True North, Day Four

aka, "The Journey of Death!" See, my flight schedule had me landing in St. Louis at 10:55 AM Central time, which would have given me the whole afternoon to get back into the swing of things in St. Louis. Instead, my connecting flight from Chicago landed at 4 PM Central time, which is a bit later in the day. See, when I landed in Chicago, I was greeted with the news that my connecting flight to St. Louis had been cancelled. Oh joy, oh rapture! No explanation, which is par for the course for American. What wasn't par for the course was that they automatically booked me on the next scheduled flight, which was a step up in service from their usual handling of things.

However, it went downhill from there. The new flight should have landed me in St. Louis at 1 PM, which wasn't too bad, just a two hour delay. So, we boarded the plane on time, got everything stowed, and then sat there at the gate, not going anywhere. Turns out the plane radio had a problem, and the mechanics were working on it, and working on it, and then they left to do something and nobody had any idea what was going on. Eventually, after an hour or so of sitting there, they had us deplane. So we stood around in the terminal for a while before learning that we were getting a new plane. There was much rejoicing. So, we all trundled over to a different terminal, to the new gate, and then things kept going downhill.

See, the new plane, which had just landed (from either Newark or Philly, I don't remember which), had a brake problem, and they needed to drain the brake lines and then put new fluid in. So, another hour of standing around in the terminal. Then we finally board the plane, only to sit in it for over half an hour while mysterious goings on were occurring the cockpit. Eventually they got us off the ground and to St. Louis, but I want those five hours of my life back. Those were five annual leave hours! Those are precious!

So, in the end, the old rule was reinforced: CHICAGO RUINS EVERYTHING!