This Romanticon was the first time I have ever flown Frontier Airlines...and the first time in over 20 air pla ne trips that I have had nearly more trouble than the plane trip was worth. My trip had been planned since July. Reservations made. Hotel all set up. Electronic tickets...the works. In all the times I have flown before, the planes have been on time...the connecting flights have been on time...and the whole ball of wa x.
I should have realized that things would go haywire when we were informed that the plan e that I expected to fly out to Denver on was nearly cheap vacation packages an hour late. Because they had to switch planes in Seattle. Because of mechanical problems. But it would be just fine, they said, "because the connecting flight I was to catch in Denver would be an hour and a half late." Because they had to switch out planes. Because of mechanical problems.
Well, That put me two and a half hours behind schedule to catch the last hotel shuttle from the airport to the McKinley Grand Hotel, which was a free service. The result? I had to find a cab at 1:45 a.m. and pay $70.00 to get myself to the hotel. Instead of getting a good eight hours of sleep before having to get up and start motivating, I got exactly three.
Dragging my fanny out of bed and crawling downstairs to breakfast was a real joy. Ahhhh...the free breakfast buffet. cheap vacation packages I was hungry enough to eat a cardboard horse that morning, so it tasted fantastic. Of course, nobody told me that I could order anything off the hotel breakfast menu that I wanted (for free) so I settled for the reconstituted scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, some cut up cantaloupe and tons of crisp bacon or sausage every morning. When I could have had eggs benedict...or waffles...or....sigh.
LOL! I guess I should have asked, right? No big deal, because it was free food and I was on a budget (especially after that $70 taxi ride). Besides...I'm used to my own cooking, and can't say that I'm a gourmet chef.
The hotel was great...the convention was fabulous. A wonderful time was had by all. I hated to leave. cheap vacation packages Then I took the free hotel shuttle back to the airport...only to find that my plane was late. Because they had to switch out the planes. cheap vacation packages Because of mechanical problems.
Because my connecting flight in Denver would be taking off about an hour BEFORE my delayed flight would land, they scrambled to find me another flight from Denver to Utah. They got me on a United Airlines flight that was to leave Denver at 10:05 p.m....making it necessary to call my son to pick me up four hours later than I had asked at first. So I looked cheap vacation packages at the scrolling flight boards in Denver to find my flight out, and it said that flight 6314 would leave from gate 33A at exactly 10:05 p.m.
YAY! I had time to get a bite to eat and I found a McDonald's cheap vacation packages about one football field away from gate 33A and had a leisurely cheap vacation packages meal. After gobbling my meal and dragging my 70 pounds of carry-on luggage back to gate 33A , figuring that I would relax until the flight boarded at 9:39 p.m., I opened a book and read for a couple of hours. After a while I began to notice that there was no one joining me for the next flight from gate 33A, and the scrolling sign over the podium said "Montreal 11:15 p.m."
So I got up and walked over (dragging my friggin' two-ton luggage filled cheap vacation packages with books and junk from the convention) and found a gate attendant and asked if I was in the right place for flight 6314 to SLC. She hit a few dozen keys and replied laconically, "You are at the wrong gate. Flight 6314 has been changed... uh-huh ...because we had to switch out the plane." Because of mechanical problems. Uh-huh. So where was I suppose to be to catch flight 6314 now? Ummm...where the hell is gate 90B? Ummm...whatdya mean, it's about five miles that-a-way?
Thank God there were four people movers that covered 40 of the gates in between...but that left this tired, frustrated, old lady humping her five-ton luggage through two full concourses, over the river and through the woods, down to another level, then back up and back down again. I finally sank into a chair at gate 85A because I was about to fall on my face. (The altitude change from 1100 feet to 5600 feet didn't help my blood pressure).
After huffing and puffing until my heart rate lowered to a safe 120 bpm, and getting my second wind, I crawled out of that lovely chair and managed to drag the ten-ton luggage to gate 90A, where I collapsed and waited anxiously for them to announce that my gate had been changed back to 33B!
Then came the ominous announcement that they were asking for "volunteers" to take a flight the following morning because the smaller plane was seriously oversold...no friggin' way! I am here...you WILL take me home TONIGHT!!!
