Turkey Day Travel Woes

December 2, 2003 - Our Turkey Trip

Wonder why there was no daily edhat yesterday? Here’s the story of how some of the dedicated staff members of edhat.com spent our Thanksgiving vacation.

Three months ago, way before edhat was a twinkling in our eyes, some of us decided that SINCE THERE IS A DIRECT FLIGHT TO DENVER FROM SANTA BARBARA, we would spend Thanksgiving in Boulder, Colorado. So, we bought our tickets. THREE MONTHS AGO.

Scheduled to leave on Wednesday, we called the airline (UNITED AIRLINE) on Tuesday evening to get seat assignments. “Let's see, are you on the flight from Springfield?” asked the UNITED person. Springfield? Springfield, Ohio? As it turned out, the flight number had been changed and no one bothered telling the dedicated edhat staff. And after 30 minutes of computer clicking and supervisor approvals things seemed straightened out - same flights, new numbers, but reservations were secured. Good thing we called!

A few minutes later, the Santa Barbara Airport ticketers of UNITED EXPRESS called. They said that the UNITED flight that the edhat family had been put on was oversold by 30 people. UNITED EXPRESS said there was no way to make it on that flight, but since it was all their fault, they would give our dedicated staff 4 free RT tickets, and put us on a flight through San Jose that would get in a mere two hours later. Well, okay.

So, we showed up at the airport for the 6:00 am flight (!), got the free tickets and got on the San Jose flight. And waited. And waited. Of all things, the captain's seat belt was not working. It was a show stopper. We got off the plane. We had been given the last row on the plane so we could all sit together. Last ones off. Last in line to reroute. The supervisor who had helped us earlier was waiting, however, and handed us tickets to a 12:30 flight through somewhere, that would get us into Denver by 5:30. He said just so we would have something. Finally, after waiting in line, the agent told us that our best bet would be to take the airbus to LA and get on an 11:00 flight that would get us to Denver by 2:30. Okay - we'll take the @#&!?! bus. On the bus, the local news station interviewed us about our trip so far. Did you see us? John Palminteri!

As we were drawing into LA, the traffic flow on the 101 STOPPED. Two lanes were completely closed. So, we looked at the tickets to see how much time we had. THEY HAD GIVEN US THE WRONG TICKETS! We were on a 2:00 flight that would get us to Denver at 5:30!!! We could have stayed in SB. The level of panic was high, but a quick phone call and another supervisor approval got us back on track.

With the help of a tailwind, we arrived a few minutes early in Denver at 2:30 (only 6 hours later than our original schedule). A moment of optimism. But then only one of our four bags fell on the turnstile. And there we were looking through mug shots of baggage identifying our most wanted to the baggage specialist. No clean underwear tonight!

The weekend was fun, but anxiety rose as our Sunday return approached. Finally it was time. We knew our return flight was overbooked, but the UNITED people had told us that if we arrived two hours early, there should be no problem. To be safe, we got to the airport two and a half hours early! But, when we arrived, the people in Denver said it didn't really matter what time we arrived. We had to wait to see if anyone would accept free tickets to get bumped. Meanwhile, we were the bumped ones. In the end (at the last possible minute), they told us they had three seats, so one dedicated staff member (and the one key to our website updates) was forced to stay in Denver Sunday night. He had no luggage, and his cell phone battery was dead. No clean underwear again!

So, our site did not go up yesterday, but now all of our dedicated staff members are back together in wonderful Santa Barbara. Next time, we will drive.