Life As I Know It: Christmas Vacations Pt. 2 The Flight From Hell

I REALLY hate driving long distances. Being in a car for over an hour really tests my patience. So I was incredibly excited when T agreed to fly and T's parents were nice enough to purchase our airline tickets. 11 hour drive or a 2 hour flight, we will take the 2 hour flight pleaseee.

(Picture courtesy of Jonhthrasher.net)

On the 28th after T was released for leave, we went off to the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:30p out of Long Beach Airport. (the tiniest airport you've ever seen. The first time I pulled up it made me laugh hysterically. It is literally 1 building and 5 portables for terminals. Although it's size is quite laughable it is a pretty good airport, never busy [except this time] and very easy to fly out of.)

I am pretty sure this airport looks exactly as it did in 1923 [when it was built believe it or not],

the bathrooms sure look like something out of the 20's

(Picture courtesy of LA guide)

We arrived to the airport pretty late and it was SUPER busy inside so we decided to curbside our bags and get to our terminal so we don't miss our flight. Luckily (or so I thought) our flight got pushed back until 8pm giving us enough time to grab a snack and hang out by the gate. WELLLLL, 7:40 rolls around (our printed boarding time) and there are no signs of us boarding. 7:50 nothing, 8:00 nothing, 8:10 nothing. I go to check the flight itinerary to see if our flight was delayed again, and guess what I see in big yellow letters by our flight number. CANCELED!

What the FREAKING HECK!? So I go and stand in line by the counter to see whats going on. I stood in line for 10 minutes (the lady was not helping anyone!) and finally they announce over the intercom that our flight to Salt Lake has been canceled. (Well, thanks freaking Jet Blue for telling us 20 MINUTES AFTER WE WERE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE!)

Luckily (well sort of) I started standing in the line before everyone else did. After10 minutes we reach the only person rerouting our flights. She couldn't get us on a flight until 2 days later! So we asked her to put us on another airline, of course she couldn't do that. Then we asked for our money back. Jerk Face Jet Blue Lady told us that she could only give us a credit because we bought non-refundable tickets. I wanted to freaking choke her. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? It was not our fault that the flight was canceled. Then we pulled the military card (we normally don't do this but seriously, nothing else was working) and of course that didn't work either. She was a serious beeotch, but I also don't blame her. I would HATE to work in an airport. Her and all her witchiness told us we could talk to a manager at the front desk, so to the front desk we went.

While walking to the front desk I call Jet Blue and guess what automated message I get:

" We are experiencing higher call volumes than usual and all representatives are on the other lines. We do hope to hear from you in the future. This call will end now."

And they hung up on me!

When we make it up to the front desk the line was snaked around the whole building. I guess that is what happens when 5 other flights were canceled too.

We stood around, calling our parents and Jet Blue with absolutely no luck with Jet Blue, they were still hanging up.

At this point both of us are very upset and say screw it. We found our bags, stood at the curb and called my dad to pick us up at the airport (by this time it is already 9:30p) and take us back home. When we got back, we looked for more flights we could take but they all cost a good $800 dollars for the two of us (twice what T's parents paid originally). My mom offered to help pay for our tickets but we didn't want to risk having the same hellish airport adventure the next morning. Plus, there was a storm due to come into Salt Lake the next day, when there is ice on the tarmac at SLC, they don't let any planes land. We really didn't feel like risking that either.

So guess what we did (one of the things I hate the MOST). We packed up the truck, raided my parents pantry and began our 11 hour journy to Salt Lake. We left at 11pm Pacific time and after 4 hours of me driving and 7 hours of T driving through the night/morning we finally arrived a little after 9am mountian time.

That whole experience made me never want to travel again! But I am quite thankful we made it there safely, especially when we started hitting some nasty snowy weather in southern Utah and all the way up (where T didn't even think of turning on the 4 wheel drive)