Airports Part II

December 25, 2003. M and I are on our way back to UK from CA. The first leg of the trip was uneventful. We got to North Carolina, our stop-over, just fine. We boarded the plane and then nothing. After a long wait, the captain came on the PA system, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Unfortunately, blah blah blah. Once again, sorry for the inconvenience." We waited some more and the captain came on again. He said that the ground crew is fixing the problem and we should be able to depart in 30 minutes. 30 minutes after we're still there. Captain said another 30 minutes. Again, nothing.

At this point, Captain said that they don't know how long we will be there and that we are allowed to go back to the terminal, although, it being so late and being a Christmas Day, absolutely nothing is open. But, I am not sitting in my seat for another second, I headed up to the door among a handful of people. As we were walking out, the other passengers are having a fit. Saying something like, when they do get the aircraft fixed then they're gonna have to wait another 30 minutes for everybody to board the plane.

But, the plane did not get fixed. It was announced after an hour that everybody will have to get off the plane. And that the estimated departure time will be 6 AM. Since everything is closed, giving us food vouchers is useless, they will, however, give us a room at a nearby hotel. Why they wouldn't just give us the meal that they're supposed to serve us for that flight is beyond me.

It's 2 AM. I'm thinking with the long line to get a voucher and the wait for a hotel shuttle, by the time we get to the hotel, it will be time to leave. I don't want to miss the plane, I'll stay here. And it wasn't just us, a whole lot of people did the same thing.

Mommy, I'm thirsty. We headed to a vending machine and the vending machine will not take bills and I don't have enough change. Somebody was kind enough to give some change and even added, "Get her something to eat, too." I tried to give him a dollar but he wouldn't take it.

This is the worst part, just as we were trying to go back to lounge area, the airport staff said that they have to close the lounge area and we have to wait downstairs. I heard this really loud lady complaining to some airport staff but they could not do anything about it. So, everybody headed downstairs. I tried to find a spot for me and M so M can have some sleep.

Mommy, I can't sleep and I'm tired. Can't we just call P to pick us up? How I wish we broke down in SF, then we could have called my brother to pick us up.

Finally, around 5, they opened up the lounge again but we have to get new boarding passes. We finally got out of there and I swore I will never ever fly with Continental Airlines. When we got to UK, when they said the usual thank-you-for-flying-with-us speech, everybody was hissing and booing.