<p>Omgosh…it has taken ldgirl almost 20 hours to get home! And she was flying not driving!</p>
<p>We booked all her flights back in August, but couldn’t get a direct flight on Continental to Houston for the Christmas break. So she was flying United (grrrrr…) with a 90 minute layover at Chicago O’Hare. The flight from RDU to Chicago was delayed, of course, 70 minutes. (WHY she was allowed to board that flight I don’t know.) My husband figured out she would miss the connection while she was still in the air shortly after take off. We had been at our son’s concert and didn’t realize she had been delayed; and when we checked her flight status, we immediately went into emergency mode. </p>
<p>After more than an hour of both of us sitting on hold with different people at United, we still had no clue what would happen to her or if she would be able to get home that night. When we finally got a human (I use the term loosely since this person was unbelievably rude), they told us it was “not their fault” and it was “HER problem” that she had to work out at the airport. DH then got the AmEx concierge on one phone and Continental on another phone trying to see if we couldn’t book her on another airline home. Nope…latest flight for Houston left at 7:15 p.m.</p>
<p>ldgirl lands in terminal 2 at O’Hare, runs like mad to terminal 1 only to see her plane out on the taxiway. United kindly told her they had automatically booked her on the 8:00 a.m. flight and ‘come back tomorrow’. So there is my 18 year old child standing in the middle of a huge airport in a strange city wondering what next. She goes to customer service and the line is out the door and into the drive with other customers who had missed connections. She has no idea if they booked her luggage through automatically, so she also has to go to baggage claim to find out what happened to her luggage.</p>
<p>DH and I then get on the phone and start calling hotels…which were all booked because apparently thousands missed connections. I’m envisioning people flikking on their blackberries and treos as soon as they land, making hotel reservations a la ‘Amazing Race’. Finally, thank goodness, a wonderful O’Hare Hilton rep went on a search for us and found her a room at the nearby Doubletree. After fighting grown men in suits who were literally shoving people out of the way to get on the hotel shuttles, she makes it to the Doubletree. By 1 a.m., she was finally checked in and calling me from behind a locked door.</p>
<p>And low an behold, at 1 p.m. she has just walked in the door with her boyfriend. Quick hugs and straight for the shower and toothbrush. :)</p>
<p>I’m so happy to see her face… and NEVER AGAIN are we doing this! Direct flights only from now on!!</p>
<p>Oh, ldmom, {{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}} to you and ldgirl! What a traumatic travel experience!!! :eek:</p>
<p><strong><em>SO</em></strong> happy that your sweetie is back home, safe and sound with y’all!</p>
<p>I have alway feared this scenario with my son traveling to/from RDU. There <em>are</em> no direct flights for us, and usually he has to switch planes in Atlanta, though it’s been Dallas and Chicago before. And because he usually ends up taking late flights, I’m always afraid that should he miss that last one, he’d be <em>really</em> stuck! So far, we’ve lucked out, though on the last trip, he literally had to jog to his connecting flight! </p>
<p>At any rate, ldgirl is home now, and everyone can breathe a huge sigh of relief! Hope your holidays are as sweet as her homecoming! love, ~berurah</p>
<p>More hugs Idmom. This is a continuing worry of mine, not that I don’t think my D is independent and adaptable, I worry about the scenario you outlined with the BlackBerrys and all the rooms disappearing just like that. I’ve been making her airline reservations, and I made them earlier in the day if possible, to avoid the missed flight. She made her Xmas reservation, and it was later than any i would have made - I guess she will just have to learn this lesson the hard way.</p>
<p>I’m really glad everything worked out with your daughter. I do have a different slant on it, though, and I hope you won’t take offense at it.</p>
<p>Had I been her parent, I would have told her to find a nice set of chairs, curl up, and try to sleep. The airport is perfectly safe thoughout the night, and it’s common to see people sleeping through the non-connecting hours. I’m glad she found a hotel room but, barring a disability, she is young, healthy, and would hardly be worse for the wear catnapping throughout the night in the airport. I"'e done it as a middle-aged man.</p>
<p>Air travel delays happen. They just do. They’re not fun, but they’re no cause for concern, either. My children have flown all over the world at one time or another and at least two have found themselves stranded in places where they didn’t even speak the language. All of them have managed quite well, and I think those times helped them develop a healthy respect for their own problem-solving abilities.</p>
<p>So, I guess what I would say is to learn to relax about this stuff. She would have been fine without your intervention. Really.</p>
<p>Once again, glad she’s home for the holidays. My own brood is slowly gathering.</p>
<p>I have learned when my kids fly alone to just stay near the computer…not fun, but after some dramas, I figure I would be mre relaxed sitting at home until I KNEW she was on that plane…as well, after reading your story, I have decided IF dear Ds need to have a stop, they will have at least 4 hours to make the next flight…better they sit at airport a few hours then watch their plane take off</p>
<p>once we had 30 minutes to swap planes at LAX from a flight from Mexico…we asked for seats near the front, so of course we were searched in every knook and cranny, but we KNEW we had to grt in front of everyone at immigration…We never ran so fast…nd of course when we get to the flight it had been delayed 20 minutes…OMG…i literally fell on the ground</p>
