Originally Posted by pmoran28

For me well let's just say the last 48hrs of my trip have been the most unexpected and nice turnaround I've ever had. My Saturday outbound plane from Sao Paulo Brazil made and emergency landing in Manaus Brazil. We lost 2 of 3 generators and with no power on the plane's main cabin caused us to land immediately. Quite a ride. Fire trucks & police on the runway, the whole bit. After spending a day in Manaus we finally were given clearance to go home. On the same plane. Sooo finally we leave and they are handing out tickets on the plane for you connection in little envelopes and guess what? They hand me mine and NO tickets were inside. I thought to myself, "Oh isn't this nice." Landing in Chicago at 8am I wind my way through security and end up at a ticket counter to discover my fate. A 13-hr layover. I smile and think to myself, "Why not?" After checking with the guy about code shares and standbys (it really helps to know the lingo here by the way) the guy puts me in First Class out to Denver and then in Coach back to Austin. I got home at 8pm.

So the moral of the story is if you have to fly from Sao Paulo, to Manaus, to Chicago, to Denver, to Austin. Bring a pillow. Cause all you want to do is sleep the whole fricken way!