So here I am, finally in London at the fabulous residence of Lauren's aunt. Why do I say finally? Because less than 24 hours ago, we thought this trip was going to be severely shortened.
Basically, we get to O'Hare in plenty of time for our 4:35 flight to Amsterdam which would then connect us to a flight to London. Well, as we sit at our gate, patiently awaiting the flight to begin boarding, we hear rumors going around that the flight is cancelled. We ask some of the people that appear to be working but they have no information to give us. When 4:20 rolls around, they announce that everyone should line up. Thinking that this means we are getting on the plane, everyone happily gets in line. Unfortunately the first person in line talks to the people working and turns around and leaves the gate. The flight has been cancelled. After a few minutes they instruct us to go pick up our checked luggage downstairs and to go back to the ticketing desk for KLM airlines. Fantastic. Naturally it becomes a mad dash to get in "line" which actually just means masses of people squishing into one space. Someone then comes out and announces that there is something wrong with the plane, that they flight is cancelled for the day and that we get hotel and food vouchers for the night. They will call us in a few hours about when we can leave Chicago. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. What??? They also gave us the option to wait in line and figure out alternative flights. So of course Lauren and I stay in the line. We wanted to get to London ASAP. Although the line gets shorter and shorter as more people give up and go to the hotel, we literally stood in one spot for 45 minutes. After an hour and a half, we had moved a few feet. How long did we wait in that line? From 4:25 to 8:00. Seriously. The entire time we are in line we are overhearing people's stories about where they are going. One lady was trying to get to London also, and her flight the previous day had been cancelled. The guy in front of us went to get his luggage and was told they couldn't find it, and some girls a few people in front of us had to be in Italy the next day because their classes were starting. It was a nightmare. Every time someone walked up to the ticket counter, everyone would just stare and try to read lips and figure out if they got a new flight worked out. The family in front of us heading to Egypt were thrilled that they actually got on a flight that would get them there earlier, but a lot of people just walked away looking very angry or about to cry. When we overhear that a family of four in front of us is also trying to get to London, we start to get really worried. If there are any seats left on flights tonight, they are going to get them.
So when we finally get up to the lady at the ticket desk, she looks at our passports and starts searching London flights. "There's absolutely nothing to London tonight that isn't full". That's fine, we say, what do you have for tomorrow? "Well there is a direct flight to London at ten o'clock" Oh good, ten in the morning? "Actually…..at night." At this point I think I was two seconds away from climbing over the counter and punching someone out. We cannot get to London two days after we planned when I'm only going to be there for 5 days! I was so frustrated I was honestly just trying not to explode. Finally my mom walks over to the ticket desk for British Airways and just asks about any seats left. We were told there are only $5,000 business class seats left that KLM can't transfer us to. After more and more arguing with the ticket lady, my mom goes back to the BA desk and asks again. "We can put them on standby for the 8:30pm flight direct to London tonight". Yes! "But its only standby," we are warned by the KLM lady. Like we even care, we were ready to try anything at this point.
When the KLM lady finally walks back with our British Airways standby tickets, we grab them and run over to the BA ticket desk. Keep in mind its about 8:00 and the flight is scheduled for 8:30. After a slight wait, we are given our BA tickets back, and we have seats!!!!! It was a frickin miracle. After that moment is was all smooth sailing. The flight was slightly delayed so we had plenty of time to get through security and we had no problems on the plane. Minus the 5 screaming babies in our general vicinity, it wasn't a bad flight at all. AND it was British Airways, which equals super nice food, coffee and tea service, British people everywhere and free wine with dinner. Not to mention the 33 channel personal movie player/tv in front of everyone's seat. Basically, it was a great flight.
We were then promptly picked up by Geof, I had to Mind the Gap for the first time in my life, and we had a very odd conversation with a British stranger who was grossly enamored with America and Google. Currently we are in a lovely flat in SW7 of London, UK. Tomorrow Lauren and I are going taking the tube (subway) around to all the best London sights like Big Ben and the London Eye. Hopefully we will get some great pictures and I'll post them here! Weeee!
Love,
AK
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