Bumped

 Monday Sept 12

We woke early in an attempt to leave for the airport sooner than originally planned in hopes to still get a seat on the plane. The plan was for Mark to let me know when he left his house to come to mine. At that point I would notify Jason so he could come over so by the time Mark arrived we would all be ready. At 8:30 Mark just showed up with no notice. I immediately notified Jason and I scrambled to get my things together. Turns out that Mark did call three times instead of texting but my phone never rang as I was switching the service over to Google Voice. By the time everyone arrived and we left the extra time we hoped to make up was lost and we were again in a rush to the airport to get a seat.

We arrived at the airport at 10:00 and went straight to the counter. Bryan was given a seat, I was not, and there were no more available. The flight was oversold by 6 passengers and all seats were now taken. The agent told me to go on to the gate and see what they can do. An announcement came up that they were looking for people to leave the flight for $400. We were hoping someone would take them up on it.

The gate was packed with people, even at two hours before the flight. We approached the gate attendant and I started my plea in my sweetest yet most somber voice and with the biggest saddest puppy dog eyes I could muster. I told her that four of us were traveling together and had a later flight to Barcelona that we had to make. She said she understood, started her clicking away in the computer and asked for all 4 of our boarding passes, she REMOVED ALL FOUR OF US FROM THE FLIGHT.

The attended called another attendant and they both went to work and ended up printing us four new boarding passes. She explained that the 7:AM flight had been delayed and was just starting to board and we were moved up to that earlier flight. Not only did we all get seats but we were seated together and ready to board, almost two hours earlier than our original flight. So we didn’t even have to wait in the airport. We were off to a great start. Chicago here we come.

We landed in Chicago about the same time we were scheduled to leave Little Rock on our initial flight. The flight was fast and trouble free. O’Hare is a large airport with hundreds of passengers coming and going, mostly unmasked. The possibly of catching Covid was a reality here so we kept our masks on as much as possible. It was going to be a longer layover now and we started looking for something to do.

Mark was set on finding a comfortable seat, a table and internet so he could catch up on some work. We found a few tiny tables in a hallway. Across from us was the American Airlines Admirals club. This lounge was the only one in the terminal and also the only one none of us had access to with our many credit cards and memberships. The cost of a visit to this lounge was $59 each. Coincidentally I discovered in my AA app that I did have two complimentary passes to this lounge. Mark passionately keeps up with such things and never could figure out how I got the two passes. Nevertheless I gave the two passes to Mark and Jason to enjoy complimentary food, drinks, alcohol, premium Wi-Fi, TV, showers and quiet accommodations while Bryan and I went off in search of some Chinese food.

We met up at boarding time and settled in for the long 8 hr flight to our destination in Spain. For dinner I requested a kosher meal, which typically provides twice the food as the regular airline meals and true enough, I had spare ribs, and salmon and several different side dishes to the meager yet tasty chicken dish the others received. It was enough though. I tried watching a movie and soon we were all nodding off although in very uncomfortable conditions.

None of us actually got any real sleep so as the plane was landing in Barcelona at 9:AM the lack of sleep was starting to really hit. We breezed through immigration, caught a bus to our Air BnB and immediately checked in. We cleaned up a bit and headed out for our first meal of the trip. We went to a Tapas bar which proved to be a good option. We then went right back to the apartment for showers and a nap.




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