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Yesterday's adventures in air travel
19 January 2008: It's about 2:20pm (Eastern Standard Time) on Saturday, and I can't seem to get any internet connectivity here, so I'll have to upload this entry later. We left the house about 7:30 this morning, headed to BWI airport in Baltimore, MD. Right now, our car is sitting in long term parking at BWI airport, and our checked luggage should be in Denver, awaiting transfer on to Hayden, CO. However, my family and I have only managed to make it from BWI to Dulles airport, in Northern VA.
When we checked in at BWI, we received a seat assignment for our flight to Denver, but they couldn't give us four seats together, or even two set of two seats together. We weren't thrilled about having one or both girls sitting by themselves for the four hour flight, so when we got to the gate, we checked to see if they could shuffle us into a better seating arrangement. The airline representative indicated that if we were willing to be bumped, they could give us seats on a later flight, as well as free round trip airfare any were in the continental US. The catch was that the later flight was leaving from Dulles. After a brief discussion, we decided to take them up on the deal, especially since they were offering a voucher to pay for the cab ride to the other airport.
While they processed the paperwork, I watched our ski bag loaded onto the airplane, so I know our checked luggage made it on our original flight. Once we had our new boarding passes and vouchers in hand, we collected our carry-on luggage, and headed out to the taxi stand. We piled into the cab at the front of the queue, and handed the driver our voucher. Of course the airline representative screwed up, and our voucher only listed one passenger, instead of four, but the driver waved off our offer to go back to the airline. He said the cab company would take it up with the airline.
And so we headed off on the interstate, back past Washington, and on to Dulles, almost an hour drive. Our cabbie dropped us at the terminal, and since we already had boarding passes, we headed straight for the security check point. Given the long queues we've often waited in at Dulles, we were somewhat amazed to have almost no wait to get through our second security check of the morning.
3:30pm EST, Dulles Airport: After getting through security, we checked the departure board, and noticed that there were two other flights to Denver leaving before the flight we were booked on. Since we were looking at about a five hour wait, we decided to see if we could get ourselves on either of the two earlier flights. We were placed on the standby list for the first flight, and we camped out at the gate. Unfortunately, that flight was overbooked, so our prospects looked bleak, until twelve passengers connecting from a flight from London didn't show up. They started calling names from the stand-by list, but there was some confusion about exactly how many empty seats there were, as the reports from the flight crew didn't agree with the computer readout. They might have had four first class seats for us, but they didn't figure that out until after they'd sent three more people onto the plane, so in the end, we didn't manage to get onto that airplane.
We arranged to be on stand-by for the next flight, but again, it was overbooked, and this time, all the confirmed passengers showed up to claim their seats, so once again, we didn't get to head out early. We are now sitting at gate D4, waiting for boarding to begin for our confirmed flight to Denver. We should be arriving in Denver about 6:15pm local time, and transferring to our flight to Hayden, which is scheduled to leave about 7:05pm. This means a fairly late arrival at our condo in Steamboat, but we've been pretty relaxed about the whole adventure, knowing that we would eventually make it. Tomorrow, we'll be testing the snow on the slopes, and that will make all the delays today well worthwhile.
10:45pm (Mountain Standard Time, EST-2hr), Steamboat Springs, CO: We are finally checked into our condo, and I'm continuing to have internet connectivity issues, which I'm too tired to worry about right now. Hopefully, I can work that out tomorrow.
Our flight from Dulles to Denver was mostly uneventful, though after landing, we sat on the tarmac for almost 20 minutes waiting for a gate to clear so we could de-plane. Since our flight to Hayden was scheduled to leave in less than 30 minutes, and we had no idea what gate it was departing from, we were worried about making our connection since we were sitting at the back of our aircraft. Luckily, the flight attendant at the rear of the aircraft asked the other passengers to allow those of use with tight connections to exit the plane first, and our connecting gate was only a short run up the terminal.
The flight to Hayden was a short 30 minute hope over the mountains, and the plane was only about 1/3 full, so it was a comfortable flight. I waved in the general direction of Antof9's home as we flew over Denver, and before I knew it we were on our shuttle to our condo. We've mostly unpacked, and everyone else is asleep, heads full of powder dreams, no doubt. Which is where I should be after such a long day of travel.
