<p>whoa-- sorry your dd had such a hassle. If this ever happens with a flight through ATL, just give me a holler and I’ll be happy to help out. I don’t charge much for my guest room 
In fact, I’ll bet there are Chicago CC’ers who would have been happy to help too, if they could. we should set up an underground network, should our kids need asistance in other cities. Ahhh, the kindness of strangers…</p>
<p>jym626 - you read my mind! I am also in Atlanta, and would be happy to help out! PM me prior to your kid’s flight, and I’ll give out my cell # - that way you can reach me in a hurry if need arises.</p>
<p>Idmom:</p>
<p>To each his own. If that’s the way your husband feels, then that’s the way he feels I guess. I just can’t imagine a much safer place than the O’Hare United concourses at night. They’re brightly lit, patrolled by security, and there are lots of people around, including cleaning staff. In fact, the problem is that there are so many people it’s annoying. The minute you start to drop off to sleep, someone turns on a buffer.</p>
<p>I once had a son stranded in Bankok and a daughter who missed her connection in Athens. They both coped pretty well. But I understand if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I am glad I had notway to tell my parents, on the other side of the ocean, that I had arrived for my connecting flight in the middle of an airline strike, age 17, with shaky English and tons of luggage. I somehow managed to get a hotel room with the help of some kind passengers. Returned the next day to get another flight and arrived in Boston at 2am. I had no idea what directions to give the taxi cab but luckily someone was still up and gave him directions to my dorm.<br>
If I had kept my parents apprised of all my misadventures, they would have worried without the least means to help me out. But it’s true that worryin is part of parents’ job description.</p>
<p>to me, if a friend, my mother, my H was stuck at the airport, I would do whatever I could to help them get a room, or check airlines, etc…why not? helping someone who is stuck is not a sign that the person is incapable of handling a situation…it is a sign that there are caring people willing to go online, make calls, stay on hold and help out, whether its a parent or not</p>
<p>last night I was lost, driving in the rain in the dark…I called my friend up who grabbed a map and talked me out of the corner I drove into…does that make me incapable or naive…no, it makes me lost and looking for help</p>
<p>when my D was stuck at heathrow last year, I tried to help her from this end, partly because I had access to the internet and she was in a mob scene</p>
<p>I understand where suze is coming from, BUT helping others in need is not a sign the person being helped is weak…it is just a sign that others can help out</p>
<p>I like knowing that my Ds have a list of people they can call in an emergency, and I do my best to try and make a contact in a city they are traveling to, if they are traveling alone</p>
<p>My neice was stuck once in LA, missed her flight, her parents weren’t home, so I pulled out the laptop and helped her get a room…that is what friends and families do for each other</p>
<p>At no time did I suggest that a parent or anyone else should not help someone in need. My comments were in response to the characterization of this as a trauma, an emergency and surprise that the airline said it was her problem. </p>
<p>Enough said.</p>
<p>Actually, Suze, once or twice I missed an international connection because the flight was delayed. The airline lined up hotel rooms for passengers (and gave us a measly $10 for dinner, even to a couple who had paid first-class). But this is usually done on the ground, not via phone.
Some people do opt to sleep in airport lounges. Not very re****l, but I agree it’s safe.</p>
<p>I want everyone here to know that I created a very long post that was thoughtful, brilliant, wonderfully-written with empathy and pathos and suspence and dripping with obvious love. It was a masterpiece, and as I reread it just before hitting “Post Quick Reply,” I knew it was the finest piece of writing I had ever done. Perhaps someone would read it and repost it in other forums, and others would repost again and again and my writing fame would spread throughout the internet. Such a post could never be recreated. I smiled as I reread it - slowly for the pleasure it brought me - and then pressed the Reply key…</p>
<p>
Server busy. Please try again later.
</p>
<p><em>poof</em> The message was gone…</p>
<p>dig-
Ya gotta hate it when that happens. And of course it only happens to the long, eloquent, up-for-a-pulitzer-prize posts, eh? I’ve taken to occasionally doing a “cut-and-paste” copy of a post before I send it, just in case. Hopefully the gremlins are gone from the server and you can try to recreate that masterpiece before it becomes a faint memory from your consciousness.</p>
<p>Airlines are weird. Last night, I was at the counter at the gate, asking about my flight - somehow I routed myself through New York and thought I was going to miss a connection, anyway, a flight was boarding, and evidently it was oversold. A young lady had her boarding pass, but, evidently she was denied boarding because of the overbooking situation and she was one of the last persons to check in for the flight. She needed to make a connection to get to Spain. Everyone else was already boarded and the doors were about to close. </p>
<p>The agent at the counter told the young lady sorry, it’s oversold, there’s no more room, no seat for you. Too bad. The young lady burst into tears. She was going from Washington to LGA and from there to Spain, and, apparently if she didn’t get on that plane there was no other way to Spain, at least not any time soon. So she is standing at the gate counter crying, obviously greatly distressed. The ticket agent told her “crying isn’t going to help matters” and “there is no room on this plane, too much weight, no seats, you cannot board”. The poor young lady was at a loss to understand how she could be holding a pass to board and not allowed on, and so she stood there crying and didn’t know what to do. </p>
<p>I guess the agent had second thoughts, went down the ramp to the plane, came back, miraculously found a seat for the young lady, and allowed her to board. </p>
