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Published: December 7th 2009
I know this last update is late, but to my defense every time I start working on it I just choke up and can’t finish. I just didn’t want it to end.
Lori wakes up before me and wakes me up. Get up and let’s get going, I want to get to the airport before anyone else does. You know first come first serve, right! Oh yeah… I said, we’ll get to the gate and wait until they call our names. I immediately run for the bathroom to avoid any question about if we’re going to get on the plane. I finished shaving and getting my stuff together; I’m heading out the door and yelled I’ll be down stairs having breakfast. Lori shows up in about 20 minutes, I had just finished checking the counts on the flight. Lori’s sits down asking, how does it look Pops? Well last night it wasn’t looking too good and now it looks worse. We were number 38 and 39 now we’re 42 and 43. What! Now Lori, I told you it might be this way. I know but I want to go home and see Sam.
Ok, we’ll only know if we go and check in, Ok, but first I want some coffee. Where is the coffee machine, over there behind the food bar? Whew, as Lori goes and gets her coffee I’m thinking she is in a pretty good mood, I hope it last.
Our departure adventure begins. We drove to the airport and dropped off the car, grab all our stuff and head into the airport to check in. When we get to the check in area I’m looking for the Delta agents, it was easy, they had the longest line. Lori and I walk over and got in line. It’s going pretty quick and before long, we’re checking in. We go through all the normal questions, “has your luggage begin with you at all times”, blah, blah, blah. We get to the counter and tell the ticket agent that we’re on buddy passes. I would like to take a moment to thank the lady checking us in for not laughing hysterically, I wouldn’t blame her because the flight was over booked by 50 plus people, not to mention folks like Lori and I on buddy passes.
Lori and I make it through security and headed toward the gate, when we get there we get us a seat over by the wall so we can watch all the folks arriving. At first it was looking like nobody was showing up and I was feeling maybe we might get on, or at least Lori would get on. Well that bubble was soon popped, the bus was unloaded, there was a Tsunami of people, and they kept coming. I turned and looked at Lori and said “I’m thinking we might get on”. LOL.
I would like to take a moment and explain to everyone who doesn’t fully understand what a buddy pass is. If you happen to know someone who works for an airline and if they like you, they might give you a thing called a “Buddy Pass”. This pass allows you to purchase a seat for a portion of the full fare. However there are a few conditions, too many to go into on this blog but the most important one is, you only get on the plane when there is an empty seat. When the plane is not full it’s great, most of the time you get to fly first class, Woo Hoo. When the plane is over booked by 50 plus people, like the flight Lori and I are waiting for, there’s no chance of getting on the plane and I knew it and still told Lori we might get on the flight. I was doing everything I could think of to postpone telling Lori that there’s no way we’re going home today.
Well the time came; the gate agent came on the intercom and announced the flight was full. I looked at Lori and said “I’m shocked”. Lori was not happy; about that time the gate agent came back on the intercom and announced that anyone who was holding a ticket would need to decide if they wanted to be moved to the New York flight or Cincinnati flight. I looked a Lori and suggested we should go for Cincinnati, I received a look of you better be right.
After checking in for Cincinnati, I suggested that we go to a café and get something to eat. As we walked toward the café you could cut the silence with a knife. We sat down and order coffee and cake. About that time Lori looks at me and says “if we don’t get on the next flight what do you think we should do”. I immediately jump to the opportunity and suggested we go to Stuttgart. The flight tomorrow looks better there. Lori looks at me and asks are you sure, and in the straightest face I could pull together I said I’ve never been bumped more than once. So after we didn’t get on the Cincinnati flight Lori and I retrieved our luggage went back through customs and rented the cheapest car we could get. During this time we had befriended other buddy pass users, the one person I want to bring special attention to is a baggage handler from Fort Lauderdale, and we’ll call him “Surfer Dude”. Ok so the next thing we needed to do was to go back to the ticket agents and get our tickets changed to Stuttgart. We were standing in line like all the other folks that didn’t get on. Everyone was now figuring out who was on buddy passes and who wasn’t. The line wasn’t moving very fast so I called Delta’s 1-800 number and had our reservations changed. I told Lori that I had just changed our reservations and I needed to go the restroom. We got out of line and I told Lori to wait with our bags, once I get back we’ll be on our way. When I came back I could see Lori talking to other buddy pass patrons and as I got closer she had this look like she spilled the beans. Everyone was asking her where she was going, why and what did she know. Lori quickly pointed to me and said he did it, he changed everything. The crowd of about 6-8 turned and looked at me, they were looking for the answer what did you do, how did you do it, tell us, please take us with you. Well I looked at Lori and said let’s go were heading to Stuttgart, everyone started scrambling and checking the flight info. One person said to Lori don’t go, it’s better to wait here, were safer in packs. Lori looks at me with a funny laugh and I said we’re blowing this Popsicle stand and we were off. What I hadn’t told Lori was while going to the restroom I talked with Kirsten and she was looking into us going to Zurich.
