Monday, July 27, 2009

The worst travel ever....

So last Monday Delanah and I accompanied Dave on a trip to Calgary. I was really looking forward to it as it had been some time since I had been back there and I was really excited about introducing Delanah to her mommy and daddy's first home. We chose a 3pm flight (afternoon nap time) and had a nice, relaxed morning with a good nap in there. I even made myself a sandwich so I wouldn't spend an arm and a leg there. (Yay me!)
First problem arose when we tried to check in. I have to check in Delanah and myself as we are on a separate booking from Dave's work booking. Well, I guess there was a $12 ticket we were supposed to have been charged for when booking Delanah's ticket, so no self check-in, we were helped by a very nice gentleman who didn't even charge us a bag fee! We made it to our gate in plenty of time, all in good spirits. Now we've learned from before that we should board last to limit the amount of time Delanah has to sit on the plane. So as we're stuffing the stroller in its bag (mind you, this was a small gate area and we were withing 10 feet of the podium), the last people were lining up and all of the sudden they felt it necessary to start paging us...we can see you and I know you can see us! Geez! It is the smallest plane, ever, and I sit Delanah on a seat, try to get it, can't as some bags are in the way, decide to stuff my bag under the seat first, it knocks into Delanah (it was full of diapers and blankets, so very soft), she starts tottering sideways, a man from across the way grabs her arm, she freaks out, starts crying...awesome!
Then a storm moves in and we're stuck on the tarmac. We take off more than an hour late, the plane is hot, Delanah is fussy, hot and tired, we are already getting glares (especially from the man across the way and the woman in front of him), I am stressed.....what a great flight!!!!
We land, take our time to get to customs get our luggage, give our card to the Canadian customs, get about 5 feet past when Dave goes..:Wait! We have one more bag!". We turn around and tell the customs guy, who could hear our conversation, he gives Dave a hard time, 5 seconds later turns to me and chews me out because apparently I cannot stand where I am and I must move, guess I should have known this. Mind you, I have not eaten in 7 hours now, am tired and irritated. So here I go, pushing a stroller and pulling a full luggage cart, with about 30 people directly in my way who felt it wasn't necessary to move for me, all staring. You people rock and I hope your lack of goodwill bites you in the butt!
Anyhoos, turns out that somehow United managed to lose our bag...on a direct flight! It had all of Delanah's toys and all my toiletries...and to top things off, United felt it wasn't necessary to man the lost luggage area. Sigh..... Thank you, thank you, thank you Air Canada staff! They helped us get the right paperwork so our bag could be released from customs when it made it there, tried calling United numerous times for us and even gave us to "emergency packs" so I had a toothbrush to use that night. At least getting our rental car was quick and easy, everything fit, the car seat was installed quickly and we were on our way. Oh, one more thing, United managed to decimate our car seat bag....yay United!
We decided to stop at Toys R Us, as Delanah was now napping in her seat, and get at least 1-2 toys for her to play with in the morning...who knew when the bag would arrive, well....another adventure! I look through things, find 2 toys (on sale, of course) get in line, 3rd in line, only to be stopped by a woman who felt the toy store was cheating her. Apparently the doll was ringing up at a price different from the shelf price...and she should know, she brought the shelf tag up with her. Okay...who does this? I surely don't bring the shelf tag with me of every item I buy up to the register. She was looking for a battle and didn't care that there were now 10 people behind her being held up for a few dollars. She kept looking back at us all like we were going to support her...no dear, we were about to launch an attack.
Whew! Finally done and off to get dinner. It was a little after 8:30pm and we were hitting the rice bowl place that Dave loved. Guess what closed at 8:30? AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
Worst day of traveling....ever.....

1 comment:

  1. That is just crazy! I'm sorry for the rude people you encountered. I strongly dislike United. I haven't had good luck with them. Hope today is better!

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