Now its time to eat breakfast and get ready to go searching for some powder!
When we checked in at BWI, we received a seat assignment for our flight to Denver, but they couldn't give us four seats together, or even two set of two seats together. We weren't thrilled about having one or both girls sitting by themselves for the four hour flight, so when we got to the gate, we checked to see if they could shuffle us into a better seating arrangement. The airline representative indicated that if we were willing to be bumped, they could give us seats on a later flight, as well as free round trip airfare any were in the continental US. The catch was that the later flight was leaving from Dulles. After a brief discussion, we decided to take them up on the deal, especially since they were offering a voucher to pay for the cab ride to the other airport.
While they processed the paperwork, I watched our ski bag loaded onto the airplane, so I know our checked luggage made it on our original flight. Once we had our new boarding passes and vouchers in hand, we collected our carry-on luggage, and headed out to the taxi stand. We piled into the cab at the front of the queue, and handed the driver our voucher. Of course the airline representative screwed up, and our voucher only listed one passenger, instead of four, but the driver waved off our offer to go back to the airline. He said the cab company would take it up with the airline.
And so we headed off on the interstate, back past Washington, and on to Dulles, almost an hour drive. Our cabbie dropped us at the terminal, and since we already had boarding passes, we headed straight for the security check point. Given the long queues we've often waited in at Dulles, we were somewhat amazed to have almost no wait to get through our second security check of the morning.
3:30pm EST, Dulles Airport: After getting through security, we checked the departure board, and noticed that there were two other flights to Denver leaving before the flight we were booked on. Since we were looking at about a five hour wait, we decided to see if we could get ourselves on either of the two earlier flights. We were placed on the standby list for the first flight, and we camped out at the gate. Unfortunately, that flight was overbooked, so our prospects looked bleak, until twelve passengers connecting from a flight from London didn't show up. They started calling names from the stand-by list, but there was some confusion about exactly how many empty seats there were, as the reports from the flight crew didn't agree with the computer readout. They might have had four first class seats for us, but they didn't figure that out until after they'd sent three more people onto the plane, so in the end, we didn't manage to get onto that airplane.
We arranged to be on stand-by for the next flight, but again, it was overbooked, and this time, all the confirmed passengers showed up to claim their seats, so once again, we didn't get to head out early. We are now sitting at gate D4, waiting for boarding to begin for our confirmed flight to Denver. We should be arriving in Denver about 6:15pm local time, and transferring to our flight to Hayden, which is scheduled to leave about 7:05pm. This means a fairly late arrival at our condo in Steamboat, but we've been pretty relaxed about the whole adventure, knowing that we would eventually make it. Tomorrow, we'll be testing the snow on the slopes, and that will make all the delays today well worthwhile.
10:45pm (Mountain Standard Time, EST-2hr), Steamboat Springs, CO: We are finally checked into our condo, and I'm continuing to have internet connectivity issues, which I'm too tired to worry about right now. Hopefully, I can work that out tomorrow.
Our flight from Dulles to Denver was mostly uneventful, though after landing, we sat on the tarmac for almost 20 minutes waiting for a gate to clear so we could de-plane. Since our flight to Hayden was scheduled to leave in less than 30 minutes, and we had no idea what gate it was departing from, we were worried about making our connection since we were sitting at the back of our aircraft. Luckily, the flight attendant at the rear of the aircraft asked the other passengers to allow those of use with tight connections to exit the plane first, and our connecting gate was only a short run up the terminal.
The flight to Hayden was a short 30 minute hope over the mountains, and the plane was only about 1/3 full, so it was a comfortable flight. I waved in the general direction of Antof9's home as we flew over Denver, and before I knew it we were on our shuttle to our condo. We've mostly unpacked, and everyone else is asleep, heads full of powder dreams, no doubt. Which is where I should be after such a long day of travel.
Now its time to eat breakfast and get ready to go searching for some powder!
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How did the youngsters cope with all the delays?
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