The Great American Adventure - or "O’Hare Sucks!"

Today was going to be the 3^rd time we have taken an airplane trip with Ewan. We awoke at 3am this morning in order to make our flight from LAX to Cleveland via Chicago O’Hare airport. We had spent the previous evening preparing everything and the car was packed and ready to go so it was a simple get dressed and jump in the car to the airport. Everything went very smoothly with the check in (we actually have found it less hassle now we have Ewan because the always put us in the short cut line in security because we have the baby and supposedly move more slowly). Our flight out of LA was delayed by 45 minutes, but that is pretty standard for any flight going to Chicago in winter. At this point I have to add that we were somewhat concerned about flying this route for this trip as O’Hare airport is notorious for delays and cancellations in winter. The reason we took it was that back in March we decided to use Jennifer’s frequent flyer miles to take this trip and the only available route was via O’Hare. Now to continue.

Despite the brief delay in LA we made it into Chicago around 1pm local time. Our connecting flight to Cleveland was “on time”, but no other flights were so we suspected there would be a knock on effect. We were due to depart at 3pm. Sure enough this became 4.10pm, 4.30pm, 4.45pm, 5.00pm. at this point Fraser went to buy tea and a bite to eat. It was while he was in line at Starbucks that he got a call from Jen on his mobile to say “drop everything and get back to the gate now, the flight has been cancelled”. Having been sat with a sleeping Ewan and all our carry on bags, Jen had been unable to dive in to the scrum for the American Airlines desk to arrange alternative travel with all the others. By the time Fraser was able to get in line, we were about 6^th from the back of the line. It took at least another hour to get to the desk during which time Jen had called her Mom and Martha in Akron to get them to start trying American Airlines for other flights to jump the queue at the airport. She also was on an American Airlines rebooking phone, on hold, trying to get through herself. None of the other airline were accepting passengers from cancelled flights as they all had their own problems, and there were no more American flights into Cleveland till Dec 24^th. Although we understood that the staff were having a very long day, we were rather miffed to be greeted by a somewhat hostile agent at the desk.

Agent: “So where do you need to go”

Fraser: “Cleveland obviously but that does not sound like an option”

Agent: “No, nothing till Dec 24^th”

Fraser: “Then how about Akron or Columbus?”

Agent: “No”

Fraser: “No, not today? No not ever? No what?”

Agent: “Not today”

[Enter Jen pushing Ewan having been on hold for 45 min with AA on the payphone down the hall]

Jen: “Do you have any flights to Toledo or Youngstown?”

Agent: “Not for a week”

Jen: “Then where are we supposed to go?”

Agent: “Oh we can fly you anywhere in the USA”

Fraser: “Clearly not because we just listed 5 airports in Ohio and you can’t get us to any”

Jen: “Can I ask why the flight was cancelled in the first place”

Agent: In a very sarcastic tone - “Can’t you see the fog and rain? Airplanes don’t fly well in fog.”

Jen: “Well we manage to land in that 3 hours ago and there are still plenty of planes taking off even if they are delayed.”

And so it went on. I’ll not recall the rest in such detail but suffice to say getting Ewan out if his stroller certainly softened the agents mood and we ended up with a provisional booking on a flight to Columbus, Ohio 5pm the next day and a voucher for a discount hotel rate in a local hotel (they can’t even spring for free night these days!). We decided there was just as good a chance that that flight would not leave the next day either and we would still be over 2 hours drive from Jen’s Mom’s place.

Plan B went into action. We went down to baggage claim to get our bags back and were going to try and get a rental car to drive Chicago to Cleveland that night. The lines at baggage claim were huge and we first made the mistake of getting in the American Airlines line rather than the American Eagle line, which although are they are essentially the same company operate exclusive of one another when it comes to things like baggage claim. While Fraser was in the first line, Jen was feeding Ewan, who incidentally had been as good as gold this whole time. When feeding him, an elderly couple who had had their flight to San Francisco cancelled and who were also waiting for their bags back, offered Jen a room in their house on the outskirts of Chicago for the night while we waited for the flight to Columbus the next day. They said they were set up at home for their own grandchildren and would by only too happy to help. This was such a nice offer and restored a lot of faith for both of us in people’s good nature. Other people were happy to hold Fraser’s place in line while he ran around helping Jen and Ewan and trying to get a pen to write down details of a potential car rental, which he did manage to secure.

We decided to decline the offer of the place to stay now that we had the car booked. We just needed our bags so we could get Ewan’s car seat for the journey. A long wait later in the correct baggage claim line we were told they could get our bags but it would be at least 2.5 hours until they could even start looking for ours because there were 50 planes worth of baggage backed up from all the cancelled flights. We decided to abandon all our checked luggage to the handler at O’Hare and arranged for them to be sent to Cleveland as soon as possible. We called the car rental company again and they were able to loan us a car seat for Ewan.

I have to give it to Dollar Car Rentals; they were excellent when we needed them to be just that. The car was ready when we go to the depot, they had the car seat just as they said and we were able to get Satellite navigation for just $10 more so we could find our way out of Chicago in the pitch black and rain. Once again we came across helpful fellow travelers to the depot. Ewan had used his last wipe in the airport following an explosion of Krackatoic proportions in his diaper. The rest were in one of the cases that we could not get back. Another mother who was also waiting for a car just gave us half a tub of her own wipes without even pausing for thought. Thank you!!!

Our journey from this point on was fairly smooth. It just took almost another 7 hours. It did bring back some childhood memories for Jennifer who made the trip many many times as a child to see family just outside Chicago. Going over the Chicago Skyway and passing the smoke stacks in Gary Indiana made her realize that she had come full circle and was now driving her own child on the same journey. Ewan slept 95% of the journey which was great for Mom and Dad.

We arrived at our final destination at 2.45 am local time. By the time we got our stuff in the house and ourselves and Ewan in bed it was 3 am precisely, exactly 21 hours since we woke to start our trip.

This is one we won’t forget for a while!