The Maine Delay

Four days after I arrived home from my African adventure, the airport was hosting me again. The timing couldn’t be earlier (5:55AM flight), and the excitement for a friends’ trip couldn’t be contained. If you remember, there were four of us–Madison, Tracy, Hannah, and Reba (me). Unfortunately, Madison had an emergency work obligation and had to alter her flight plan, so for now it was the trio. We would pick Madison up in Bangor around midnight.

We stopped in the Escape Lounge at Kansas City International Airport for breakfast. As luck would have it, the lounge was directly across from our gate. Lounges provide updates to passengers about flights as well as tasty treats, cleaner restrooms, and nice seating. However, if your main concern is flight status, your airline app is always best. You’ll know exactly when boarding begins. Our flight, however, did not board on time.

There were weather disturbances throughout the US, and though we were not experiencing rain in Kansas City upon boarding, we soon discovered the storms would keep us grounded. Panic didn’t take control as we knew this weather event was everywhere in the US, and if our flight was delayed in Kansas City, there would be a good chance weather would delay our connecting flight. After all, we were on vacation–c’est la vie!

Once our flight finally took off, I took note of our surroundings. I knew we would be cutting it close (the app said the Chicago to Bangor flight was NOT significantly delayed), so I estimated how quickly I could get out of my seat and move in front of others. Generally, I never do this–try to push my way in front of others, but desperate times called for desperate measures…we’d lose our connection if one of us didn’t arrive quickly.

The flight attendants knew many of us had tight connections and asked passengers to stay seated if they didn’t have a close connection. Everyone decided they had a close connection, so we had no advantage. While many were fortunate enough to stay in the same terminal, we had to walk more than half a mile to get to our terminal and gate with less than 20 minutes till departure. I’ve not spent much time in O’Hare, but the construction and traffic created some chaos.

Hannah was chosen to take off toward the gate. She runs marathons, and quite frankly is in the best shape (also the yougest of our trio). Despite her best efforts and arriving 10 minutes before departure, she still arrived two minutes after they closed the door. The gate agent told her she would not open the door, so we missed our connection. There were other customers who also were trying to make a tight connection and missed. However, they had not reached the gate yet. Frustration mounted as the plane was still at the gate…even after she adjusted our flights.

SIDENOTE: It is often up to the gate agent to decide whether or not to hold a plane for passengers trying to make a connection. They do have access to see what is happening to other flights, and sometimes (many times) I have seen the gate agent hold off until the close connecting flights have adequate time to arrive. I know, though, they also have to write a report if their flight departs late. On this particular day weather created many delays, and one less report/delay has to be good for the airline.

Now, to continue this further…there are several possibilities why our gate agent might not have wanted to open the door despite our heroic efforts to get to the gate. First, once the security doors are closed, they are not reopened (most of the time). Secondly, there could have been some standby passengers who were given our seats. If we were released from the flight, the work to get us back on and ask the standbys to get off would have been a bit of extra work creating a longer delay. Another reason could have been that the flight staff had to be in the air by a certain time, so they were not timed out. Finally, we did pass the cut off time for boarding, and despite our best efforts, the airline kept with company policy and chose not to let us on–we were late. (Anyone else care to speculate???)

No matter the reason, the gate agent closed out the flight and moved to a different computer to provide assistance. She told us there was not a flight available until the next day. However, she would put us on standby for the 1:30 flight. We had another hike to the new gate, so we decided to go early. Along the way we saw a customer service counter. What did we have to lose?

There was no line, so we decided to talk with Miguel. We asked about the 1:30 flight, and he said there were two seats open in economy, but we were not given those seats because there were three of us. I asked him to give Hannah and Tracy those seats, and I would use my airline connections to see if I could get there another way. Somehow we knew there were seats in other class categories available, so as Miguel was assigning the seats to Hannah and Tracy, I said, “Maybe someone on the flight will be eligible for an upgrade, and I’ll be able to have the seat they vacate.” Then we continued our friendly conversation with Miguel, delighting him with our charm 🤣😂, as he worked his magic.

In my mind I knew two other people had missed the connection to Bangor, and the chances were high we had spoken with customer service prior to those other fliers trying to rebook their flight. If we secured the two available seats, our chances of all of us getting to Bangor on our scheduled day increased. We would only have one standby ticket to overcome.

Returning to the conversation with Miguel, I casually used some airport lingo with the hopes it would bring us some brownie points. Though I can’t be sure any of that helped, our conversation ended with three of us confirmed on the 1:30 flight. The joy on our faces spread to Miguel, and we promised (and followed through) to write American to share how wonderful he was. He found a way to make our stressful day better.

The moral of the story: sometimes it helps to find someone who is less stressed and wholly dedicated to customer service to assist. The female gate agent might have needed to go work another flight, so she quickly “solved” our problem. Miguel’s job was simply to provide customer support, and he took the time to fulfill that role brilliantly.

We now had some time before our flight, and I had Priority Pass benefits. The Priority Pass gets you into lounges. O’Hare only had one available lounge, so we tried it out. It just so happened to be in the International terminal.

Adventure, my friends…we asked TSA, and they said we could go to the International terminal. However, leaving and reentering security was required. No problem!

The problem was getting in the lounge. Its size couldn’t accommodate the guests, so we waited. Several people in front of us provided entertainment as they continually went head to head with the hosts. They wanted in, but there wasn’t room. It’s a wonder they were not sent away.

Our time finally came. The lounge was indeed small. However, it provided complimentary food and drinks that would have cost a fortune in the general airport areas. That was a relief.

The return to the domestic terminal was much easier. By this time, the airport had opened a secure shuttle bus. We descended into the bus terminal and waited for it to arrive. The bus drove us on paths near the tarmac, so when we arrived, we did not have to go through security again. From there, it was a piece of cake.

We sat sporadically throughout the plane (I had an upgraded ticket), but we made it. We made it!!! I’ll spend some time reveling in our small victory and leave you waiting for the exciting car rental and first moments in Maine!!! See you soon!