September 26, 2013: A Sightseeing Day in Dublin
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We had a great time in England, Scotland and Ireland. On the evening of the 26th we had a chance to review what we'd seen and where we'd been and we all agreed that we had seen and done was fantastic. We had flown over in two groups but we were to be returning together, and I had put some effort into getting us on the same flights in seats adjacent to one another. So, a little tired from all we had done, I, and I think some of the others, were looking forward to relaxing on the trip home.

The bookings I had made were for travel on American Airlines, all on the 27th save for Ron and Prudence's flight to San Antonio which would be on the 28th, like this:

I'd selected great seats for everyone at no cost because of my Platinum status. On the flight from Dublin to Chicago, we'd have a whole row across the plane with extra-legroom seats. Guy would leave us in Chicago and fly on to Sioux Falls so he could be home for his Saturday services. The rest of us all had emergency exit row seats from Chicago to Dallas. Nancy doesn't like to sit next to anyone she doesn't know, so she and Karl were together in two seats by themselves on both flights.

Things did not quite work out as planned. Here is the actual way our travel worked out:

It should go without saying that all the seat selections that I had made for our return were all lost, and each of us, including Nancy, had to sit in separated, undesirable seats.

The story of how all this happened is a long one, but it is interesting to know how one occurrence snowballed. If you don't care to hear other folks' travel horror stories, you can scroll back up to the top of the page and head on back into the photo album. But you may find the story interesting. When we went to bed on the 26th, Ron Ruckman had called our friendly taxi-driver from the day before to arrange for him to pick us all up at 7AM and take us to the airport, and we had all packed and planned for that to happen.

Friday morning, my phone rang at the Ariel House about 4AM with an automated message from American Airlines that our homeward flight from Dublin had been delayed by three hours, and would now leave at 1PM. The call also said that Karl, Nancy, Fred, and myself on later flights from Chicago to Dallas. No word about Guy's onward flight from Chicago, or Ron and Prudence's route from Chicago to San Antonio.

But our trip was complicated by the fact that Ron, Prudence and Guy were on two other entirely different reservations, even though I had selected the seats for all of us, and I had no idea what arrangements had been made for them. So I had to call American to find these things out. I first made sure that we were all still on the same Dublin flight with the same seats. Next, I made sure that Guy could still get to Sioux Falls sometime that evening. Lasly, I made sure that Ron and Prudence were also rebooked from Chicago to Dallas, on the same flight as the rest of us. It took me the better part of a half hour on the phone to get all this worked out. Then, because Ron had made arrangements for the taxi at 7AM, I went to tell them the news.

I had assumed they also received a call, and that Guy had as well, but I was wrong. So I told everyone else what had happened, and Ron called the taxi driver to reschedule our pickup. Then I went back to bed.

I was asleep for a half-hour when I got another call, this time to inform me that the flight from Dublin to Chicago had been cancelled entirely, and that the four of us- me, Fred, Karl and Nancy- had been rebooked on an itinerary that would have us leaving Dublin at about 11AM and going to Dallas through London Heathrow and Houston Intercontinental. We would not get home until about 10PM. But again I had to inquire about Ron and Prudence and Guy. I was told that all three of them would not be able to travel until Saturday- and then on a routing through Boston to Dallas and, in Guy's case, through Chicago to Sioux Falls. The problem was not only that we had to now split up, but that Prudence had guests coming in on Saturday, and Guy had services to conduct, and both of these would now be missed.

I spent another 45 minutes on the phone with both American and British Airways (the carrier we'd been moved to) to try to get all seven of us on the same routing through Heathrow and Houston. This would solve Prudence's problem, although Guy would still be a day late getting home. I was able, after quite some time, to get a seat for Guy on our itinerary (although he'd still miss his Saturday services) but no amount of cajoling could find any more seats on the BA flights to Heathrow and Houston for Ron and Prudence. Knowing their schedule, I quickly volunteered to substitute them for Fred and I, since we would wait an extra day with no problem.

This, as it turned out, would be chancy to do, since the only way to do it would be to cancel Fred and I before attempting to rebook the seats for Prudence and Ron, and it was everyone's opinion at the airline that in the few minutes it would take to do so those seats would probably be grabbed by someone else, since the flights were so full. All I was able to discover was that it might be possible to talk to BA at Dublin Airport.

Once again, I went to tell everyone else about the further problems, and again discovered that only I had received a call. What, I wondered, would have happened had I not been part of the trip? Would they have only discovered all these problems after arriving at the airport? We went ahead and called the taxi driver yet again to leave for the airport about 8.

On arrival, we went right to the BA counter. The only two agents available were doing check-in, and the lines were long. So I pushed my way to the head of their Elite line to explain the problems to the agent; all I got was the same story. I again tried to substitute Ron and Prudence for us, but both the agent and the BA supervisor I talked to on the phone told me the same thing that American had earlier. All this took about an hour. Having run out of options, the five of us had to begin checking in if we were to make our flight to Heathrow. Ron and Prudence went over to the American terminal to finalize their tickets for the next day.

