After consulting with our private travel agent Laurie in Florida, we determined that we would most likely not get on any Eagle flight to Traverse City today. The morning flight was oversold by one, and the evening flight was full.
Our fallback position is always to go in and out of Grand Rapids if all else fails. In fact at the beginning of the trip, Dick thought we should just drive down to GR and fly out of there in the first place. He called Budget Rent-a-Car from the Hotel and arranged for a car one-way from GR to TC.
Anyway, there were 2 early morning flights to Grand Rapids - we thought we would try for the 9 a.m. flight because the theory was that by then the roads would be better driving home. Totally by chance, when we arrived at O'Hare this morning, we checked the departure monitor, and noticed that the early flight to GR had been delayed and was going to leave in about a half hour. The gate was just around the corner from the monitor, so we said what the heck, we might as well go check it out - if we can get on it it'll be gravy. We went up to the desk at gate H3A and the agent gave us boarding passes! Boarding passes! As Tom once said, getting a boarding pass is Nirvana for stand-by passengers. We can count on one hand the number of times that has happened to us. After a slight gate change to H2, we were actually on our way to Grand Rapids and out of O'Hare. No offense, Illinois.
I called Laurie to tell her that we got boarding passes, and she said, "Oh thank God you did that!" Evidently she had been checking the loads on the 2 flights to GR and on the nine o'clock one that we had planned to take, there were 10 open seats, and a family of 6 who were D1 non-rev passengers had just checked in. So that would have been at least 6 people ahead of us, and who knows how many more. So we really got on the right flight. It's because we're such Savvy Travelers, you know (snort). Laurie has always said that we have pixie dust. We've always said that she is the Voice of Doom.
The drive home was pleasant and quick. The roads were just wet, and traffic was light. We were in TC before 2 p.m. We stopped by the airport to return the rental car and to see about our luggage. The American desk was closed and there was nobody around to ask about our suitcases. So we picked up our mail, and headed home.
We went back up to the airport in the late afternoon, thinking that someone would be at the desk because flights were expected - but our timing must have been off because again there was nobody there. So we thought if we just wasted an hour or so we would try it again. We drove around town looking at Christmas lights, went out to dinner at La Senorita, and then figured it was time for the desk to be open. Back to the airport, but no luck. So we went to Walgreen's, and diddled around for a while longer and went back to the airport. Bottom line is that our bags are still at the airport, and there's no one there to get them for us. We'll do it tomorrow.
It's nice to be home - and now it's all downhill to Christmas. Jana will be here Christmas Eve.
