Costa Rica

Today was a very early start. My flight from Chicago to Miami was scheduled to leave at 6:10 AM so I woke up at 3:15 and left the house about 4:15. Turns out I could have stayed in bed another 30 minutes and still made it on time. Because there's no traffic that early in the morning the cab ride to the airport only took about 20 minutes. There was almost no line at the ticket counter and despite there being a long line for security I was at the gate by 5 AM. With the large number of canceled flights due to severe weather on Wednesday they ended up switching the plane from a 757 to a 767 so they could accommodate the large number of people on standby. This only delayed the flight a few minutes.

My arrival in Miami was where all the excitment of the trip started. When I arrived at MIA I checked the board where it said my flight was on time. Since I had over two hours to kill I casually strolled to the terminal where my connecting flight was and checked the agent counter which was still boarding a previous flight. After wandering around the airport to get something for lunch I started wandering back to the gate with 30 minutes to spare before scheduled boarding only to receive a text message that the flight had been delayed over two hours.

After working on the computer for a while I was paged to come to the service desk. Stacy from Dallas, who I had met on last year's Amazing Journey had found out we were on the same flight and had me paged. She was sitting with David from Nashville, so the three of us sat around discussing all our past journeys and if our plane was ever going to arrive. Since the plane was late the airline provided us with lunch vouchers which I used to get a sandwich. Just as I finished my lunch I received another text message that our flight had been canceled. Unfortunately I made the mistake of thinking this message was a computer error.

A few minutes later there was an announcement that indeed our flight had been canceled. [explicative deleted]!! The three of us jumped up and got in line for the ticket counter so we could be rebooked for a later flight. I called my dad figuring since he was in the office he could get this resolved quicker and easier than I could. He found out there was another flight later that day and somehow he managed to get me on to the next flight and was trying to get Stacy and David on the same flight. (Thanks, Dad!) At the same time this was going on Stacy was also on the phone with AA trying to get a seat on the next flight. The agent that Stacy was dealing with told her I was already on the next flight but the flight was filled and she couldn't get her or David booked. When I finally got to the ticket counter to get my new boarding pass I was told I wasn't on the flight. The agent Stacy was talking to took me off the flight and put me on the morning flight for the next day along with Stacy and David. ARGHH!!

I demanded to talk to a supervisor, and after a long wait the supervisor finally showed up. After explaining the situation she looked through all the records and decided to get me on to this flight. Since they were still decided which of the standby passengers could get on the flight the bumped off one of the standbys and issued me a boarding pass. The supervisor also warned me that there was a possibility that my luggage might not make it on to this flight, but since I was previously booked on the flight there was a good chance it was already on board. After getting situated on the plane an announcement was made that more luggage was being boarding and we would need to wait about another 20 minutes. Could this be my luggage? It also turned out my seat was broken and wouldn't recline. But at least I was on the plane.

Upon arriving in San Jose while I was waiting in line at customs other people were saying the reason the flight got canceled was the American Airlines executives had just given themselves multi-million dollar bonuses after all the AA staff had taken large pay cuts and the staff decided not to work one second over their union contract, causing the delayed flight to be canceled. After clearing customs I made it down the escalator where there was a person holding a sign with people's names, but my name wasn't on the list. I decided to just get my luggage and deal with the next issue afterward. While I was waiting for my luggage Nancy introduced herself after seeing my Amazing Journeys luggage tag. We talked for a bit waiting for our luggage to show up. Her suitcase ended up being in a group that had already been taken off the belt. Mine unfortunately never showed up.

After many other boring details including declaring my luggage lost, and finding someone with info to get me to the hotel, I made it to the hotel. After getting my room key I went strait to the pool area where the rest of the group was just finishing dinner and was greeted by Malori who I was very glad to see. Having been on prior Amazing Journeys I know that Malori is the master at fixing things when it comes to travel and from here on out things could only get better.

After greeting Bill (who I was also very glad to see) and introducing myself to the group I grabbed a little dinner and Bill came by with some chocolate mouse and a candle and had the whole group wish me a happy birthday. For what was a very long and stressful day at least it had a great ending.