sunday was the worst experience i have ever had flying (and i’ve had at least a few bad experiences flying). we were flying back from wisconsin to baton rouge and left milwaukee early sunday morning. we arrived in houston at 8:30 a.m. on our continental plane and waited for our 10:30 a.m. flight home to baton rouge. here’s what happened:
- 10:30 flight – our 10:30 flight was canceled due to storms over the gulf coast – this is understandable – we were put on stand by for a 12:10 p.m. flight and guaranteed spots on a 2:15 p.m. flight if the 12:10 p.m. stand by didn’t workout
- 12:10 p.m. flight – we are waiting in line for our stand by flight and miracle of miracles they call our names to get on the plane. we hope on the plane and grab our seats. after sitting down in our chairs for 10 minutes the flight attendant came over and told us the pilot had determined that the airplane was to heavy and we would have to exit the plane (apparently i need to lose a little weight). the good news is that the ticket agent says that our 2:15 p.m. tickets are set and we have actual spots on the airplane.
- 2:15 p.m. flight – we are in line to get onto the plane when i hear a ticket agent say “she has seat 4c also.” i tell him i also have seat 4c and that’s when we realize that they have triple booked pam and my seats. turns out that we don’t get to get on the plane. the good news is that we end up getting $300 ticket vouchers for continental’s mistake. we are rescheduled for a 7:30 p.m. flight.
- 7:30 p.m. flight – our flight is canceled due to weather that no one seems to be experiencing on the gulf coast but continental swears is happening. we are reschedules for a 10:52 p.m. flight. we decided to see about renting a car to drive back to baton rouge. we spend the next hour trying to arrange a one way rental car. after all the effort we are able to discover that it will costs us almost $300 to rent the car and we will only beat our 10:52 p.m. flight by about 40 minutes. we decide 40 minutes is not worth $300 to us. we go back to wait for our plane.
- 10:52 p.m. flight – the ticket agent announces that even though our flight attendant arrived at the airport since 8:55 p.m. she is now no where to be found. it takes them an hour to find a flight attendant and we can finally take off.
- 1:30 a.m. – we arrive in baton rouge only to discover that continental has lost our luggage.
we arrived 13 hours later than we were supposed to. i know others have faced much worse in an airport but this was the worst i have ever experienced.
i think the lesson that we all should learn from my experience is that continental sucks.