Like any homesick girl living on the other side of the country, I wanted to get home as soon as I could after my finals ended.  We were originally supposed to have finals until 5 on Thursday so I booked my flight for 7:30 pm and then we didn't have them and got done at 2:30 on Wednesday.  So I got up at 5 am after my week of crazy finals and tried to standby on the 8:30 am flight out to san fran on thursday morning and was #2 on the standby list and these two wealthy/snobby looking women wearing all black cut in line and got on before me and then there were no more seats.  So I went back home and slept and watched a movie with my roomie Julia and then headed back at 5 to the airport to catch my 7:30 pm flight.  Which was delayed 2 hours.  And then we were flying just fine across the country and I was passed out for 2 hours cause it was late when the captain came on the intercom and said that we were landing in Salt Lake City because there were (and I quote) "vibrations in the plane" and didn't ever really explain what that meant (but I overhead the steward talking about how it was still flyable and not a big problem but that protocol said that we had to ground the plane). 

 

So we landed at 12:30 am Utah time.  I called Tim who was already on his way to pick me up and mom and we tried to figure out if he should turn around or keep going.  We decided for him to keep going cause they said we were going to take off soon and my luggage was already in San Fran.  Meanwhile, we sat on the plane for 2 hours while the technical guys didn't arrive for 45 minutes and then tinkered with the plane.  I fell asleep for an hour. 

 

Then they come on the intercom and say that the plane is unfixable and that we have to get off it and they didn't have another plan for us and didn't know what they were going to do for us but a plan was hopefully going to be sent out from Texas and arrive at 7 with a departure at 8:30.  We had to go out of the terminal, wait in line until 6 and get a new boarding card and then go back through security.  I made 4 new friends at this point (all undergrad students in Boston from san fran area) so we stuck together and watched each others stuff and played card games etc during this whole time.  We sat down on the cold tiled floor and waited until our especially made flight uploaded on the computer system for us to get boarding cards.  And they gave us $5 food vouchers.  So we go through, sit at the terminal and 8:00 rolls around and still no plane. 

 

Then 8:45 comes and a Delta airline guy (not American Airlines which is what I flew on) comes and announces that he's looking for an AA person to come give us info about our missing plane.  An AA agent come an hour later and say that the plane had just taken off from Texas and the reason it was held up was because of waiting for catering services.  They don't serve us food. And why do they need to cater an empty plane because it was definitely empty and a special plane just for us since ours was "broken".  So we're still waiting for another hour during which I fitfully dozed, cried for half an hour (like really cried) and called my mom and Julia because I wanted to talk to someone and everyone in Cali was sleeping and everyone in Boston was working.  And then another Delta guy (again, AA agents were nonexistent) and informed us that our gate had changed to an entirely different terminal.  So my little group and I move camp to the new terminal where we discover that we get another $10 voucher for lunch.  It's 11:30 at this point.  Still no plane and it should've arrived (if it left when they said it did) an hour ago. 

 

So we get a new update from a lawyer who was investigating that the plane didn't leave until 1100 (over an hour after they said it already had) and our flight time was at 1:45 pm (over 12 hours after arriving at salt lake) online and on the departure board and according to the AA agent that they had harassed.  So we had an official flight time.  And the plane came!  Miraculously.  And we boarded.  Everyone was on and seated by 1:35 pm.  The captain came on and said that we were going to be pushing back shortly but were waiting for the baggage to be finished loading.  They sent a huge plane with 2-3-2 seating arrangement so I had an empty seat next to me and leaned over to try to sleep again.  At this point I'd only had 4ish hours of sleep.  I kinda dozed for an hour all the while expecting to take off. 

 

At 2:45 pm I sat up and realized that we weren't taking off anytime soon at about the same time everyone else did too.  Also at this time someone realized that they weren't loading luggage and hadn't been.  About half an hour before someone saw the last piece of luggage go on as well as some "freshly packed lobster" and US postal mail.  No luggage.  The belt wasn't even moving at this point.  The captain came on again and said we were still waiting for luggage.  Ha.  So we sat for another half hour.  And then they came on and said that the captain's hours had timed out and he would have too many if he flew this flight so we had to get another pilot.  That's really what they were waiting for.  So half an hour later captain #2 who was hte same one from the flight that grounded came on and said we'd be taking off shortly.  Half an hour later we pushed back (we'd been on the plane for 3 hours at this point... just sitting) got deiced (it was lightly snowing in salt lake) and waiting for 15 minutes to be the next in line to take off. 

 

I landed in San Fran at 5:25 pm Friday night cali time.  27 hours after I left the house in Boston for my night flight.  I might as well have flown from Kenya for the amount of time it took me to get there.  My luggage was on the flight I didn't make on standby and it got there at noon on Thursday 29 hours before I did. 

 

Tim had gotten a hotel room and hung out all day by himself mosying around Mervyn's and Starbucks writing essays and doing Christmas shopping while he waited and waited and waited.  By this point my phone was long dead even though I had charged it for a bit in salt lake so I borrowed the phone of the sister of one of the girls in the group and he picked me up and we left at 5:45.  We got home at 9 after we stopped for Taco Bell.  I was in bed by 9:20 and slept for 10 hours.  And then I took a nap this afternoon.  And I feel like going to bed now. 

 

And that's my awful story of how I got stuck for 16 hours in a place where there were no weather problems when I was coming and going from places where there were no weather problems waiting for a plan coming from somehwere where there was no weather problems (I feel extremely sorry for Denver folk, but at least there is a legitimate reason there).  And how has AA made up for their huge lack?  $15 worth of food vouchers.  Needless to say the lawyer sent around a email list and she's going to contact us about how to file a formal complaint so we can be compensated.

 

Isn't that ridiculous?!?  I am grateful that I am alive because what if there really was something wrong with the plane?  My parents could be telling you about my funeral.  But God kept us safe and brought us home.  And that is what is truly important.   

 

I'm really glad to be home right now.