My airport travel nightmare....

This July, Mike was saying he'd need to go to camp for a week. So I thought maybe we could look for a cheap ticket on expedia. So we found one for a non stop flight with Delta to the Nashville airport. My brother Dan was picking me up on the 8th at 3:45ish. We spent a week, so thursday to thursday. Thursday the 15th my flight was at 2:45. We got there at 1ish. I might have got the time off alittle, but being I was there so many times all the times seriously have mixed together.

We got to the checkin counter on the first day, right away the guy was like, oh my the detroit flight. It's delayed because of mechanical issues. So, it's going out at 6:24pm. So me and Dan left the airport and came back at 4ish. Got to checkout counter, got situated and got to the security checkpoint, said goodbye to Dan. We went to Huiwen's work before hand to say goodbye. Then, after security, I walked around...a bit. He was already getting sleepy, because we had to wait those extra three hours with no nap. I made his bottle for the 6:24 flight so id be able to get him to sleep on the flight. About 5:45ish or so we got a delay. (And it wasnt because of weather) I thought so at first, but it wasnt.)
A couple guys got it out of them that it was because the plane still had mechanical issues. Of course they still flew it in from detroit to nashville anyway's. But wouldnt fly it out again from nashville back to detroit, but said they were fixing it and it would be ready at 8pm. So, by this time not only was owen crabby and tired and sick of the airport...past his bedtime, wasnt a good day at all. I wasnt eating because I was trying to walk and walk through the terminal back and forth, around and around, trying to keep him happy in his stroller with my heavy carry on.

'The staff there at the airport dealing with our flight were awful customer service, not friendly, really rude, and as they could see I had a infant stuck in airport, and complained to me about how bad their day was going, HELLO, your getting paid, you didnt pay for a ticket and you dont have a infant. I was trying to have a SWEET attidude during this whole thing. My biggest goal was to try and ration my little bit of diapers, food and snacks as we were stuck there. I wanted to keep him happy. Poor Owen tho, it was really hard on him, and he was such a good boy.

Though I didnt want to let him play to much on the dirty airport floor. I was just discusted with all the delays and why they couldnt get me on a another plane or be straight with us if this plane was just not goin to fly out...dont taunt us and make us wait for the heck of it. I just didnt know what to think about everything to be honest with you. I kept going back and forth , and they'd not update the times soon enough for me, my mother in law donna would call me saying it changed again, and again, and I never saw it on the board, how lame is that? I would say, well glad you called to tell me it was changed because the line is long at the desk to wait and taking forever so I couldnt ask and the updates were not showing on the boards! Thanks to my inlaws I was able to find out I was having more delays. So, it went from 2:45 to 6:24 to 7something, to 8:18. Then we finally boarded.

I was like, ahh finally, home...well, lets just say, just because they board ya dont mean your acctully going to leave. We left the gate, owen was so restless, we were tight against the window seat, hardly a bit of room..thankfully the guy next to me didnt mind owen grabbing him shirt and everything. I told him over and over, i'm so sorry, he's so so tired. AS we were leaving I gave owen his bottle, he fell right asleep. Then we stopped...and the typical captian thing I make fun of.. uhh, well..uhh ladies and gentlemen, so sorry, your not going to like this news. Uh we got a issue to deal with and ya um it shouldnt take to long, just a mechnical issue..and even how he talked you couldnt understand what he was acctully talking about. So, anyways, to sum it up, we sat in a HOT airplane with no air for a hour or more, captian kept saying 10 mins, 5 mins, but it was along time. The last time the captian spoke over the intercom it woke owen up and he was so upset...and fustrated.

Then eventully was like, this problem is gonna take longer then we thought, we need to de-board. It didnt help that the whole time we were sitting on the plane the guy behind me was swearing up a storm, and being so loud and rude. Knowing I was in front of him with a infant sleeping or a infant peirod. I was so upset and so discouraged at this point. We got off, and i had my hands full, a huge backpack, my shoulder by this time was in so much pain. Owen was antzy, and i was waiting for his stroller at storage pickout right out the plane. Then by the time I got back to the desk there the line was long and i sat in line with a upset, tired baby for over a hour,and no one incouraged me to get in the front of line and get my ticket claimed for the next day so i could go....with my baby. I dont understand why someone didnt speak up...it was horrible..we didnt get to baggage claim where dan was there to pick us up until after midnight. Didnt get to bed until `12:45am. Poor lil O BEAR.

The only ticket they could get me and owen was 3:45 the next day. I was upset because the lady was not nice at all, and she just at first only offered me a connecting flight into atlanta then to detroit and i'm like, is there not a one way flight because ive got a infant and ive been here all day with him, and i just want to get home, she's like, uh, maybe, i guess i'll check, im like yeah i would like that.. oh ok, there is one seat..i'll put you there. I said, so can you reemburse us for this flight because of the awful inconvience of today. No i cant mame, i'm only giving you a hotel voucher, i'm like um i dont need a hotel, i never told you i needed a hotel..shes like well thats what i can offer, i said is there something else, shes like oh i can give you you a 100$ travel voucher through delta, i was so annoyed by this point but trying to keep a good christian attidude, super hard though by this point. Aspecially when having a tired kid in your arms, a heavy bag, tired, and exsusted.. Finally i said ok, thanks after this and left to baggage claim to get home with daniel. He wasnt happy about what we went through.

