Gate A19

17.1.09 and 18.1.09

 

Gate A19. No paragraphs in this story because it was a non stop drama with no obvious breaks. It was horrid!!

 

Yick! Up at 4.15am to get taxi at 5.00am. Arrived at bus station at 5.10am, bought ticket for airport shuttle and waited for the 5.30am departure, inside in comfort luckily. Arrived to airport at 5.55am and then hell on earth began!!! Delivered to terminal C, and directed to the inter terminal train to get me across to terminal A. Well, waited and waited, then told after 10 minutes that the train that comes every 3 minutes wouldn't be coming this morning. Broken down. Must walk, were all walking as fast as we could, but I was struggling. My leg was caning, I had my stocking on and that tends to cause a few cramps when walking too far too fast with my backpack on. Not normally a problem. Made it to the terminal, joined the queue, kept checking the watch, along with a lot of other people. Made it to within a few of the front, saw a few other people checking in and their screens saying "too close to flight time to check in by yourself, see a customer service agent" so they called one over, she informed them their flight was full. My stomach turned - that was my flight I knew it. Sure enough, my turn, screen just said "no seats available". BASTARD! Put on standby, but told by the customer service agent that it wasn't likely I'd escape today because "it's messy today". I had hope though. The others around me getting the same story were all complaining about the queues, the train break down etc, and were told by the bitches of agents, "you should've been here 2 hours before the flight"... ummm, heard of domestic?! So everyone else did the whingeing for me and I knew there was no point. It was officially our fault, too bad there was nothing any of us could've done. Went to the gate, arrived at the damned gate in time for boarding of OUR flight, and to see STANDBY's getting called up for those seats. What the?! Well, what's happened you see is people have checked in online at home, and then not shown up for whatever reason. The airline sees that it is full so puts us on standby which puts us below those waiting from yesterday or earlier in the day. The airline boards the plane, those that are checked in don't show up. They have space so they go to the standby list. Anyway, 9am flight rolls around. No standby's called up for it at all. A few depart. A few say they'll wait til the 10.15am flight. 10.15 comes and goes and the next flight is 3.30pm. Most make alternative plans, except for a few of us with not much choice, or some with a bit of time to be able to wait. Some make backup plans in case 3.30pm fails. All depart the gate area anyway, 5 hours to kill, they can go home and kill it. A lady waits with her 16 year old son, it was lucky she had a sense something would go wrong and had stuck around instead of just dropping him off and going home. So he sleeps and she and I talked. Lovely Irma. At midday we go for lunch. Nice lunch. I had a gin and tonic, needed something to help me sleep, as I knew I'd be needing sleep. 3.30pm flight comes and everyone returns to the gate and a lucky few get on it but that's it, no more room. Terrific. One girl has been waiting since the 3.30pm flight yesterday and is trying to get to see her boyfriend who is in the marines and due to return to wherever it is he is from. Poor girl. We all reassess the standby list and get told where we are on it, roughly though. The girl asks why she's not at the front. Turns out she wasn't on the bloody list. Poor thing. She takes off in tears. Irma and Salim decide to put him on the 6pm flight he has as a backup with another airline, so I wander over to that terminal with them. It's not like I have anything else to do or anywhere else to go. We get there, she panics he's not going to get home on Monday because he'll have missed his first segment with US Airways... They go to check that out, I sit at the gate making sure the plane doesn't go without him! They return, then time to board his flight comes and goes, nobody boards. He starts to worry, it isn't going to happen. Then an announcement - the hostess was lost in the airport! heheheehehehe. She turns up, everyone cheers, they board the plane. He has the biggest smile, I have the biggest sense of needing to cry! Noooooooooo, I'm set to sleep in the airport. So grateful I have emergency knickers and toothbrush/paste in my bag. Not happy that my makeup was packed, contrary to my usual action. Anyway, buy a pillow and rug, farewell Irma who gives me some wet ones, then settle in to watch a movie and sleep. Bugger all sleep - 4hours broken. Eww. Up at 4, try to reset my body to normal. Have some breakfast with another guy who'd been sleeping in the airport as well and was waiting for the same flight. Anyway, 7am and everyone else arrived. Flight came, a few were called up. Name after name, then MY NAME! BERMINGHAM, BERMINGHAM?? I lept up, threw my computer at one of the guys and said please reply to that mum email to say I'm flying, as I'd been emailing her and she had just decided to become concerned that I may not escape. Grabbed my boarding pass, ran to the plane, NO SEATS! They'd miscounted. I was sent back. My heart shattered. The 7am was our best chance of escape they'd said. Anyway, the lady was so apologetic about it that she put me to number one for sure and confirmed me on a flight out of Charlotte once I got there, ad put me on standby for an earlier one. She was confident I'd escape at least by 10.15, but definitely by the end of the day. Anyway, 9am came, and went. Plane went without any standbys on it. Heartbreaking stuff. Not having standby at home, it's hard to fathom. It is ok to begin with but when you stink like that and have had no sleep, and no end in sight. It's hard. Anyway, after that, she checked 10.15 and confirmed me on it. OMG, I had a boarding pass! I had a seat on a plane!!!!!!! I was leaving Houston! WOW WOW WOW!!!! My plans for Richmond were not going to happen, I'd resigned myself to this by now, but I was going to make it to DC. Was going to miss the concert, but I'd be there for Tuesday. 10.15 boarding and in the queue I hopped. The others insisted on not waiting and were rewarded with boarding passes. We were stoked! All hopped on that plane and we were out of there! Got to Charlotte and all reunited for a final farewell! Our journeys were coming to an end!!! Arrived Richmond soon enough, taxi straight to the train station. Things were working! Yay! Had dozed on both 2 hour flights, and also dozed on the train. Pulled into Union Station in DC in good time and what a beautiful sight for such sore eyes. The Washington Monument and Capitol Building lit up and visible. Nutted out the transport system, made it to hostel, had tour, shower, oh my god, clean! It's possible to be clean and into bed!! Oh wow!!!! It ended!!! 30 hours in Gate A19 - I'll never again repeat if I can help it - I certainly won't be flying US Airways again.