Yes, 16 hours in a Cleveland airport last Monday is the story of the moment.
I had a flight out at 8AM, but volunteered (mistake) to take a $400 travel voucher to step aside because of over-booking. I was then booked on a 4PM flight and was also given a stand-by ticket for the 11AM flight. 11AM was also over-booked, so I waited for the 4PM flight for which I had a confirmed ticket.
You see where this is going, right?
Boarding for the 4PM flight finally starts. I wait in line and give the lady my ticket and gratefully start walking down the tunnel. Suddenly, as I'm half-way down the ramp to the jet, I get hailed back because I was apparently not booked for the flight. I tried to explain to them the situation earlier and they said they would get a supervisor for me to speak with, and the lady disappears. In the meantime, my plane backs out and goes off to taxi... long gone. THEN the supervisor comes to assist me. I ask him why I have a ticket yet I am still standing here while my plane is half-way across Ohio. After a bit of ticking through computer files, he says that it was a computer error... my stand-by ticket overrode my booked ticket and it booted me off the flight. Nice.
I received another $200 in travel vouchers and a couple dinner vouchers for my trouble, and also assure me that I will be on the next flight, 7PM, but it is delayed at the moment. I go to the Customer Service counter to collect my travel voucher and ask her what the status was for the 7PM flight as I heard that it was 'delayed'... Oh, it will be departing at 9.40PM!!! At this time I am near weeping openly. 9.40 comes and goes. Cleveland happens to get hit by a severe thunderstorm and grounds all flights for hours.
I didn't board my "7PM" flight untill 11.15PM, gettingme to Raleigh at a cool 1AM, meaning I was home and in bed by quarter of two. 16 hours in an airport... Lame.
Even though I walked away with $600 of travel vouchers, I wish I had never given up my seat that morning. Lesson learned.
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Post Script:
I must admit that I wasn't in the airport the whole time... in my eagerness to tell a good story, I unintentionally exaggerated. When I realized I couldn't get on the 11Am flight and was slated to depart on the 4PM flight, Brian Thomas came to pick me up and we went to the Cleveland Zoo for about a half-hour. That was a blur as well, but it helped break up the day from hell at the airport. Thanks, Brian.
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