American Airlines SUCKS!

I’m sorry this is the longest post ever, but I had the worst plane experience ever and I’m using part of this post as a nasty letter to American Airlines for the horrible travel that I had.

Thursday I left work at 4:40pm to head out to the airport. My flight was leaving at 6:15, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time, but I barely had enough time to grab something to eat and board the plane. I figured that I needed to eat because I didn’t know how much time it would take me in Dallas to get from one gate to the other. So I ended up eating my dinner in a rush… which I would later regret as I did have PLENTY of time in Dallas to eat.

I arrived in Dallas at about 7:15pm and went to my next gate. That’s when everything went wrong. We were supposed to board around 7:50 (departing at 8:20), but I noticed it had passed. They announced maintenance was on the plane and that we would be boarding a bit late. Then I noticed the time of departure on the monitor had changed to 8:45, from 8:20. At 8:12 they announced that maintenance had “found the problem” and we would be boarding soon.

“PROBLEM???” Ok, yeah I know when they say maintenance is on the plane you can assume there is a problem, but it doesn’t need to be spoken. The last thing you want to hear when you are about to board a plane is that there is a problem with the plane.

Then I noticed the time on the monitor changed to 9:00 and I started to worry because I was picking up a rental car in Gulfport at the AVIS, but the place closed at 11. I called Kristi and she called the AVIS lady and convinced her to stay until 12. I felt a little better, but only for a short while because I noticed the monitor changed to 9:15. At 9:12 they announced we would be changing planes and needed to go to a different gate.

We all marched down the hall to the new gate and I sat down by the wall and plugged my cell phone in to charge. I heard them calling people to the counter and then announcing that they needed people to volunteer to take a different flight because they didn’t have enough seats.

A few minutes later they called me to the counter. The lady at the counter asked for my ticket and I searched everywhere and couldn’t find it. Panic sunk in at this point. I must have left it at the other gate. She asked for my ID instead. She then said out loud, but not to me, “The computer doesn’t show that you have checked in.” Obviously I have checked in, or I wouldn’t have been on the first plane to HERE!

Then she told me that because this new plane is smaller than the other one my seat doesn’t exist on this plane and they don’t have a seat for me. OMG! I was so angry and beat down by this point. I had been working all day and traveling since 4:40 and my traveling wasn’t near over. I would have to fly to Gulfport, rent a car, and then drive an hour and a half to Hattiesburg.

She then said that unless more people volunteered to take another flight, I wouldn’t have a seat. Afterward I realized what really had happened. They didn’t show me checked in, so they gave my seat to someone else. I was in seat #1. How does that seat not exist on EVERY PLANE?!?!?!?

So I sat down on the floor right at the counter and waited. I wanted to be right there to hear everything going on. I then watched the time change from 9:40, to 9:45. Then around 9:30 the captain came up and said to the people at the counter (not for everyone to hear) that the plane couldn’t be repaired and they needed to decide if they were going to cancel the flight. A few minutes later I heard him calling someone asking if we could switch back to the original plane because it had just been repaired.

At this point I went back to the counter and told the lady that if we switched back to the original plane, I still didn’t have a ticket. The lady said she would get me a new ticket at the other counter, IF we switched back.

At 9:38 they announced that we would switch back to the other plane. We had to go back to the original gate. I realized that I had probably left my boarding pass in my chair at the original gate, but assumed it would be gone by this time. I was wrong, it was still there. YAYS!

When the counter lady came I showed her my boarding pass and told her I didn’t need a new ticket. She disagreed saying that my seat had already been assigned to someone else and I needed a new ticket. So obviously I was correct when I had earlier assumed that because they didn’t show me checked in, they gave my seat to someone else.

She gave me 17A. I called Kristi and I was freaking out because it was looking like I wasn’t going to get to Gulfport before midnight and I wasn’t going to have transportation to her house. Then the flight time changed from 9:45 to 10, then to 10:25.

I decided I might be able to make it if I was still sitting in seat #1 because I would get off the plane faster and could get to AVIS. I went to the counter to see if I could get them to get the new #1 person to switch with me. I told the lady at the counter my story and she looked in the computer and then said, “Mr. Soandso is in seat #1.” She just stood there staring at me like I would know who that was and could go talk to him on my own. I just stared back at her with my best stank face until she said, “Oh did you want me to page him?” UH YES! OMG. I was ready to start stabbing people.

The guy that came to the counter was someone I had seen waiting all along. He must have been in a seat that wasn’t on the smaller plane and was given my seat, since I wasn’t showing checked in. I told him my situation and begged him to switch and he agreed. THANK GOD!

We finally boarded at 10:25 and I knew I wasn’t going to get to the AVIS counter by midnight. By some miracle I arrived in the Gulfport Airport at 11:55 and made it to the counter before the girl left and I got my car. I ended up getting to Kristi’s house at 1:30am. I had left my office to start on this journey at 4:40. It took me 9 hours to get there by plane. I could have driven it in 9.5 without all the stress.

