Phantom flights

8/7/11 Flight from Peoria to Chicago O'Hare- 11:36 am
Finally!! It's August 7th!  I officially get to start my job, and travel to my first chapter.  Not only do I get to start, I get to start in Knoxville Tennessee!  What could go wrong?  No aisle seater is going to bring me down today no matter what!!! (Jinx).

But seriously.  I was so excited, and what could upset me after having a certain gentleman take me to IHOP before my travel day?  Everything's perfect.  I arrive to Peoria airport, and not a single person is at the United Airlines desk.  I patiently wait.... wait... wait some more.  During my wait, I decided I needed some reading material, so why not read the flight board behind the ticket desk?  Oh how nice.. there are flights to Chicago leaving at 930, and 130.  There are flights from Chicago comi--- wait.  There are flights leaving at 930 and 130.. WHAT about my flight at 11:36?!!  I started trippin.  I'm SURE I'm united airlines, I looked 4 times this morning.  Apparently I am flying next to a ghost today, because my flight is the phantom flight.   

So either I am supposed to be in Bloomington right now, OR UA messed up.  As I start frantically checking my email on my phone, I notice the guy behind me looking confused.  Well here you go Ashley, first friend of the day.  "Um--- is your flight not up there?"  Thankfully him and the next people behind him were all on the phantom flight.  I pressed the service button 6 more times waiting for a nice attendant in blue to help me and take the 100lbs of luggage off of my hands.  He comes running up, and says, "I'll be right with you maam, let me take care of her first."  Of course, I was already making a line full of friends, so why not look at this lady and smile and add her to my list.  She informs me, "Ya, they are on a ground freeze in Chicago, not flights in or out."  GREAT!!  What a fantastic day to start my job. :)

After finally getting my baggage checked (my monster suitcase that goes up to my waist weighed less than the carry on size one I was checking.  Don't under estimate the power of shoes and shampoo) I finally got put on a real live flight.  They pushed me up to the 930am flight, since it was 1100am, and it still hadnt left.  Around 1115 I got to board.  FINALLY I get to see who my seat friend is. 

I anxiously await, then finally a large African American male sits next to me.  He looks friendly!  After our ice breaker of hellos, he realizes he was in the wrong seat.  (I dont think he even looked at his ticket.  I think he saw me, knew I had this blog, and did not want to be written about).  Then a high school aged son and mother walk up.  I could see their tickets, and the son definitely had the seat next to me, but must have been to SHY because he made his mother switch him.  Again, he must know about the blog.  But at this point, little did I know that I would really need to enjoy the company of my aisle seat partner.

2 hours on the run way.  2.  After those two hours, we started moving!! Yayyyyy.  Oh wait, we are moving back to the gate.  My plane full of friends and I exited the plane, to get back on in 20 minutes, and sit on the runway again for another hour.  Finally--- take off.  During this 4 hour sit, my aisle sitter and I discussed anger, and solutions, but that's it.  We both enjoyed sleeping on the runway-- WIN!

So YAYYY!!! I finally arrive in Chicago O'Hare to my connecting flight!! I even only have 30 minutes to wait! What else could go wrong, I will be in Knoxville in no time! :)

8/7/11 Flight from Chicago O'Hare to Knoxville- 3:56pm
Imagine me, all dressed up with my pin on, excited to finally get my flight to Knoxville!  I'm checking all of the UA boards for a gate change of my flight that I have about 10 minutes to catch.  Oh weird... another phantom flight!!! It is not on the board!  Oh well, plenty of desks to go ask a nice lady where my gate is,  "Excuse me maam, can you tell me what gate I can find the 356 flight to Knoxville?"  "Flight 356 to Knoxville has been canceled, please see the customer service desk for more options."

 Uhh..... what?  I don't have that kind of option.  As I'm looking for the customer desk, I find all other customer desk, with not a soul around.  But once I pull up to good 'ol UAs, the line is 3 miles long, including ALL of my friends from peoria flight, and others.  What happens next?

Let me make this part short to move onto the real topic of this blog-- once I get ON the plane and sit next to someone!  So to get to that point, I get put on stand by for a 530 flight, get a ticket for the 730 flight, and if ALL else fails, there is still a 940 flight. 
530 flight- I am 8 out of 42 for stand by.  They stopped offering seats at person 6.
730 flight- problem after problem, infact, it ends up leaving AFTER the 930 flight..... :)

So I get on the flight at 1130 pm next to---- who??  YOU GUESSED IT!! One of the blonde twins with her mommy that I had been watching all day sippin on her mocha, whining "mommy call daddy."  So conversation- not happening.   Sleeping?? YES!  It is midnight and I had been in airports for 15 straight hours! As I start to get get some shut eye, I notice ONE over head light on on the whole place.  WHY does someone need to read at midnight?  And WHY does that someone need to be in seat 18B, RIGHT next to 18C, which is what my ticket states................... asdfkjalsdfjalsdjfalsjie!  Congrats blondie!! You win the prize of aisle seater that is needing a punch.

Finally, I arrived in beautiful Knoxville with 3 shining faces and a bouquet of flowers to welcome me.  :)  I was SO thankful they were understanding of my schedule, and I would not be arriving until 10 hours after planned!  They were even better sports when one of my suitcases was lost... and after I accused the UA worker of trying to steal my shoes, he finally found it! 

I soon found out it was in a special room because my little purple suitcase was threatening, and had a paper in it that it had been checked.  I thought they stole my shampoo, but in fact, they took everything out and re packed it for me, putting my shampoo on the bottom.  How thoughtful and nice those UA folks!!! :/

ANY aisle seater on my next flights next Monday has GOT to be guarenteed a better story!! :)

Till next flight!