April 10 - Flight from Hell

Well in an effort to try and keep it somwhat short I am going to summarize our flight information on our way out to Puerto Rico on April 10th. I was traveling with 3 other PGHS teachers (Amy Smithson (math teacher), Kacey Kendrick (art teacher), & Vince Burgoyne(band director)).

Wednesday April 9th:

• We were originally scheduled to fly out on AA (American Airlines) leaving on April 10th at 9:30 am.
• We got a report letting us know that the flight was canceled.
• An AA attendant re-scheduled us to fly out on DELTA leaving Friday morning at 9:30.
• We called back to see if there was any way to leave on Thursday as to not loose a full day of fun in PR (Puerto Rico).
• We were re-scheduled to fly out on SKY WEST leaving at 10:30 on April 10th.

Thursday April 10th:

• We arrived at the airport Thursday Morning just after 6:00 because didn't want to miss our flights.
• We were dropped off at Terminal 2 and started looking for Sky West check-in
• Sky West doesn't exist, at the check-in counter, so we called and they said that we were scheduled to fly out on a CONTINENTAL Flight.
• We traveled over to Terminal 1 to check-in with Continental.
  
• They didn't even have any flights running this early.
  
• The Continental guy said to go back to DELTA and check-in with them.
• Went back to Terminal 2 to check in with Delta.
• Waited in line for about 50 minutes and finally got to an agent.
• She couldn't see us on any flights leaving thursday, so she called an AA attendant.
• AA had us scheduled to leave Friday afternoon at 1:50 on a DELTA Flight.
  
• Delta attendant dismissed us and told us to go wait in line to talk to an AA attendant.
  
  
• Went BACK to Terminal 1 to wait in the line for one of the two AA attendants that were working at the desk, TWO and the line was forever long with ticked off travelers...
  
• Go figure
  
• I called Travelocity to see if there was anything that they could do, but I don't speak Indian so I wasn't able to get anything setup.
  
• I did find out though that Travelocity had us scheduled to fly out Friday morning at 11 :30 on DELAT headed through Atlanta...?
  
• Wow
  
  
• After about an hour of waiting in line (or 10 feet in the line) an AA worker approached us and made sure that we knew that all AA flights had been canceled.
• We told her that we knew flights had been canceled, and then what we had already been through.
  
• She pulled Amy aside while I talked on the phone, and ABC News interviewed Vince about our experiences so far.
  
  
• Amy appeared about 30 minutes later asking if we wouldn't mind flying to Denver, then to Philadelphia, then to San Juan PR. We all just wanted to get the H out of utah!
  
• Amy left; telling us to watch her for a signal to run to Frontier for a quick check-in.
• She gave the sign at about 9:30, and we all took off to Frontier headed to Denver, CO.
  
• Once in Denver we would check-in with US Air to fly to Philadelphia, PA and then to San Juan, PR.
• We ended up flying out of SLC at about 10:30.
  
  
• Once we were in Denver we ran clear across the airport to check-in with US Air.
  
• The US AIR Attendant said the the flight that we were booked on was actually a United flight, even though it said US Air on the tickets.
  
• We ran across the airport again headed to UNITED AIRLINES check-in.
• The lady at United was great, and gave us boarding passes for the final two flights.
• We waited in Denver till about 7:00pm then boarded the flight to Philadelphia PA. We arrived there shortly after midnight.
  
• Once in philadelphia we headed to the International terminal
  
• We slept on the ground because our next flight left at 7:30 in the morning
• Did I mention that they were testing the Fire Alarms that night in the Philadelphia airport? That was a treat!

Friday April 11th

• Friday morning we woke up to scattered travelers coming into the terminal.
• We headed to a french bistro for breakfast and then waited for our plane to board.
• The plane boarded at about 7:00 am,
  
• We had a decent flight into San Juan.
• We arrived in San Juan about 35 hours after we had arrived in the SLC airport having been booked on 8 different airlines (American, Delta, Sky West, Continental, Delta, Frontier, US Airways, and finally United Airlines).
• We went to get out luggage, and...
• You guessed it, Not there.
• We checked in with the United Luggage guy, and he said that he would call us if it arrived on the next flight from Philadelphia.
• We headed to the rental car agency, got the car and headed to the hotel and lunch.
• They called us about a hour later while we were eating lunch and let us know that the luggage had arrived and would be at the hotel an hour later.
  
• We all headed to the hotel for a nap and a shower and waited for our luggage which finally arrived as scheduled.
  
• WE WERE THERE!!! Finally and Wahoo!