My "New" Worst Flight EVER!

So, I guess to start posting about our trip, I need to start from the beginning. And that would mean starting with my flight out there. I know, I am devoting another entire post about flying again but really this flight deserves its own post. It became my new #1 worst flight! I really have the worst luck when it comes to flying and I am apologizing in advance because this post is SO long...

My flight schedule to get to Australia had a lot of stops. Columbus to Dallas, Dallas to L.A., and then L.A. to Brisbane Australia. Not fun but with no kids it was not a big deal, I thought.  So I arrive at the Columbus airport to catch my flight to Dallas and found out that it was delayed an hour. Instead of leaving at 4, it was now taking off at 5 so I would miss my connecting flight at 6:30 in Dallas. But it turned out to not be a big deal. They just switched me to a 7:30 flight leaving from Dallas to L.A. and it still gave me 4 hours at the L.A. airport before my flight took off to Australia.

I landed in Dallas and looked up at the screen to see where my next gate was and saw that the plane I was supposed to be getting on was delayed until 11:55 pm.  I seriously thought I was just seeing things and just sat there staring at the screen. I could not believe it! So I hopped on the train thing again and went to my gate and the line was about 30 people long. Everyone was trying to get on an earlier flight.  They had 2 other flights leaving for L.A., one at 8:30 and another at 9:30 but they were both full.  So I went to the 8:30 desk and told the guy there that I needed to get on this flight because I had a connecting flight to Australia and flights to Australia only leave once a day.  He basically said there was nothing he could do and put me on a standby list.  So I showed up as like number 30 on this standby list, which eventually got up to 80. I have no idea why they even make a standby list that large for an already full flight. It's just dumb.  And the even dumber thing, is that on American Airlines, if you are not a "priority access" member then they basically don't give you the time of day. Anyone that is a frequent flyer/priority access member with American immediately gets bumped to the front of the line. So I watched as my name went from 30 on the standby list to 40 and so on. Not that I had hope at 30 of getting on the plane but still...

So, the 8:30 flight came and left and I was still stuck at the airport. I ran over to the 9:30 desk to hear the same story and I was devastated. So I sat down, and this guy sitting next to me starting talking to me and asking what was going on. So I told him my whole story and he told me that he was from L.A. and he would just give me his seat since he was just heading home.  So I ran up to the desk and told the lady there that he would switch with me and she basically said it could not be done. If he gave up his seat he it would be given to the person who was #1 on the standby list. I told her that made no sense but she would not budge. So, I did what I had been holding back the whole night. I started to cry...and it was not a pretty cry but I did not care. I seriously could not believe this was happening. Somehow she must have felt sorry for me because she told me she would give me the highest access she could and I watched as my name jumped from 45 on the standby list to number 4. So, the guy told me that if I moved to the #1 spot but there was not a seat for me on the plane to have them come get him off the plane and he would still give me his seat. Seriously he was the nicest man ever and I was so grateful for how helpful he was. But luckily, there happened to be a seat for me so I was able to get on the plane! It was a miracle!

So we arrive in L.A. and there is not a gate open for our plane to park so we sit on the plane for 20 minutes. It was torture especially since it was past the time my flight to Brisbane was leaving and the Sydney one was taking off shortly.  I met a lady behind me who was on my same flight so we stuck together getting off the plane. We ran off and there was this little Chinese lady who could hardly speak English, yelling out "Flights to Australia!" So we ran up to her and she said we were going to have to run to catch this flight.  In L.A. you have to run out of the domestic terminal and the International terminal is next door to it.  So we start running but we are faster then her so we keep turning around and yelling to her if we were going the right way. It was chaos. And she was running with this walkie talkie in her hand and I kept asking her if she could call over and tell them we were on our way so they would hold the plane but she kept saying, "No, you just need to run faster." Oh my gosh! So, I realized I am no longer in marathon shape because that run with all my luggage almost did me in but we made it over to the Qantas desk.  The guys there were so rude and told us the Sydney flight was full and we had missed our flight to Brisbane.  There was nothing they could do and we would have to wait until 11:30 the next night to leave for Australia. Awesome!

So American gave us a hotel and we spent the night there. I was glad to not be stuck in L.A. by myself. The lady who missed the flight too was from Australia and she was really cool so it was fun to hang out with her. But it was different because for her, she was getting an extra day in the states whereas for me, I was now missing a day of my already short vacation. I was bummed.  I really wanted to just stay in the hotel all day and feel sorry for myself but she wanted to shop in America. So we found a mall the next day and I pretty much sat there while she tried on the whole mall and then bought most of it.  It was just a long day and I was so upset to still be in L.A.  I also had no way of getting in touch with Guy. The time change made it tough and his cell phone was not working. I finally called the resort he was staying at and told him the bad news. Luckily, I called him early enough that he was able to book a spot on a boat to go diving that day so it made me happy at least that he had something fun to do.

Sharon and I on the L.A. bus

So this is the part of the story that makes me SO mad. We arrive at the airport later to check in for our flight and the guy at the Qantas desk asks us how we missed our flight. So we tell him the whole story and he says, "Oh, the flight to Brisbane was 30 minutes late leaving last night. They were waiting for somebody." And we were like, "WHAT!" So what happened is that really we could have made our flight. It was waiting for us. But NO ONE told us that. The flight to Brisbane Australia is the only one that leaves out of the domestic terminal instead of international and it turned out that it was only 2 gates away from where we landed. 2 gates! We could have been there in 5 seconds. But the Chinese lady said flights to Australia so we just followed her, right past our gate. And when we got to the international terminal they said nothing to us about our plane still being there. When we looked at the screens, we did not see a flight to Brisbane and we thought it was because it had already left. But really, it was because it was in the other terminal. It turns out our plane took off when we were on the shuttle on our way to the hotel. I honestly wish I had never found this out because it just makes it all worse!

The Qantas plane I rode on that finally got me to Australia

But I got on the flight and seriously the 15 hour flight was not bad at all. I slept for half of it and then they had screens in front of every seat with tons of new movies on them so I just spent the rest of the time watching those. I think I was just grateful to finally be on that flight! Once I landed in Australia I had to catch a short flight up to Cairns and then I was finally reunited with Guy and the vacation could begin!

Cairns Airport in Queensland

So from all this drama and the huge delay I had with my kids on my way to Columbus, I have decided that I am done flying on American Airlines. Never again! I can understand one delayed flight but I just had one too many all in a row. I am filing a huge complaint and I'm hoping I can get something out of it. I deserve something, don't you think??  I mean, I missed 24 hours of my trip that I can never get back.  We'll see what happens...

I promise the next post will really be about Australia and have lots of pictures. I just had to get this complaining post out of the way! :) We took SO many pictures there that it is taking me forever to sort through them all but I'm excited to share them!