I am very happy to say that I actually escaped the blizzard that hit Chicago on February 1, 2011. I feel very fortunate that my husband and I were able to get home without camping out in an airport or by extending our stay by several more days.
We were not scheduled to fly together. I had booked our flight a 1/2 hour apart, but we were both on American Airlines. Being a frequent flyer member, I used mileage for his flight, so he was ticketed in first class while I flew coach. He has difficulty getting around so I try to make his travel as easy as possible. We were glued to the news the night before to see what would be happening weather-wise. I got a text message in the early evening that my connection flight through Dallas had been cancelled, but the flight into Dallas was not. That seemed very strange to me, so I called an agent to find a flight before they cancelled it. I was able to reroute my flight to Seattle and then catch Alaska Airlines down to California. We never heard about my husbands flight that evening, so I assumed everything was ok.
We were up bright and early the next morning for our van ride to the airport. I like to use Go Airport Shuttle because it is convenient, affordable and when you sign up you get email alerts about specials. I booked online and saved 10% on my round trip airport to hotel transfer for two.
It was very cold and already snowing. O'Hare was a zoo at 6:45 am! When my husband checked in he found out his flight HAD been cancelled and he had already been rebooked for 2 pm! We both went through security and I took his boarding pass to my gate agent and put on my best early morning smile to see if she could get him on my flight. I knew that taking the chance to leave that late in the afternoon would be a certain lost battle. The score would be "flight zero" - "Ice, snow and wind 10"! I also knew that I couldn't leave him stranded in Chicago by himself.
After what seemed like forever she was able to get him on all the same flights. It also worked to our advantage that he did have that first class seat because it allowed no charge changes. It was a drag however that he was squished into coach, but at least we sat together!
We finally arrived home after about 12 hours from the time we awoke until we got home, but as I watched flight after flight get cancelled in the MidWest I knew we had been very lucky indeed!
Ta Ta for now...
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| Ice on the Inside of our Hotel Window! |
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| View from the airplane as we flew south from Seattle. |
