8.12.2008

Yet Another for the Blog!

Travel Adventure That is! I was going to post some adventures from Michigan but I had yet another exciting travel adventure last night that I would be remiss to not share it here. So let's see where shall we begin. Oh yes well I left Hancock airport at about 2:15 headed for Minneapolis. Hancock is an airport with 6 flights a day and one gate and I do believe the gate agents are the ticket agents and baggage personal it's just that cool! (photos will follow). So this part of the trip was rather uneventful aside in part from the fact the plane is a prop plane :D
So I got to Minneapolis where I hear from Jay they have a little bit of storms in Boston :( I can't switch to the earlier flight because the flight was over sold - seems another Boston flight had cancelled earlier in the day. But I'm did get a exit row seat for my flight. Well we are delayed ever so slightly because of the storms in boston. But we board just about 15 minutes late and we get ready to push away from the gate when the air conditioner breaks. And of course the plane gets hot and humid quickly even though it's only like 75 outside. Well the mechanics are summoned and they quickly repair us and we push away from the gate only about 45 minutes late.
About 10 feet away from the gate and we loose all power in the plane. They tow us back to the gate where we summon the mechanic again. He patches us up and we are cleared for take off a second time. Oh happy times!
We get in cue to take off when lose air conditioning again and shortly before we make it back to the gate we also lose the power. Ugh - seriously!
I take it all in strides and chat with my seat mate Hannah who works in Boston but lives in Minneapolis - sound familiar? Anyhow we trade travel stories while a mechanic determines that we will not be taking this plane to Boston today.
But how forunate for us there's a spare plane only 30 gates away. Oh but how unforunate for us our flight attendants will be timed out before the plane can take off. They send out the bat signal for 4 new flight attendants to report in the next two hours and we begin the waiting. Oh and did I mention by this time it is now 10:30pm. Mmpff!
To give NWA a little credit they did give us meal vouchers and $25 gift certificates - however they expire on 9/1? We wait and we wait and we wait. soon it is 12:30 and we only have 3 flight attendants we are a little worried they will not send us on. But eventually our flight attendant #4 shows up seems she went to the wrong gate.
But around 1 am we are on our way. We arrive in Boston to wait for a while for our bags around 4am. I call for the hotel shuttle since the rental car place closes at midnight. Well I wait and I wait and I wait for a hotel shuttle I thought about taking a seedy cab but since I have had bad experiences with those I avoid it. An hour and 4 phone calls later the shuttle driver shows up. A very nice chap - he tells me how the other driver said he was coming to get me but seems to have forgotten.
He does however break the news to me that they wish to send me to Holiday Inn. After having a bad experience with them two weeks ago I remind him that I am a platinum member and I am guaranteed my room so he can take me to the courtyard marriott. He seems a little shocked and tells me to give them hell when I get there and demand they make it . I arrive and of course the desk attendant is a little flustered when I lay into him about not having a room. He promptly starts calling other marriotts (in areas I do not wish to stay) and I ask him to call the cambridge marriott since it's right near my office. After being turned down by three other hotels he calls the cambridge marriott and procures me a room for the next two nights on them. They also supply me with several marriott reward certificates as well as free breakfast. I ask to be taken to get my rental car as it is now 5:30 and I can pick up my car at 5:30. So they do and I get to my new hotel around 6:10 where I'm given a suite for my trouble (Rachel there's no odd scuplture here like that penthouse in Copper Harbor). I roll into bed for a few hours but am up at 9 to head over to a meeting. I've still not made up for lost sleep because I must get some oylmpic fix. Tomorrow I share adventures from the UP.

2 comments:

Jodie said...

Aaaargh girl. How do you have the patience to put up with all of this?!

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a bad dream!
At least you got some compensation!

Marilyn
>^..^<