The long road home

Travel advice: choose non-stop flights when possible and if you can't get a non-stop and need to connect, avoid O'Hare airport.

We normally like to take advantage of the British Airways non-stop from Seattle to London, but chose to go on American this trip as we could use our points to fly in First/Business. The only drawback was that we'd need to connect in Chicago. Well, we really enjoyed the comfort of First/Business class, but connecting through O'Hare was a borderline nightmare. On the outbound leg, we had a 1+ hour delay when a lightning storm made it dangerous for the groundworkers to service the planes. Fortunately, we made up some time in the air and had no problem making our flight from London to Edinburgh. However, our return flight from London to Chicago turned into a day-long adventure and learning opportunity.

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 12:55pm and due to favorable winds, we were going to arrive 30 minutes early. Our connection to Seattle was scheduled to depart at 3:25pm, so we appeared to have plenty of time to get through Customs, change terminals and even spend time in American's lounge. When we were about 30 minutes out, the Captain came on to let everyone know that O'Hare was closed due to a storm and that we'd be in a holding pattern for 20-30 minutes. Since we were early, it looked like the delay would mean we'd land at the regularly scheduled time. Wishful thinking on our part.

After a couple of circuits over central Michigan, the Captain came back on to say that conditions at O'Hare had not improved and the airport would remain closed for at least another hour. In addition, we would need to divert to another airport as low fuel meant that waiting out the closure in the air wasn't possible. The nearest airport with no weather issues that we could reach to land and pick up some fuel was Minneapolis. With that, we were off to the Twin Cities.

The flight crew said that our stop for fuel at MSP would be brief and it probably only took 20 minutes to get topped up at the gate (no one was allowed off due to Customs reasons). Jan checked her Blackberry and travel alerts confirmed that our flight to Seattle would also be delayed by the storm, so it seemed that we could make our connection if we could take off and get back to O'Hare. But, as soon as we made it to the runway, we rolled to the side and were told that air traffic control needed to keep us on the ground for 45 minutes to limit the number of flights inbound to Chicago. Then, luck appeared to be on our side: we were given clearance to depart after only 20 minutes and additional alerts told advised that the Seattle flight was further delayed. Things just might work out.

The flight to Chicago was quick (landed at 4:15pm) and the Captain told us that our gate at the international terminal was the closest to the Custom hall, so things looked promising. But, when we landed and made it to the terminal, we just kept on rolling by as there were no open gates. We then parked and were told that no one knew when we'd be assigned a gate and other flights were also waiting. We finally made it to a gate and walked off the plane at 5:30pm. We then stood in a long line at Customs and made it through at 6:00pm. By then, our connection to Seattle had departed. Jan had contacted Alaska to see if they could help and had us tentatively booked on their 8:00am flight the next day, but we crossed our fingers that American could re-book us on a flight that evening.

For anyone who has experienced connection issues and had to go to the customer service counter to try to rescue your trip, I now have tremendous sympathy. I won't detail everything we saw and experienced as I'd prefer not to relive that (think a 'zoo' of angry, smelly and tired humans), but we finally made it through the line and were able to get re-booked on a flight at 8:40pm. The agent told us that First Class was full; was able to get us seats together in an exit row (more legroom) and would put us on the upgrade list. After a free drink and time to recharge our phones in American's lounge, we made our way to the gate. The monitor listed folks on the standby list, but didn't display the upgrade list. After boarding, we quickly realized that the flight was 2/3 full at best and the First Class cabin was only half full. Jan jumped up and after working with a flight attendant and gate agent, we were moved to First Class. So, why would the re-booking agent tell us that First Class was full when it wasn't? We were ticketed in First Class on the flight we had missed, so it's not like we were trying to get a benefit we weren't entitled to. Once Jan showed our original boarding passes to the gate agent, she moved us quickly. At that point, it was counterproductive to dwell on the motives of the re-booking agent. Something had finally gone in our favor and we were headed for home.  We landed at Sea-Tac 6 hours later than we had been scheduled to arrive, but we were home.

When we look back, we know that our experience was more of an irritation than a catastrophe and many other travelers have fared far worse (thankfully, the volcanic eruption in Iceland earlier last week became a non-issue and didn't result in a week-long UK airspace closure like it did last year). But, it did give us a taste for the problems that can come up when travelling abroad. O'Hare airport is one of the busiest in the world and located in an area that is susceptible to severe weather. When disruptions occur at O'Hare, the impacts are significant and the ripple effect is wide. Even a closure of 15 minutes, like the one that occurred on our outbound leg, can cause problems that take hours to shake out.

We enjoyed the creature comforts of First/Business class and the fuel surcharges/taxes were much lower with American than with British.  But, the benefits of a non-stop far outweigh those benefits received on an itinerary that involves flight connections.....especially if O'Hare is on the itinerary.