Flying Home

Part 22:  Flying Home.

Thursday October 10:

American Airlines Flight 235 is scheduled to leave Rome at 9:50 AM, and we have been advised to be there 3 hours early – just in case.  We, with four others from our group, rent a minivan; it’s 15 euros each and cheaper than a taxi-train combo.  The minivan arrives on time and gets us to Fiumicino Airport at 6:30.  We are early.  The ticket counters don’t open until 7, and we see that our flight will be delayed an hour.  Not a problem. We have a 3 ½ hour layover in New York before we have to catch a flight to Chicago.  We get to our gate and wait 3 hours in a very crowded boarding area. We board the plane about 11, get settled, and await takeoff.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot.  We have a problem.  The air traffic controllers in France have gone on strike, so we can’t fly over France.  We are submitting a new flight plan that will take us over Spain instead.  But we’ll have to wait our turn, because a lot of other flights are doing the same thing.”  

Two and a half hours later the pilot announces that we are cleared for takeoff.  Our 3 ½ hour layover in New York is now down to 30 minutes – and we will have to go through customs and have our bags searched again.  

The flight goes smoothly, but our stomachs are churning.  What happens if we don’t make it?  A night in NYC?  The only positive I can find is that our connecting flight is also American Airlines.  

When we get off the plane at JFK we have 30 minutes until our connecting flight leaves.  American staff are pointing all passengers with connecting flights to a table where they give us this piece of gold and say: "Show it to the people in every line you come to and go to the head of the line immediately."

We run/trot/walk down a long corridor, down an escalator, through Customs – they just stamp our passports, no bag search.  Then around a corner into the departure area leading to ALL GATES.  “Which way is Gate 43?”  “No, you have to go through security.”  So we are off to the bag checking area, where we get some resistance when we jump to the head of the line, and I have a 16 oz. bottle of water.  But we get through it.  Then it’s up two sets of escalators, hang a right to Gate 43, which as we approach, appears vacated. “Oh Crap (and other stuff)”.  No, there is someone there!  We flash our EXPRESS badge.  She checks us off and gives us a boarding pass.  We are the last ones on.  My watch says 5:13.  Flight is scheduled to leave at 5:15.  Two minutes to spare.  And this flight leaves on time.

Here is the crazy thing:  we got off the plane at Gate 41 and re-boarded at Gate 43 – they are right next to each other.  But we had a half hour run, 2 check points, and several escalators to get through in between.

The flight to Chicago is 90 minutes.  We get to our motel – the Best Western at O’Hare about 9PM - but 3 or 4 AM on our biological clocks.   

Next AM – Friday.  Up at 8, breakfast, back to O’Hare, catch a shuttle to Midway to connect with a Southwest flight that will take us to Portland.

It all goes smoothly.  Fred and Cheri pick us up at the airport.  We are home.  Trip is over.

It was a blast! 

End of Story.  End of Blog.  Hope you enjoyed it.

MITCH