<p>Why was the seat not available before the woman started to cry, but miraculously became available once she started to cry? They didn’t pull anyone else off the plane. That seat was available all along. It seems that the agent didn’t even try, until it became a very emotional situation. I don’t get it…</p>
<p>dig -
This is why I’ve learned (even before the current server woes) to always make a copy of my long, eloquent posts before sending them. That way if it doesn’t go through for some reason you can just paste it back into the empty box and try again.</p>
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<p>The gate agent had the flight attendants do a physical count to see if there are any empty seats. And sure enough the found a middle seat somewhere that was showing occupied on the computer but whose occupant for some reason wasn’t there. I’ve seen this happen lots of times on very full flights. I haven’t often seen actual crying, but I’ve seen them do hand counts to find that last open seat.</p>
<p>Coureur, I see, I didn’t know that. Still, why didn’t the agent do the seat count BEFORE the young lady began to cry? The agent literally blew her off, said no way, you cannot board, no more room. Not “give me a minute I’ll check” or “don’t get your hopes up but there’s one more thing I can try” or “I’ll go do a manual seat count - doubtful there will be a seat but let’s just see, sometimes it happens” or anything that might have been the least bit conciliatory. Instead, just, nope, you cannot go, period, end of story, and by the way stop crying, it doesn’t help, I’m not impressed. </p>
<p>Then, only when it became obvious to everyone - and began to draw sympathy from the other agents who where helpless but also in subordinate roles - that this poor young woman could not stop crying and had no idea what to do or how to get to Spain - did this agent go to the plane, and evidently did exactly what you descibed, and found a seat for her.</p>
<p>It just really bothered me a lot, because it seemed that the agent was not even going to bother to try to count seats or do anything else until it became apparent that the young woman was in a lot of distress and could not stop crying.</p>
<p>Digmedia:
That post was hilarious. :D</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how carefully you plan; something will happen to screw it up. S’s freshman year I thought I was being very smart by having him fly non-stop on United from Boston to SFO, then take the puddle-jumper, so he wouldn’t have to connect in Chicago or Denver in winter. It was a free ticket. When he landed at SFO he discovered the puddle-jumper was cancelled due to fog. So I jumped in the car and drove 125 miles to SFO to get him. </p>
<p>Next Thursday he is flying American through Dallas. I hope there’s no more snow in Texas!</p>
<p>And as a side note, D and her husband of 35 days have been without power in Olympia— had a reservation at an airport motel last night to catch their morning flight to LA for their honeymoon cruise. The traffic was insane. Their motel was closed and somehow they got the VERY LAST room at the Ramada at the airport for $300/night. Thankfully their flight is on time and they are waiting to depart now. They’ll never forget their honeymoon!</p>
<p>Yesterday was a challenge for many travelers, (despite the seemingly mild weather) due to fog. It was pretty dense here in Pennsylvania and many flights were delayed or cancelled. We got a phone call at 4am telling us that my husband’s 7am flight was cancelled and all other flights were fully booked until much later in the day. Uggh… I used to enjoy travel but I can’t remember the last time I flew w/o some type of problem. LOL
Glad to hear all worked out in the end- enjoy your visit!</p>
<p>So I called my S at 11:30 to make sure he was through security and waiting for his 12:35 flight to Charlotte to connect to NY.What happened? I WOKE HIM UP. He was out of his dorm in 5 minutes. Will he make his flight?
Dont know yet. Its going to be a stressful day…
kids…</p>
<p>LOL @ cathymee, hopefully he makes it o.k. The Charlotte airport is pretty small and easy to navigate quickly - most of the time, that is. Security letting him through with < 60 minutes is another story…could you check him in electronically?</p>
<p>what gets me cathymee, is the NEXT time they are flying and you call them earlier to make sure they are vertical, they get mad at you, well girls do anyway…if it weren’t for the extra money one has to spend when one misses or has to reschedule a flight, I wouldn’t be so cranky…</p>
<p>And, I would cry…yep…It would probably stop me from wanting to leap over the counter and pull somebody’s hair</p>
<p>dig…lol…that happens to me ALL THE TIME and WILL I NEVER LEARN to do as coureur suggests. NO! I’m always remembering ‘right click copy’ AFTER I’m looking at blank box. lol! (disclaimer…I use caps for emphasis not shouting.)</p>
<p>cathymee - we had that little ‘trauma’ too (sorry…i just like this word 
) too! After ldgirl was settled in at the Doubletree, she was concerned about not hearing her alarm or the wakeup call. She was just ‘dog-tired’ (Texan thing). She spent the last two nights pulling all-nighters for finals, it’s was after 1 a.m. and she needed to get up by 5:30 or 6 a.m. to fight for a place on the hotel shuttle to make her early flight to Houston. I told her, ‘put your cell next to you on your pillow and I’ll ring you as a third back up’. </p>
<p>I did ring her at about 6:00 and sure enough she was still asleep. She heard the cell since her head was LAYING on it; and I heard in the background the alarm going off. She jumped up, told me she’s gonna get dressed and get moving. Instead she fell back in the bed and woke up again at about 7 p.m. She grabbed what little of her belongings she had with her and stuffed them into the pillowcase of her favorite fluffy travel pillow and RUNS. She makes the 8:00 a.m. flight, last person on board…and as she is breathlessly making her way to her seat, one particularly loud gentlemen laughs and says “looks like someone’s headed home from college with laundry for their mom!”</p>
<p>Glad I didn’t know about that one ahead of time…I would had to have had a drink at 8:00 in the morning.</p>