Heading Home

We flew back home on 12/30. Our flight back also had a stop in Dallas with a 2-hr layover. So, when we got to Dallas, we went straight to a food court. After eating, we took the kids on a ride around the airport in their monorail.

After, we headed to our gate. We checked a board to see if our gate was the same and saw that it said "Cancelled." We immediately talked to an agent at an empty gate. He said our flight was cancelled because of mechanical issues and that all future flights to SF were booked. He said the best we could hope for is that a future flight would be upgraded to a bigger plane, but he wouldn't know until later.

We went to go sit down at that gate. While I was off helping Mathis to sleep, the agent we spoke to found Hansel and said he could book us on a flight to Chicago and then catch a flight to SFO. There was still no word on whether a future flight was going to be bumped up to a bigger plane. So, we took it.

We went to the Chicago gate and boarded, and then they announced that this flight, which had already been delayed, would be delayed another hour due to weather. We then worried that we would be stuck in Chicago. I went out to talk to an agent and then went back to talk to Hansel. We figured it would be better to try and get out of Dallas then risk getting stuck in Chicago, which was farther away. We all deplaned and talked to the agent again. She said if we didn't take the Chicago flight that the earliest they could get us out of Dallas wouldn't be until Monday (4 days later) and still no word on a future flight getting a bigger plane. As they were preparing to close the gate, we decided to get back on the plane. As we returned to our seats, we saw that people had already taken them over. They weren't too thrilled about giving them up.

In the end we made the right decision because there were no problems landing or leaving Chicago. After leaving Washington Dulles at 8:30a PT and taking 3 flights, we finally landed at 10:30p. Hansel assumed our bags wouldn't be there, but I said we might as well check. They were already there in some cages. They were loaded on a flight on another airline. I bet with airlines charging for bags people are taking less bags, so more room in the baggage compartment.

What made the whole day bearable was the kids. They did great -- patient and cooperative. And Mathis  only had one crying fit.