I have never had a travel experience like the one I just had going and coming back for my vacation.
I was to leave on my flight to Arkansas on Northwest Airlines to meet up with my sister and my uncle at Little Rock airport. It would have worked out perfectly despite us all leaving from different airports. My uncle arrived at 10am, my sister arrived after him at 10:30am and I should have landed after her at 11am. Well, they made their connections and arrived at Little Rock as planned. My flight however, was delayed at Newark, NJ. It was about 40 min after the scheduled time for us to finally board the plane. Then once we were all seated it took another 45 minutes for the captain to tell us that there was a fuel leakage problem and that we all had to get off the plane and rebook with another airlines! I stood on line for about 2 hours after that before I was given another ticket for a different flight. So of course, I was so upset. By the time I landed in Little Rock it was 3 hours past my scheduled time to meet with my family. They were still at the airport waiting for me 3 hours after they had landed. They were starving and I was starving because we were all supposed to eat once we met up together and it was after 2pm. I thought that would be the end of my dilemma with traveling for that vacation time.
Who knew that my flight would be much worse leaving Arkansas to come back home to Newark, NJ. Once again, my flight coming back home was with Northwest Airlines. However, once again my flight was delayed. Now because of the delay I would miss my connecting flight in Detroit. So there didn't seem to be any other flights that would work for me to connect to get home that night so they switched my ticket to American Airlines. Originally I was supposed to leave 2 hours before my sister's flight. However, after I was switched to American THEIR flight was delayed TWICE. The first time they changed my ticket because once again I was going to miss my connecting flight. After that it was delayed again. However, I was told that that was the last flight leaving Little Rock to my connection in Dallas. It was only 7:30pm!! I couldn't believe it. I was told that I could take that flight BUT once I was in Dallas there were NO MORE FLIGHTS leaving out that night to Newark! So I pretty much had to spend the night either in Little Rock or Dallas. I chose to stay in Little Rock. Oh but it gets better.... After everyone boarded and that last flight left I was told that my bag was still on the plane!
So, I had no change of clothes, no toiletries, nothing. I was upset as you can imagine. So now, I was told that I could catch a direct flight with Continental leaving the next morning to Newark. However, I had to go back to Northwest Airlines since they were the originating airlines that I had my ticket with. There, Northwest would take me off of American and put me on the first Continental flight leaving the next morning. Well, when I went back to Northwest there was NOBODY at the desk. They were CLOSED. I was distraught. I couldn't believe there was no one there to help me. Keep in mind this airport was closed. Security was closed. Their machines were off. Restaurants were closed or closing, other airlines were closed so I was there by myself. There was absolutely no other travelers there. I was in tears as I walked back to American Airlines and slammed my ticket on the desk and told the guy that HE HAS to fix it because everyone had left. He called someone and got authorization to change my ticket. Well, the next morning I was feeling better because I thought to myself that I was finally going home. For some reason when I gave my ticket to the clerk at Continental he told me that it was VOIDED. I couldn't believe it. I explained my whole story to him and he said that he had to call the help desk which was in Dallas or Houston. I can't remember which one. He was on hold for about 20-25 minutes and I had less than an hour to board my flight. I asked him if there was a manager there (at Little Rock) airport that could help because I was losing time. He gave me attitude and said that there wasn't and I just had to wait. Finally, he fixed my ticket and I was on my way. When I arrived at Newark. I went to all 3 airlines looking for my bag since I wasn't sure if it still had the original tag with Northwest or if they changed the tag to American or if it was changed to Continental. Incredibly none of them had it in their system. Somehow someone didn't register my bag in the system. Once again, UNBELIEVABLE. They couldn't tell me which flight it was on but that as long as it had the tag with the final destination that says Newark airport with my name that it will get there. So I filed a claim form with Continental and was told that when it comes in it will be given to Continental and then sent to my home. I finally got my bag a little after midnight after landing at Newark airport at 11am that morning.
I think that it is disgusting for the consumers to pay more out of their pocket to travel today yet the service and quality for flights are going down. I can speak for myself when I say that I know I work hard for my money to pay for my travels and of course don't expect to go through what I went through. Of course there may be a delay with flights every now and then but this was way beyond what I could ever imagine for me to go through. Not only do I want people to know what I've experienced but I want to be compensated for the anguish that I've been through. It was an outrageous experience that I hope to never have to repeat again.