However, we almost immediately found
that the gate had changed from D2 to F13, another part of the airport. Now we, especially Sally, were really
dragging! (We were each pulling carry-on
bags with laptop computer bags atop those.)
Arriving there, Sally sat while Jesse stood in a line for about 45
minutes to get us seats. Although he had
reserved our seats online weeks ago, United showed our seats as unassigned! Jesse finally returned, saying that our seats
on United to Chicago were not together; they were both middle seats, with Sally
seated in the row in front of Jesse.
This was a first, to be
separated, at least for a long flight.
After that, Sally had nothing good to say about United! A much younger person sat on each side of her,
and younger people never need to get out of their seats as often as older
people do. (On the 9-hour flight, one of
them left his seat only once; the other left twice. Sally also got up only twice!) Jesse has always provided a shoulder for her to
lean on, help in using the buttons (for lights or movies, etc.), and help in
eating part of Sally’s food! On top of
all that, we had to ride a bus from the gate out to the plane and then climb
steps (with all our stuff!) to board the plane!
Also, the flight was 1 hour 15 minutes late in departing. One saving grace was that our seats were in
the economy plus area, so we had lots of extra leg room. This was especially beneficial to Jesse,
since he was seated in between two fairly large men.
And, by the way, Jesse does not
blame United Airlines for the seat problem.
We had made our flight and seat reservations through Holland America, they
had suggested that we confirm our seats directly with United, as we did for our
outgoing flights. At any rate, hopefully
this never happens again because we were both very unhappy seated apart.
Now does this sound like a day
out of hell or not? Just wait because
one more thing happened: When we reached
Chicago and looked for the gate number for our next (domestic) flight, the
board read “Cancelled.”
In fact, we had also received a
message about this on our mobile phone informing us that our flight had been
cancelled and that we had been rebooked on the next available flight, which was
at 8:10 AM, Monday, 2 Jul 2018. We spoke
with one of the United Airlines agents and he verified this information. He also suggested that we discuss overnight
accommodations with customer service.
Although the customer service line looked forbidding, at least 4 people
were working the help desk. (We noticed
that one young woman was in tears!) The customer
service representative reconfirmed our 8:10 AM reservations, assigned us seats,
and printed out our boarding passes.
Then she gave us a referral sheet with a number to call for lodging
accommodations – at a discount. (Sally
is convinced that they should have paid totally for our night’s stay in
Chicago, but at the time, both of us were so exhausted that we didn’t
argue.) Since we had already checked our
large bags through, not planning for a night’s stay in a hotel, we would have
only a very few things to use overnight.
We opted to stay at the Chicago Hilton, which – though 50 percent more
expensive – is attached to the airport; we wouldn’t need a shuttle or taxi. Basically, we just needed to walk across the
street through a long tunnel to the hotel.
By the time Sally turned out her bedside lamp, it was 7:00 PM, which was
2:00 AM in Amsterdam. Before that, Jesse
had bought us soup and salad from the hotel’s Café Mercato “Grab & Go”
restaurant for our dinner.
Monday, 2 Jul 2018 – We set our alarm for 5:00 AM and,
as soon as possible, walked back to the airport. This time, our boarding passes were not TSA
Pre-check, so we had to go through a complete security check, which took some extra
time and aggravation from Chicago O’Hare’s not-so-accommodating security personnel. At least it wasn’t far to walk to the
gate. Since our flight was short and uneventful,
we were home by 11:45 AM. (Our big suitcases
had arrived during the night from Amsterdam and were waiting for us at the
airport. At least that part of our trip
home went well.) After we had our own
vehicle, we stopped at McDonald’s for carry-out breakfast. Sally had an appointment with a counselor as
the first step in cataract surgery, which was at 12:00 noon that day. Although it was a close call, we live only 2
miles from Eye Surgeons and so we made it to the appointment on time. All’s well that ends well!
Aside from the problems with our return flights, we had a great
time on the cruise!
