Computer outage pt 2

So if you read yesterday's post, I could relate.

Last Tuesday Cathy and I flew to Vegas for a few days.  We were supposed to come home on Friday.  We woke up, as everyone did, to the news of a nationwide if not worldwide computer issue.  Hospitals, businesses and airlines were affected.

We were supposed to fly American Airlines to Charlotte, then on to Melbourne Florida.  The app said that everything was on time.  We got to the airport for our noon flight to Charlotte.  It was delayed two hours, but since we had a 3 hour layover in Charlotte, I hoped that we would be fine.

We landed in Charlotte at 930.  We stood away from the gate because there was a plane in our gate.  I guess that they did not know that we were coming.  That delayed us 30 more minutes.  When we rolled up to the gate, they could not find anyone to drive the jetway out, I guess that they didn't know we were coming, so we were delayed another 15 minutes.  By the time we got off of the plane, ran through the Charlotte airport and got to gate E-34, they had just shut the boarding door.

You could see the plane there.

But we could not get on.  Now we are stuck in Charlotte.  UGH!!!

We wait in line for an hour at the American Airlines help desk.  No flights to Melbourne have seats until 9:30pm tomorrow.

We decide to get a hotel room and rent a car to drive home on Saturday.  We got the hotel room ok, but guess what?  No one would rent a car for a one way rental...  very frustrating.  I had one set up at Enterprise for a rental and return to Charlotte, but they called me when they opened and explained that too many people were just driving the cars home and so they were not renting.

Cathy found a car on National.  The guy told me that if we took it back to any other location, there would be a $1500 charge.  YIKES.  But, we had to get home.  We got the car and took off.  A 9 hour drive.

About two hours into the drive, I called National customer service and told them that we had a change of plans... we did not want to return the car to Charlotte, we wanted to return it to Melbourne.  What would be the charge for that???  I was expecting her to say, $1500, so I was very pleasantly surprised when she said it would cost an extra $130.  [we just made $1370]

We drove home.  Got to the Melbourne airport, picked up our suitcases, which had arrived during the day.  And drove home.  Got home about 6:30pm.

The entire process was very frustrating.  Very aggravating.  But in the end, we have much to be thankful for.  We had a good trip, we at least got to Charlotte, and we did finally get home.

I think that it is important to remember in the crummy and stressful times, that these times too will pass.

We can't control our circumstances, but we can control our attitudes, and we can keep looking for the good.  It may take a 9 hour drive to find it, but there is good out there for those who are looking.