<p>Another time, we had to transfer at heathrow…at the time of a spike in IRA/prove violence…we had two sets of golf clubs, luggage, a baby, and these giant shoping cart things…when we got to security for the Irish flight, the line was incredible…and right on cue my baby starts to cry…it was heaven sent…i told people she was sick and they let me go ahead…this was after an 8 hour flight, a mad sprint around Heathrow which is chaos at the best of times, going through on immigration station for arrival, a shuttle bus, waitng for stupid golf clubs, and running, literally a gauntlet of humanity with a cranky baby…it was amazing, nobofy minded when I cut the line with a wailing baby…god bless her…I don’t think I have ever smelled worse…</p>
<p>Tarhunt, 10 years ago, maybe even 5 years ago, I would have given the same advice that you gave - sleep in the airport. Nowadays, I would consider a hotel room prophylaxis for MY mental health, the only way I could get to sleep would be to know that she had locked herself in the hotel room.</p>
<p>'mini!! I would have been crazy with worry!;</p>
<p>Eh. We’d already traveled to the tsunami zone where she’d dug out and burned bodies, and at 17 she went to Cambodia, Thailand, and India by herself, so a night in the Cincinnati Airport was…well, a night in the Cincinnati Airport.</p>
<p>Glad that she made it home. Don’t get me started on my rant with United Airlines. </p>
<p>I have thought about posting a list on here of who lives near what airport. </p>
<p>That way if a parent was concerned they could PM someone and get a local number in a transfer/layover city. I live near O’hare and would happily help someone who was stuck try to get a hotel and transportation there.</p>
<p>Obviously people react to this kind of situation in different ways. I spent the night in airports - alone - at least twice that I can remember in my early 20s when this kind of thing happened and it was fine and a confidence booster. I think kids can find solutions. Of course the ones that aren’t as comfortable doing it on their own will contact parents and other kids will find their own way through. </p>
<p>I have a different take on the airport vs. hotel overnight. I think it’s arguably more dangerous for a young woman, alone, to move to a hotel than it is to stay put in an active airport.</p>
<p>I’ll go along with Tarhunt on this. We had a bit of a problem when the SuperShuttle that was supposed to take my son from SFO to Stanford last August never showed up. He called and the company said that even though he had a reservation, they were too busy. He found a way to deal with it.</p>
<p>As a frequent traveler, I know these things seem to happen more often that not. The only way to rationally deal with them is the try to just deal with it as is.</p>
<p>And, as our kids learn to work these, the situations will become less and less of a big deal.</p>
<p>And, yes, if it’s not too much more, I’ll always opt for the direct flights home.</p>
<p>meredesfilles: THAT IS A GREAT IDEA!!! (shouting)</p>
<p>Sleeping at O-Hare is a right of passage for any college student. Our UW student charter got snowed in and who had money for a hotel room then?? We had a few overpriced airport beers and slept on the floor till the next morning.</p>
<p>unfortunately, the down side of flying in the evening in winter means that an overnight is likely if flights are delayed due to bad weather or mechanical difficulties. </p>
<p>Direct flights help, but taking a morning flight increases your same-day arrival substantially.</p>
<p>S’s Thanksgiving flght home from Columbia SC to NY (direct-Delta) was delayed and then cancelled.Last flight of the day out of that airport. He got on his phone while others got on line and booked himself out first thing the next morning,non direct.He learned from his championship travelling man Dad,who has been caught in most every bad travelling situation there could be. luckily, the dorms werent closing till 10 AM the next morning so the kids booked on that flight just turned around and went back to their rooms.otherwise, they would have slept at the airport.
For Christmas, he booked an early Saturday instead of a late Friday just for the reasons mentioned above…more choices.
My H calls Delta…Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport</p>
<p>Have to agree with Tarhunt. Isn’t trauma and emergency mode a bit extreme? Like Mini says, those of us who have seen some of the world’s problems reserve those words.</p>
<p>I missed a connection in Japan when I was 16 and managed to get a room not knowing a word of the language!</p>
<p>INDEED! Ha! We’ve all lived through a night or two or three at an airport.</p>
<p>In fact, I’m hoping my son isn’t sleeping at JFK tonight. </p>
<p>His flights are all screwed up. He’s still in Columbus OH (flight is 45 mins late so far) and he has to change at JFK for the last flight out of the night to Rochester (which is “on time”). Estimated arrival home 12:38 AM. Keeping my fingers crossed. </p>
<p>Alas, he knew the risk when he opted to come home tonight rather than tomorrow.</p>
<p>weenie, I’ll bet he is traveling light this year! I am sure that he will be fine. I guess that you won’t get much sleep tonight. BTW, my son should be home in about 2 hours.</p>
<p>Cathymee, What your H calls Delta is pretty funny.</p>
<p>As I was stuck in RDU at midnight on Wednesday night from a flight rerouted because it couldn’t land in my destination city due to “fog” I was surrounded by dismayed college students who were confused about what to do as their plans weren’t working as expected either. I felt so bad for them and reminded myself to walk through these contingencies with my son again. We had discussed this with him at length when he had to change planes in Atlanta for Brazil as a high school student (traveling alone and not being met until in Brazil), but I figure a refresher course is in order. These days, delays are the norm rather than the exception. </p>
<p>In my case, people on the plane were told that every hotel room in the city was booked, all rental cars were booked, and all flights the next day were booked until 3:00 the following day. Passengers were encouraged to curl up on a chair. As you surmise, those with corporate travel agencies found rooms and found rental cars for the next day. Booked simply meant the hotels wouldn’t accept the airline’s $40 voucher. It was still a major inconvenience because it was supposed to be a day trip, so I had no luggage, but I have learned to keep at least a contact lense case and a couple of other essentials always in the briefcase.</p>
<p>Flying direct may not always be an option. Just walk through what to do, who to call, how to book hotels, etc. as the alternative when needed.</p>