I was fully ready to fight my way into the damn plane if need be, and didn't mind one damn bit having to check my carry on bag at the gate because the overhead cheap vacation packages area was "too small" for roll alongs. I was finally on the plane...the oversold one...when a commotion broke out at the front. There was a slightly over-Xantaxed passenger who was talking too loudly about the last time she flew and how she had started screaming "OH GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"
The flight attendants asked her take a later flight that wasn't so crowded, and her two adult kids (who shared my three-seat row) decided they would not fly out without Mom. So I was able to stretch out over three seats and watch a free in-flight movie because...uh huh...the flight was so late.
Holy crap, Fran. What a friggin nightmare. I d never fly with them again. I ve only flown Southwest cheap vacation packages and haven t had issues to date. Though I HATE to fly regardless of the company. I drove 10 hrs last time I went to RomantiCon all to avoid flying. Reply Delete Replies Fran Lee October 25, 2012 1:54 PM
Truly was a nightmare. I have always used other airlines before this. But when Frontier had FOUR problems, I decided not to even try them in future. I only selected them this trip because the other airlines here take about 2,000 miles out of my way...dragging me down to Houston or Atlanta for connections to Ohio. A short stop in Denver wasn t so bad, and it took four hours less flight time...but now I think driving will be best. Delete Reply Paris October 25, 2012 4:14 AM
I m with you on the alternative Shadowfax solution, lol! I haven t flown in years because the aggravation just isn t worth it. Next year RT is in Kansas City, so that s only a two hour drive and I plan on being there, how about you saddle up the critter and come say hi:) Reply Delete Replies Fran Lee October 25, 2012 1:55 PM
I feel for you, Fran. It s no fun getting to the back of beyond dragging so much luggage. Hope you make it next year without a problem! I had one such incident, waaaay back when DH and I took a belated honeymoon to northern Italy. We got to the international Milan airport to discover that no planes had been flying OUT of JFK for the past 24 hours because of extreme flooding in NYC (no pilots or crew could get there), so there were no big planes to fly BACK to JFK. That meant no planes flying out of London, Madrid, Munich, Lisbon, or any of the international airports in Europe, because none of the planes took off from JFK. DH finally snagged us a flight from London Heathrow 3 days later, which meant we had to take a train to Bonn and a connecting puddle-jumper from there to London. The good part? The flight was half empty and I could stretch out over all 3 seats and snooze all the way home. BUT, the telegram we sent to arrange pickup didn t get to its intended target cheap vacation packages and we had to take a cab from JFK to Smithtown at the equivalent (in 1985 dollars) of your $70 fare. Reply Delete Replies Fran Lee October 25, 2012 1:59 PM
Yours topped mine. Thanks for sharing, love. Traveling anywhere by plane nowadays is scary. I can t afford $1,000 for a first class ticket, and sitting crammed cheap vacation packages in with two or three others in 24 inch wide seats is the pits. I always ask for a window seat so I can lean against the wall and avoid knocking elbows with my neighbors. Delete Reply jean hart stewart October 25, 2012 9:53 AM
I ve quite flying, and I won t go into the horrendous details of some of my overseas flight. But my son comes to visit from New York on Jet Blue and swears it is like flying used to be. They actually treat him like a person. Reply Delete Replies Fran Lee October 25, 2012 2:01 PM
Jet Blue seems to be far better, but their flights don t go where I need to get From here. I tried booking a flight cheap vacation packages to Ohio but it connected in Miami? There are just so few flights out of here that are non-stop or reasonable connections. Sigh. Delete Reply Tessie Bradford October 25, 2012 4:14 PM
One of my favorite bad flying experiences is when we flew from Detroit to Tampa for my son s wedding. We were delayed on the freeway so we had to dash through the airport - of course we were at the farthest gate possible. The staff at the desk gave us attitude over our lateness. It was in July and over 100 degrees. They finished boarding the plane around 3:30, we were supposed to leave at 4pm. Inside the plane was like an oven. We sat and sat and sat. Smoke started coming from numerous air vents follwed by a very suspicious odor. People got nervous. We sat for a while longer. Men with tool belts came on the plane. They banged and clanged and conferred with each other. Then the flight attendants went around and said everything was just fine. We sat for a while longer. Passengers, myself included, became extremely grumpy. We hadn t been allowed anything to drink, cheap vacation packages or allowed to use the bathroom, or allowed to leave the now extremely stinky sweatbox! Three and a half hours had passed!! In what I m sure they thought was an announcement that would help diffuse the situation, they announced over the speaker that we d be leaving as soon as they found a pilot!!!!!! We sat for almost an hour longer. cheap vacation packages Reply Delete Replies Fran Lee October 26, 2012 1:53 PM
I m glad RomantiCon is in driving range for m
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