So, friday morning owen slept in until 7:3o am, didnt feel like sleeping in though, i was so tired! I took a nap later after he went back down for a nap. I was so not in the mood to go to the airport again. We got there a bit earlier so we could talk to them and Dan said he was gonna not leave until they gave me something for the inconvience. He was not happy at all with everything. He also demanded a pass for him and Huiwen so they could come past security with me. So, we got to the front desk and the guy who checked us in thur afternoon was there, and Dan told him about everything that happend, he didnt say i'm so sorry, he didnt seem like he really cared at all. And Dan made it clear he wanted me to get home today on the 3:45 pm flight but wanted a refund on the ticket. The guy wasnt really caring enough to listen, he took me off the flight all together.. Inside I was SCREAMING! Dan was like, your not listening. We want the ticket paid for, not get her off it, how is my sister and nephew supposed to get home do you think? He was like, well i thought maybe they were driving...i couldnt believe this guy. Finally he gave us over to higher managment, this lady was still not the most helpful, she couldnt refund my ticket she said, all she could do is give me one more 100$ flight voucher. And Dan was not happy. Shes like i'll send you info in the mail on some flyer miles. And thats all we got with passes for Dan and Huiwen. They came back, by close to my 3:45pm flight, they again cancled for maintance, and couldnt tell us when it would be ok. So, we waited until I think it was 5 something the fight was cancled until. Dan and Huiwen stayed until then to make sure. So yea again they moved it up to 6:18, then 6:30...and i'm like ahhhhhhhhhhh , before the 6:18 one dan talked to the lady and said, you know for sure this plane is going to leave. She says i'm VERY sure its going to go out. So, dont worry about your sister. I WAS standing next to her saying, listen ive got a baby, ive already been here a whole day thur with a baby with limited food and diapers, as much as i could extra, and i need to get out today. If your not really sure, please let me know, i'll reschedule for tommorow. (sat)...and she seemed pretty confident. Dan was like, sarah i trust her, i even asked her to confirm this wasnt the same plane from thur and she said no it wasnt. So, dan was sure he could leave now. They had some plans. I said, its ok. I would be fine. So, then the flight got delayed again after they left. until 7 something. Then i'm like you gotta be kidding me. I was having a hard time with owen...i was walkin walking and walking, not eating, trying to keep owen happy..so hard..it was so tough with not having help from mike. Then, it got delayed until 8:30 something, then i think it got delayed until 9 ish, but it all got mixed up to me with all the delayes we had...anyways...then after this, i came back to check and a ton of people were in a long line and im like oh no...yes I was right, the flight was cancled, and people were in line to get their flight rescheduled for tommorow. (sat morning) By this time, owen was so upset and im standing in this long line, finally these fatherly type guys looked at me and said, listen you need to just walk up to the front and get helped first. I was like, i dont want to be rude, but he left and talked to the lady in front and said, you gotta let this mom and her baby go next. And then the other guy was like, if I pushed your stroller up front would you be embarressed. I said no, and i got up there, i felt bad, but i had to get out of that blasted airport asap! I got owen fed after that, he drank half his bottle and then fell right asleep after a meltdown. Then got back to baggage and my phone just all the sudden died and i couldnt get it to work even when i plugged it in, and i had no contact with daniel or my inlaws who were talkin with me this whole time. i was freakin out, i think i just had it emotionally and physically...and thankfully owen was alseep when i was having my owen emotional worries...i couldnt get my phone to turn on, i didnt see dan in baggage claim and i was tryin to pray and no worry and it was super stressful...finally 45 mins later my phone decides to turn on , i dunno what its problem was. Finally i got my phone to work...and called my sister in law huwien, she said dan was on his way...then i called my mother in law and she said bryan was about ready in the car to drive half way and meet dan and drive me home. They couldnt get ahold of me on my phone so they got dans number and called him. I started crying on the phone with my mother in law. I felt so bad, but I held it in the last couple days and I just HAD it up past my head!!!! Finally dan got there, and we figured out i'd just go on the flight they got for me in the morning early at 8:37. I was dreading it, since it was our 7th time to the airport and 3rd day at the airport. I hate that place! Anyway's....Dan got a pass and on my little sleep and my determination to get home we finally got on the plane and was in a GREAT seat with more room which helped. We got on it, waited, he was so tired. I fed him his bottle and he was really overly tired but finally he got comfy with his blanket and and when i started singing the itsy bitzy spider softly in his ear, he calmed down and fell asleep, poor little peanut! He finally slept most the trip. Was glad about that! I love when he's snuggled up to me, so I just prayed for him, and spent some time with God. I was just so happy to be getting home! Finally in the air. AS we were about the land, owen woke up and was lookin out the window and acctully loved lookin out at the clouds. And I talked with him about it and he was so cute. And when we landed I counted then said. TOUCHDOWN! He laughed! I think he was just as thrilled as me. Then we got to airport, long walk until baggage claim. We saw dad..he was so thrilled......and got big hugs!

That's the story, I probably could have said more, it already is alot. I feel like I just wrote a story, but there were even more things that were awful about the situation. Messed up some things. I had a photo session saturday and it messed that up. I was so upset about that. So upset. And just everything was upsetting.
The lady we saw sat morning who was in charge couldnt believe how badly things went and couldnt believe how awful the staff was and she was not happy. She said you call the main corprate on monday and you tell them EVERY detail because that was all VERY unexceptable. So, mike will tommorow. I got only 400$ of flyer vouchers. They didnt give me food vouchers until to late on friday that i didnt get a chance to use them, and i spent money through the to many days in the airport. Fustrating!

Though, got did funny things to make me smile during this whole process, one was these soldiers were at starbucks, while we were standing in line to get a drink. And one started talking to Owen and he laughed and played with him and told me about his three younger kids, then he's like oh you have a boogy on your nose and he grabbed it with his hands, and it caught me so off guard, it was so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a funny thing!

Anyway's thats my nashville airport nightmare story...but also a blessing to safe and home!

Thanks for reading! I'm just glad we didnt go on a bad plane. God does everything for a reason! I kept trying to tell myself that through the whole process!

Thank you!

Sarah Fox