Y4 D282

Yesterday was a complete comedy of errors getting home. Let's see if I can remember all of it because it's a hell of a story.

Woke up feeling a little out of it as I mentioned but managed to get past that. Got to the client around 8am for my last 1/2 day of training. I was already tweaked out about my flights because I had to get to the airport in a small window (so I thought) and then only had 40 minutes between connections (so I thought). Class went very well. I had enough time to show them some stuff outside the regular material plus answer any general questions they had. Full on applause at the end of the day. I finished up around 11:15 which relaxed me slightly as I knew I should have enough time to get to the airport. What I didn't count on was the snow or getting lost. Both of which ended up costing me about 30 minutes. But I was still good. My flight from PA to Chicago was scheduled at 3 and I managed to get to the airport and drop off my car by 1. Good. Two hours to kill. I headed down to my gate and the 12:15 flight to Chicago had been delayed until 1:45. I should have seen that as an omen, but instead I saw it as a positive. I managed to get on that flight and even keep my exit row. While all the original passengers on that flight were frustrated because they were 90 minutes, I was happy because I was now going to be 2 hours early for my Chicago flight. Got there without incident. There was an earlier flight home and I decided to walk to that gate, but I just missed it. No problem. I now have two hours to kill but hey, my flight is still listed as on time. Cool.

Yeah...

The flight was scheduled to leave at 4:25. Now at Chicago they de-ice the planes at the gate instead of on the runway like they do EVERY OTHER DAMN AIRPORT. Which backs up traffic at the gates. I am waiting at my gate and see I am 7th on the upgrade list. Then 5th. I am hoping I can get the upgrade. We have our first delay and don't actually board until about 4:45. At 5 the pilot comes on to tell us we have to de-ice and it will be another 20 minutes. After that he tells us there is a hydraulic problem. I am in the exit, no upgrade unfortunately, but we deal. THEN he says sorry the problem can't be fixed but we found a new plane. At 6, we are all taken off the plane and we wait in the gate for them to tell us okay, new flight, leaves at 8. Sigh okay. I wander around as I now have 90 minutes to kill. When I get back to the gate, I am now 3rd on the upgrade list. But the new time? 8:20. AT 9 we finally board but whoo hoo, I got my upgrade. At least now I am in first class and can relax. Yeah right. Not only do we have to de-ice this plane, but there is another mechanical issue. Seriously. Even the captain is frustrated. BUT WAIT IT GETS BETTER. As we are finally ready to leave, we have to wait again because now the flight crew has exceeded the max work hours for the day. We have to find a new crew. Long story long, we didn't leave until 10, and didn't get home until 12:05am local time. FIVE hours delayed. Five hours, two planes, two crews. Nice. All in all, with time changes and delays, it took me 15 hours to get from PA to home. FIFTEEN hours.

I finally went to bed last night at around 1:30am. Talk about long ass days...