So you would think after all these years that the group could set off without any issues at least once. Oh well, we'll have to try for next year.
The day started off fine. Victoria, Linda H, Linda C, Linda K, Evie and Lee met us at Mom's house. James River Limo service arrived and packed our luggage into the van. It was tight fit but the limo driver got it all in. It was smooth sailing from there to the airport. No real problems checking in and getting up to security. Evie was dinged there. Her suitcase set off the security scanner. She was asked about anything she had in her bag and all she had was her Kindle which was ran through the scanner. With found nothing , she was sent her way.
The day started off fine. Victoria, Linda H, Linda C, Linda K, Evie and Lee met us at Mom's house. James River Limo service arrived and packed our luggage into the van. It was tight fit but the limo driver got it all in. It was smooth sailing from there to the airport. No real problems checking in and getting up to security. Evie was dinged there. Her suitcase set off the security scanner. She was asked about anything she had in her bag and all she had was her Kindle which was ran through the scanner. With found nothing , she was sent her way.
We found our gate quickly. Put our luggage down and looked at the board to see the flight was delayed for over an hour. We settled in for the wait. Several ladies went looking for water and I took off for 10 laps around the airport terminal. While waiting, Mom got a call from Karin who was meeting us in Newark. The flight she and her mother were taking was also delayed. This was going to cause a huge problem with the connecting flight in Newark. We found that all of these delays were due to a nasty storm that was in the New Jersey area.
Our flight was to leave at 10:30 a.m. Then the departure board said 11:47. By 12:30 no plane had even arrived. Evie got in line to find out what was happening. I decided to stay and chat with her and it is a good thing because then all hell broke loose. We found out the flight before ours had been cancelled and our flight was not taking off until after 3 p.m. which would mean that we would miss our flight to Copenhagen. I called Linda C. over to the counter so we could figure out what we had to do. The very young United Air agent working the counter laboriously rerouted us to Copenhagen through Germany. It was a little scary for awhile. As he was working hard on that, Linda C.was calling Thor to let him know what was going on. Thor then began working trying to get all out of us on the 11:30 o'clock flight to Copenhagen. Meanwhile, the United agent did manage to get us seats on a Lufthansa plane to Frankfurt and then a flight to Copenhagen from there. We were not going to get to Copenhagen until after 2:00 p.m. on Monday.
Once the flights were reserved , then came the process of dealing with new boarding passes and moving luggage to follow us. This was also not an easy process. Everyone went to lunch while Linda C. and I stayed to sort all of this out. This took another 45 minutes and two more United Air workers making sure everyone's luggage tags and boarding passes were reissued. It ended with Evie and me not having boarding passes for the Frankfurt to Copenhagen connection. This was a little worrisome. During this process, Linda H. and Evie were checking on us periodically.
Our flight was to leave at 10:30 a.m. Then the departure board said 11:47. By 12:30 no plane had even arrived. Evie got in line to find out what was happening. I decided to stay and chat with her and it is a good thing because then all hell broke loose. We found out the flight before ours had been cancelled and our flight was not taking off until after 3 p.m. which would mean that we would miss our flight to Copenhagen. I called Linda C. over to the counter so we could figure out what we had to do. The very young United Air agent working the counter laboriously rerouted us to Copenhagen through Germany. It was a little scary for awhile. As he was working hard on that, Linda C.was calling Thor to let him know what was going on. Thor then began working trying to get all out of us on the 11:30 o'clock flight to Copenhagen. Meanwhile, the United agent did manage to get us seats on a Lufthansa plane to Frankfurt and then a flight to Copenhagen from there. We were not going to get to Copenhagen until after 2:00 p.m. on Monday.
Once the flights were reserved , then came the process of dealing with new boarding passes and moving luggage to follow us. This was also not an easy process. Everyone went to lunch while Linda C. and I stayed to sort all of this out. This took another 45 minutes and two more United Air workers making sure everyone's luggage tags and boarding passes were reissued. It ended with Evie and me not having boarding passes for the Frankfurt to Copenhagen connection. This was a little worrisome. During this process, Linda H. and Evie were checking on us periodically.
