 hours to kill, I decided to continue working any angles I could find. I ended up outside of security at the ticket counter trying to find an alternative flight and/or get some complimentary food vouchers and tickets for the mechanical failure. After talking to a supervisor, I was given two free tickets and $50 in food vouchers.
Beth is keeping count, and we've now spent 24 hours in an airport. We've been a day and a half trying to get to Montana and still haven't quite made it. But I'm hanging in there. Its currently 9:45 PM and our flight is scheduled for 10:31.
We'll see.
Later......
We made it to Great Falls, but it was about 2:00 AM on Thursday. After finally boarding the plane around 10:45 PM, NW couldn't get the headcount, or weight, or something figured out, so we sat in the plane for an hour. Finally, after the runway we were lining up for closed, and having to move the plane to an open runway, the pilot just took off. Our luggage actually made it, the Dollar rental was closed but left a car for us to pick up in their parking area, and we made it to Choteau about 3:00 AM. We'd been up about 26 hours.
posted by Harry | 10:25 PM
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