Friday Kristi and I hung out and ran errands until Brad got off from work and then we headed to Destin/Niceville Florida. Friday night we went to dinner at the Marina.

Saturday we went to a small tiny island by ourselves (Me, Brad, Kristi, and RES) and hung out. We relaxed for a while then took a walk around the island, in the shallow parts of the water. Kristi and I walked together. We were laughing and playing around.

I kept telling her to walk beside me because when she walked in front she clouded up the water and I HAVE to be able to see the ground in front of me. This actually came in handy because at one point I almost stepped on a giant blue crab. I barely saw it because it was hiding under some kelp. I pointed at it and Kristi screamed, then I screamed, then we both screamed and froze clinging on to each other for fear of being attacked. It was touch and go for a while there.

Luckily it seemed to be more scared of us than we were of it. Apparently when I thought it was getting into attack formation it was actually trying to hide under the kelp. We marched on, even more cautiously than before.

There was a support post in the water where a dock had once stood. I stepped up on it and immediately slipped off, cut my foot and started to bleed. Now I was wandering through the water with a tasty blood trail, begging to be attacked by all the sea creatures.

I did have a crawfish slam into my big toe. It scared the bejeesus out of me because I wasn’t paying attention. We also found a live jellyfish hiding under some kelp. Kristi about lost her mind. She’s terrified of them. We found another one dead on the beach and she thought I was joking when I pointed it out and then started yelling at her that she was about to step in it… so SHE REALLY FREAKED OUT when she realized she was inches from stepping in it.

After we left the beach we went back to the condo to get ready to go to dinner and go shopping. We went to two malls and then two Fleming’s for dinner, where I had the largest pork chop I have ever seen!

Sunday we went to breakfast and then did some sight seeing at some touristy beach towns. We had to be back at the condo by 11ish so we could pack and head out on the road by 12:45. We actually got finished a littler early and traveling started a little after noon and for me it ended at 11:30 that night… which is another lovely mixed up plane story.

When the tickets were purchased I was able to pick my seat on 3 out of the four legs of the flight. I wasn’t able to pick my seat on the last flight from Dallas to Austin. When I did the self check in at the airport in Gulfport on Sunday it still wouldn’t let me pick my seat. I was already starting to get worried.

When I landed in Dallas I went right to the counter and asked about my seat. The lady at the counter looked it up and said that she couldn’t assign me a seat yet because they needed to do some shuffling around. She also said that there were a COUPLE of people in front of me waiting to get seats and then said, “We’re going to TRY to get you on this plane.” Then she took my ticket and said she wasn’t going to be around when we boarded, but when the next counter lady came, but she would give her the ticket and have her take care of it.

OMG “TRY?” I knew I was screwed. I was certain that I was going to miss my flight and be stranded in Dallas. I was getting super worked up and anxious. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me again. What kind of business does American Airlines run?

I went to the restroom and then went back to the counter to ask what time they were boarding so I would know how much time I had to kill. There was already another customer at the counter who was on a later flight and trying to get on my flight. I heard the counter lady tell her, “No ma’am there are NO available seats on this plane. We are overbooked by 2 people.”

OMG! So they were overbooked by 2 people and I was already told that there were a “couple” of people in front of me waiting to get seats. SCREWED.

I tell you I was about to have a nervous breakdown. This had been the worst trip ever and it was like one bad thing after the next with no end and now I was about to be trapped in Dallas on a Sunday night and maybe miss work on Monday.

I called some friends because I had to talk to someone or I was going to lose my mind. I waited about 30 minutes, until the new counter lady showed up, and then went and asked her about my seat.

She asked for my ticket and I told her the other counter lady said that she was giving it to her. She said she didn’t have my ticket. OMG. She asked for my ID. Then, without saying a word she handed me my ID back, pulled a new ticket (with a seat) from the printer, handed me the ticket, and walked away. NOT ONE WORD from her mouth. RUDE… but thank GOD I had a seat, even if it was at the back of the plane.

The plane boarded on time and I took forever for everyone to get on and get situated, then we just waited for it to pull away from the gate and take-off… and we waited… and we waited some more, but it didn’t happen. The pilot came on the intercom and said that there was a problem with the door and we all needed to get off the plane. OMG!

So I waited at the back off the plane for my turn to get off, which took forever. When we got out to the waiting area the counter people told us that we were being moved to another plane at another gate, so off we went.

We waited at that gate for a long time for the pilots and employees to show up and then boarded again. Once we were all boarded and situated the pilot said we had to wait for the luggage to be unloaded from the original plane into the new one, so we just sat there for what seemed like an eternity.

I finally got to Austin around 11pm. I have never been so happy to be in Austin. That was the best feeling I have felt in a long long long long time.

I went home and unpacked my toiletries and went right to bed. I was so freaking exhausted. Working all day Monday was torture. All I wanted to do was go home and relax, and when I finally got home, that’s exactly what I did. When I get home tonight, that’s what I’m going to do again.

This weekend is going to be all about relaxing and sleeping in.