Ben and Jenelle DOT COM

Before I talk about my flight back to Chicago from the city of brotherly love, I would just like to comment that this week’s Strongbad E-mail is a must-see for anyone who has ever been to Disneyland / Disneyworld and rode the Jungle Cruise.

I was scheduled to leave PHL at 7:15 on Friday night, arriving at O’Hare around 9pm local time. Working my way through the crowds in the United terminal, I discovered that my flight was canceled, but I was booked on the 6:15 flight with no trouble at all. I also noticed that the 4:00, 5:00, and 6:15 flights to O’Hare were all DELAYED. Yikes. After grabbing a $2 slice of pizza (not bad for the airport), I made my way to the gate. I sat where I could see the departure board so that I could keep tabs on the other two flights.

Seven O’Clock. My flight is still delayed. There’s bad weather in O’Hare, and even after it’s passed through, it will still be directly in between Philadelphia and Chicago.

Eight O’Clock. Still delayed. The other two PHL-ORD flights are also delayed.

Nine O’Clock. My flight gets canceled. I wait in line for a boarding pass on the flight originally scheduled to leave at 5:00. To my surprise, I have no trouble getting one.

Ten O’Clock. I board the 5:00 flight. We sit out on the runway for a while.

Eleven O’Clock. We finally take off. The captain mentions that we’ll be flying south around the storms.

Midnight. We’re somewhere in Kentucky, still quite a distance from Chicago. By 12:30, we’re in a holding pattern over St. Louis.

One O’Clock. The captain mentions that we might have to land somewhere besides O’Hare because we don’t have an abundance of fuel left. At one point, he says something like, “We’ll see if we can make it”. I envision the captain and first officer tapping on the gas gauge to determine if there’s enough left in the tank. “Hey, Bill, have you ever seen the fuel read this low before?”

One Thirty. We land safely at O’Hare. Yay.

Two O’Clock. Jenelle and I meet at the American terminal and head for economy parking.

Two Thirty. We leave the airport.

Four O’Clock. We arrive safely at our condo.

So, it was quite an interesting evening / morning. I’m thankful that Jenelle and I both made it back to Chicago without having to sleep somewhere in an airport.

Day four of my five-day class is about to begin. I’m not having any trouble with the material, and I think I’ll be well-equipped when I return to normal work on Monday.

Otherwise, I’m sorry to say that life is pretty uneventful around here. I have plenty of time to work out and then relax in the evenings. There’s a grocery store and a K-mart within walking distance, so I can always go to those places if I need something. Business trips are always a bit of a challenge in terms of food. The company pays for your meals, so you can go crazy for every meal if you want. I try to take a more practical approach; I’ve ordered out once (pizza delivery), and the rest of my breakfasts and dinners are made from the groceries I bought on Monday (or leftover pizza). There’s no scale that I can use to check my weight, but I think I’m still under 195. 🙂

I’m heading back on a Friday evening flight. If a “bump” is offered, I’ll probably take it.

I am currently in a town near Philadelphia, PA for work. I flew in from Chicago yesterday. My trip over was slightly more eventful than usual.

I was scheduled to take the 3:00 flight from O’Hare to Philadelphia, arriving around 6:20. The flight was oversold, so the agent offered a free roundtrip ticket in exchange for a “bump” to an alternate flight arrangement. Instead, I’d leave O’Hare around 4, and I’d fly to Washington National and then to Philadelphia, arriving in PHL at about 9:30 p.m. I’d have to wait a bunch and take two planes instead of one, but I’m happy to do that for a free ticket. I accepted the offer and waited for the agent to issue me new boarding passes.

SURPRISE #1: The agent secures us passage on a non-stop ORD-PHL flight leaving at 4:15. Hey, works for me — I arrive an hour or so later than I originally planned. Not bad!

SURPRISE #2: The 4:15 flight is also oversold. I have no idea why they bumped me from one oversold flight to another, but I won’t complain.

So, this flight also has a “bump” option, and the agent offers alternate flights through Washington National. By this point, I’ve met up with another person who has done the exact same thing as me. We get boarding passes on the Washington flight and e-ticket receipts for the US Air flight that gets us to Philadelphia. We are asked to hurry to the gate and board the plane for Washington. Each of us now has TWO free roundtrip tickets.

SURPRISE #3: As we walk down the jetway, we notice that the US Air flight leaves Washington BEFORE our scheduled arrival. We talk to an agent at the front of the plane who advises us to stay in Chicago — our chances of getting to Philadelphia before midnight are best if we try to get on a later non-stop flight from O’Hare.

We go back to the agent who originally booked us on the Washington flight. To make a long story short, I get booked on the 7:00 p.m. flight to Philadelphia. The person with me got a seat on the 4:15 flight that opened up at the last minute. She had to drive to New Jersey after landing in Philadelphia, so it was a no-brainer to let her have that seat rather than draw for it.

SURPRISE #4: The 7:00 flight was also oversold, and the agent was offering a really sweet deal — hotel accommodations, meal vouchers, and a FIRST CLASS seat on a non-stop ORD-PHL flight leaving at noon the next day. I had to get here for my class this morning, so I couldn’t take them up. But I would have loved three free roundtrip tickets in two days.

I arrived in Philadelphia around 10:00 p.m. local time, and I got to the hotel with no further surprises.

I have no idea how United can make money doing things like this, but I wonder if anyone could ever get in a situation in which they were bumped ad infinitum, receiving one free ticket after another.

The class lunch break is ending, but feel free to post comments if you have questions about my joyride yesterday. 🙂

I can’t believe I forgot to blog this. An article about Andrew was in The Journal Times earlier this week. Enjoy!

Yeah, I know, it’s been over a week. I don’t even have a good excuse, but there’s plenty of things happening right now.

Last week, a power surge hit my parents’ subdivision. They lost two televisions, the computer, a microwave, and a few other appliances. Actually, the computer is okay. The power supply was fried, but the processor and the hard drive are a-okay. I was over at their house today helping reconnect the computer and helping install the new microwave. Others in the subdivision had fire damage, so things actually turned out pretty well for Mom and Dad.

Wow! It’s late. I’ll try and get another newsletter up soon with pictures of our bedroom furniture.

And since I probably won’t post tomorrow….

Happy Birthday, Todd!