Once again, I had to be a bit pushy to get us to the head of the check-in line as we were running out of time. I went first. When the agent entered my information, his baggage tag machine spit out a tag only to LHR (Heathrow). Pointing out the mistake, he did some checking and told us that our connection time in Heathrow was too short, so the automated system would not check the bags through. We would have to pick them up and recheck them manually. But, I told him, our connection time was way too short for that, and what were we supposed to do? He had no answer, and while I stood there trying to work out what all this would mean, Fred started checking in, and this time got a baggage tag that said LHR-IAD(Houston)-DFW! How come I didn't get one like that, I asked. The agent didn't know, so he tried mine again, and this time got a thru tag like Fred's. Problem was, my bag had already gone down the conveyor, so the agent said he would have someone take this new tag to the gate and get it on my bag, and he took back the stub he had given me and gave me the one from the new tag. ("Danger Will Robinson!" I thought to myself, this doesn't sound good.) Everyone else got checked in with through tags.

Then we headed to the security checkpoint and got another surprise- the line, which we couldn't see from the check-in counter, was long and moving slowly. If we stayed in our place, we'd miss our flight. So I took the lead and repeatedly asked people to let us go ahead of them, and this was successful until we got to one stubborn group who simply refused to move. As is was, we barely, and I mean barely, made our flight. Our seats, of course, were terrible- all center seats and all separated. This meant Nancy had to sit by strangers, but there was nothing I could do. One oddity- on the flight to London, a flight attendant came by with a message for me- that I would not have to recheck my bag in London. Did this mean the agent was successful in changing the tag? The flight attendant did not know.

In London Heathrow, we had perhaps the worst and tightest connection I have ever had. Leaving the plane from Dublin, it took two buses and a tram to get us to the terminal for our departing flight. Once there, we had to go through security again, and again I had to push and cajole to get us through as quickly as possible. Poor Nancy could hardly take the time to visit the facilities, and Karl also had a hard time trying to move as quickly as we had to. Finally in our departure terminal, I discovered that at Heathrow, airport shopping has reached the point where walking down- the concourse is like walking through a department store, and you know how department stores try to make it impossible to move quickly through them. Stairs, escalators and elevators and a lot of walking got us to the gate, finally, where the door was being held for us and which closed behind us as we got onto the plane.

Again, of course, seats were terrible- all separated and all centers. And this time, it was a nine-hour flight. I did notice something that made me mad- there was at least one vacant coach seat and a number of vacant seats in their "premium coach" cabin. (There had also been seats on the Dublin-Heathrow flight.) How come American couldn't have accommodated us all? (Being a Platinum status flier, and since BA is American's partner, I would have thought American could have grabbed a couple of those seats.)

Landing in Houston about 7PM, we had to get our bags and clear customs before rechecking them on to Dallas. Fred, Nancy and Karl all got their bags. Guy and I did not. Both of us talked to the BA baggage agent. When he entered Guy's tag number, he told Guy that his bag WAS in the system but had been misrouted (although he didn't say to where). He told us to file the claim in Dallas and set up delivery. Then he tried my tag number. It wasn't in the system (which confirmed my suspicion that my tag was never changed) and so he had no information for me. After another wild trip through Houston Intercontinental, we again barely made our flight to Dallas.

In Dallas, Guy put in his bag claim and arranged for delivery to Chamberlain. I assumed his bag would get to Chamberlain about the same time he did tomorrow afternoon. As for me, all I could do was fill out one of those bag claim forms and wait until someone found the bag somewhere. I did tell the agent exactly where I thought they could find it- at baggage claim in London for the flight that we took from Dublin. All someone had to do was go to that claim area, retrieve the red duffel with my name on it, and send it on to Dallas.

Guy stayed with us that night, and the next morning he left for Sioux Falls through Chicago. We also got a text from Prudence. When they had visited the American counter the day before in Dublin, the agent there had found them another routing- on US Airways, American's new merger partner- from Dublin to Charlotte to Dallas. They'd pick up their car at Nancy's and drive home to San Antonio.

As you can see, just about everything bad that could happen to an air traveler these days happened to us, and you can compare our experiences to your own "travel days from hell." But the trip was a great one- right up until Friday morning.

PS:
What about the bags? As for mine, on Saturday, I finally got someone at DFW to actually pick up the phone and call London baggage claim. Sure enough, my bag was sitting there. It was put on a flight to Dallas and I drove out to the airport Sunday afternoon to pick it up. As for Guy, we have no idea where his bag had gone, but he got a call Sunday afternoon that it had been located and would be delivered to Chamberlain on Monday. Monday morning he got a call that his bag had been delivered to Pierre, SD. Pierre? Why Pierre? American doesn't even fly there anymore! When Guy asked when the bag would be delivered, he was told that American couldn't arrange that since they don't fly to Pierre! They helpfully suggested that they could have the bag returned to their hub in Denver and then have it send FedEx to Guy the next day. Guy wisely decided to drive the 200 miles round-trip to Pierre to pick it up.!

	September 26, 2013: A Sightseeing Day in Dublin
	Return to the Index for Our British Isles Trip