So, it's 6 AM on Friday in the Dallas airport and we have essentially been up for 24 hours at this point. We're hoping that someone.... anyone ....will show up to help us.... and that the coffee shops will open soon.....must.. have.. coffee! Last night we were virtually abandoned by American Airlines. No hotel vouchers...no food vouchers...just an adios at 1:00 in the morning, and a card containing a 1-800 number...
Unfortunately, when we look outside, the snow is falling and the wind is blowing like crazy! This does not bode well for our chances of getting out of Dallas today.
Eventually the ticket agents show up and start the process of rescheduling flights (FUNNY!!!). What they do to entertain us for this day is to have us stand in line to rebook our flights, and then go watch the board as, one by one, they are all cancelled. After spending most of our day like this and eventually being told that there will be NO flights leaving on Friday, we call the 1-800 number given to us by American Airlines, and they book us into a hotel at their "distress rate".
Ha!!!-more on that later!
Well...can I just say that the hotel was not even close to how they were portrayed on their website....
Has that ever happened to anyone else?
(When you have a microwave behind the counter with a hand-written sign on it that says "RENT ME", I'm thinking that's not a good omen!!!)
No matter.....we make our way to the room where we unload our stuff, and fall into the beds, utterly exhausted! Steve, our new friend from the same flight, has checked in across the hall, and we all agree to meet for dinner later.
We head down the road, walking precariously across the icy parking lots to a great little place called "The Aspen Grill". It turns out to be the bright spot of this whole nightmare! Decent food, cold beer/cider, and sports to entertain the guys. We're all booked on the flight to Lake Charles on Saturday at noon, so we turn in early to try to catch up on some of our sacrificed sleep.
Saturday....
We're up early to shower and pack for our noon flight and out waiting for the shuttle at 10 AM. The flight is still showing "on time" so we are hoping that everything is going to be okay.
We get on the shuttle........the driver opens all 3 doors, and then.....just.....disappears!
(NO, folks...I am not making this up!)
Richard gets up and shuts the driver's door and we continue to sit and wait....
and wait.....
and wait.... (we did A LOT of that on this trip!)
When the driver finally shows up, he says nothing to any of us....just drawls into his radio....
"There ain't any other drivers-I'm all ya'll got today...."
Well, about that time I get a text from the airline, cancelling the flight, so we grab our bags and get off the shuttle. We head back into the hotel to see if we can get our room back in this 1 star hotel......and the gal behind the counter starts shaking her head "NO" before I even get the words out of my mouth.
Well, by this time I am about to go hysterical right there in the lobby!
No chance of flying out...........no hotel room.......what are we going to do?
Part 3...coming soon...stay tuned
(P. S. I'm writing this from LAX where we are stuck again, due to another cancelled American Airline flight....just trying to get home!)
The French Gypsy
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