Linda C. and I joined everyone at the restaurant. It was about 2:00 and by the time we ordered it was 2:10. No one else had received their order yet. Cautiously watching the clock, it was decided to ask for all of our food to go. This turned out to be the right thing to do. Just as we paid and received our food a United Air worker found us and said the plane was boarding. We were able to walk right on.
And there we sat, waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, Apparently there was an equipment failure that was preventing the cargo door from closing. Lift off finally happened around 3:45 p.m.
The saga continues: We landed and then sat on the runway for over an half an hour waiting for a gate to become available. After exiting the plane, we decided to find the airport lounge where reservations awaited us. We headed that way with Lee and Victoria in wheelchairs. Mom had ordered one but it didn’t show up. This didn’t stop her though. They offered to get her one but she said just to forget it and walked with us.
We headed to the airtrain for a ride to Terminal B. The trains were so crowded that it took three trains to get us all to the terminal. Linda C. actually had her arm and carry-on suitcase caught in the closing doors.
As we were making our ways to the lounge, Linda C. received a phone call from Thor with the news that he had arranged for the 11:30 p.m. flight to Copenhagen on SAS. We then had to make our way to the SAS ticket counter to get new boarding passes and arrange for the luggage to be moved again.
We were totally amazed at how wonderful and patient the SAS rep was while working with us for over 1 1/2 hours trying to get out tickets, boarding passes and luggage switched from United Air to SAS. It seemed like United didn’t want to let us go or rather they didn’t want to let go of our money. This is how it went; Our seats reserved, then reservations disappeared. Seats reserved again. Boarding passes printed out, reservations disappeared. The agent working with us had to go to the main office downstairs to sort this out. We finally had out boarding passes. Now onto the Luggage issue. Our luggage had to be transferred from the United flight heading to Frankfurt to the SAS flight for Copenhagen. United wanted all of us to go the carousel, find out luggage personally and carry it to the SAS flight. The lovely agent working with us told them we couldn’t do that as were all 8 of us in wheelchairs. Well it worked. He got our luggage moved. With all of this finally settled we made our way to the airport lounge for rest and food before our flight. It was a nice way to spend about 3 hours.
This day finally ended as we met up with the last remaining members of out group, Karin and Ellen and boarding our flight to Copenhagen.
And there we sat, waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, Apparently there was an equipment failure that was preventing the cargo door from closing. Lift off finally happened around 3:45 p.m.
The saga continues: We landed and then sat on the runway for over an half an hour waiting for a gate to become available. After exiting the plane, we decided to find the airport lounge where reservations awaited us. We headed that way with Lee and Victoria in wheelchairs. Mom had ordered one but it didn’t show up. This didn’t stop her though. They offered to get her one but she said just to forget it and walked with us.
We headed to the airtrain for a ride to Terminal B. The trains were so crowded that it took three trains to get us all to the terminal. Linda C. actually had her arm and carry-on suitcase caught in the closing doors.
As we were making our ways to the lounge, Linda C. received a phone call from Thor with the news that he had arranged for the 11:30 p.m. flight to Copenhagen on SAS. We then had to make our way to the SAS ticket counter to get new boarding passes and arrange for the luggage to be moved again.
We were totally amazed at how wonderful and patient the SAS rep was while working with us for over 1 1/2 hours trying to get out tickets, boarding passes and luggage switched from United Air to SAS. It seemed like United didn’t want to let us go or rather they didn’t want to let go of our money. This is how it went; Our seats reserved, then reservations disappeared. Seats reserved again. Boarding passes printed out, reservations disappeared. The agent working with us had to go to the main office downstairs to sort this out. We finally had out boarding passes. Now onto the Luggage issue. Our luggage had to be transferred from the United flight heading to Frankfurt to the SAS flight for Copenhagen. United wanted all of us to go the carousel, find out luggage personally and carry it to the SAS flight. The lovely agent working with us told them we couldn’t do that as were all 8 of us in wheelchairs. Well it worked. He got our luggage moved. With all of this finally settled we made our way to the airport lounge for rest and food before our flight. It was a nice way to spend about 3 hours.
This day finally ended as we met up with the last remaining members of out group, Karin and Ellen and boarding our flight to Copenhagen.