On the last day of our trip to NYC the snow started to fall like mad. We were very uncertain whether we'd be stuck or not. But, our flight from NYC did make it out. Albeit, we had to wait two hours after our scheduled take off time to find out the our plane was broken. US Airways switched us to another flight to Philly at the last second where we could catch a connector to Charleston.
We landed in Philly way too late to make the connection and US Airways told us we'd have to pay for our own hotel. Why? Because we switched planes in NYC. LOL! Yup, they said that if we had stuck with the plane that was broken, they would pay for us to spend the night. However, they made it sound like we had a choice and therefore relinquished any luxuries such as a taxi or hotel.
I was a little more than irritated at that point and asked to speak with the manager. He came over and gave us the same run around.
"The man at the desk made an announcement that all passengers on US Airways Flight 4581 had to transfer to the other flight," I said. "It's not like we had a choice. Honestly, if I had a choice I would have stayed in NYC at my friend's house instead of the Philly airport."
"We could get you a flight to Columbia, South Carolina," one of the staff suggested. "You could drive home from there."
That was nice in theory, but it was really late. The drive from Columbia to Charleston is just over 1.5 hours. I had a vision of Andy and I flying off the highway after we fell asleep at the wheel.
"Will you give us a rental to drive home?" I questioned.
There was a long pause while the manager and other staff pondered our predicament. Give them a hotel? Give them a rental? Let them suffer through the night in the airport? Much to our relief, however, they finally caved in.
"We'll put you up over at the Hilton," the agent said. "Your bags will stay here at the airport and will be transferred to Charleston on the first flight out."
We got to bed somewhere close to midnight. We slept in our street clothes because our pj's were in our bags, which were being held hostage by US Airways. Our teeth were very furry the next morning and I believe we would have robbed a dentist for a tooth brush.
As I begin to think more about it though, we got off lucky. We had a bed to sleep in and we had each other. It could have been worse.
We were on the first flight home to Charleston - with our bags. The delay in our travel did afford us some time to get work done. I wrote several pages for my book and Andy caught up on his reading. No, Andy doesn't read books, he reads photo-tech magazines.
We got to see the airplane de-icing rig in action, which was really cool. I felt like I was on the scene of a Terminator movie. I could here the theme song in my head... do, do, do-do.... do, do, do-do.... "I'll be back!"
After all of the drama at the airport, we finally made it home. We picked up our dogs from our friend's house and made a b-line for the shower. Did I mention I finally got to brush my teeth?!?!