As Lori pulled out of the car rental garage she smiled and said this is sort of fun Pops. Yeah, I planned it this way. I directed Lori to the Autobahn heading south and she was off and running. I tightened my seat belt and closed my eyes for a much overdue nap. In about an hour I called Bea and checked in with her, she told me to head to Zurich that was our best counts to get out. She said Stuttgart was filling up, yep all those folks were heading from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. I thanked Bea and told Lori to keeping heading south.
Lori kept cursing down the Autobahn, I mean cursing. We stopped around 3 PM at McDonalds’ and had cake and coffee. The WIFI was working so I logged on and checked e-mails. I had a couple of e-mails showing me the counts out of Stuttgart and Zurich; yep Zurich was the right choice. We piled back into the car and Lori kept driving us toward Zurich.
As we were crossing the border my phone started ringing, it was Swen, Kirsten & Bea’s cousin. He had received an e-mail from someone that we would need a place to sleep. I told him we rerouted ourselves to Zurich because the flights looked better. I promised him and Eva that we would see them next time we came over. About that time the phone started ringing again and it was Maria, she knew we were heading to Zurich but our reservation didn’t look right and wanted me to get to the airport early to get it resolved. I thanked her and told her I would.
As Lori was heading toward the Zurich airport I told her to take the next exit. Yep I was right this exit has the old reliable hotel that Kirsten and I always stay at as were leaving Zurich. Lori was so impressed, she pulls in and I run in and see if they have any rooms. No rooms at the inn, they must have seen my disappointment and quickly recommended their sister hotel a few blocks away. Kirsten now we have TWO great hotels in Zurich.
I checked in, just like always I lay down for a nap and Lori goes for a walk. Lori returns in about an hour and she’s hungry. Hey Pops there’s a nice looking Italian restaurant downstairs. I’m game if you are, Yeah, let’s go. We split a Calzone for dinner, man was it good. Kirsten we’ll be staying here just to eat here again.
Lori and I head up to the room and get ready for bed. As we’re talking Lori ask, you think we’ll get on. I assure her we will and she responds like today. Yeah, like today, as we both laugh.
It’s 5:30 AM and we’re up. I get ready and head downstairs. I get coffee and check the counts. It still looks very promising. Lori comes down and gets coffee and we head to the airport.
We found Delta’s check-in location, not as easy as Frankfurt. We waited our turn and once it’s was our turn the agent sends us to a different line to get our reservation corrected. Yep, Maria is correct, we go to the other line and wait; and wait; and wait. Did I tell you we were waiting, we waited for 1 hour. The lady behind the desk was not the quickest. We finally got our reservation corrected and we went back to the check in line, it was now wrapped around the airport and there was no way we’d make it to the plane. About that time the lady that sent us to get our reservation corrected walked by, Lori stepped out of line and asked if she could help us. She did, yes she did, and she walked us to the front of the line, yes to the front of the line. Way to go Lori.
The gate agent checks us in and tells us to hurry, that they have started loading. We start for the gate. I don’t remember the Zurich airport being this large; I think we walked, ran, crawled 5 miles. Well we finally made it I sat down panting, I asked Lori to go and get us a bottle of water. No way Pops, were not leaving this gate.
The Gate agents were wrapping up their loading. I then noticed one of the people in front of us getting his reservation corrected was standing by the gate agent. The agent gave him his boarding pass. I got up and started toward the desk; about that time the gate agent announces Jessica Armstrong please come to the ticket counter. I turned and looked at Lori’s face; you cannot image the relief that came over me. Lori was smiling from ear to ear. Lori was so excited she was on the plane, not only was she on the plane but she was in first class. Yep, my prayers were answered; Lori was on the plane, Woo Hoo. About that time the agent announced, Steve Waghan please come to the ticket counter. Yep, I even got on the plane. As we walked toward the door, Lori looked over toward the other buddy pass patrons and said good luck. Once we were in the gang way Lori said she felt so bad walking past everyone waiting to get on the plane. I asked do you feel bad enough to give up your seat, Lori smiled and said no way Pops and we got on the plane.
As the plane started lifting off I sat there and remembered all the fun we had from Germanys wine region to Paris to the Chateaus’ to Dijon to the cathedrals’.
Thank you Lori for giving your dad a vacation I’ll think of everyday.
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Bea Hancock
non-member comment
It was worth the wait Steve. Thanks for sharing it with us!!