A troublesome day.
We were concerned about our connection timing. Portland to Chicago / Chicago to Madrid - connection time of 45min. Turns out that we had nothing to worry about. We got to the gate with plenty of time to spare. Because the 2nd flight was delayed for mechanical reasons (someone said cardboard got sucked into the engine?). The 1hr delay became a 2hr delay (midnight) as the mechanics worked on it. Finally we got the "All Clear" that we would be boarding at midnight as soon as the caterers got on-and-off the plane.
A bit after midnight, the airline representative apologized for providing incomplete information, and that the plane had been determined to be out of commission. The flight was labelled as 'postponed' (not 'cancelled'). Passengers are not allowed to reschedule to another flight (because this is a postponement). The airline is looking for another plane - no confirmed plane or updated schedule yet, but the rumor among some of the passengers is that 'someone' said maybe 2PM.
Which is why I am writing this from a Schaumburg Holiday Inn Express (we got hotel and food vouchers). The good news (and the reason we picked this hotel of the three voucher-options) was that the hotel website says their shuttle ran until 1AM. Except tonight it stopped at midnight. But we were able to find another couple to split the $60 dollar cab fare (for 7 miles).
Hopefully, the next update will be from Spain.
Oh. And "Captain America: Brave New World" is a bad movie, even on an airplane.
That’s quite a delay. Hope this means you’ve already achieved the biggest glitch of the whole trip
ReplyDeleteSchaumburg! Hopefully you had the chance to visit the historic Woodfield Mall before you had to head back to the airport.
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