Mileage Run Nightmare
 

I know things can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone. I guess it was my turn.

Here is a recap of my mileage run (MSP – IAH – LGW – EWR – MSP) nightmare, this past Friday to Sunday. This is the first time I’ve done an international trip, with elite status on a plane with WBC and not FC. NW Silver on CO planes.

-travelnick

Summary:
- Not able to upgrade to WBC, didn’t know the rules and can’t get through to WP service center.
- Run into a million people protesting through London while trying to sightsee.
- No WBC seat on my way home, whole row to myself, after take off someone sits in my row.
- Medical problem on board, we don’t stop while over Dublin.
- We have to turn back now, medical emergency on board, it will take 1 hour to get to Shannon, Ireland.
- Heavy landing in Shannon, plane needs to be checked out, we spend 2 hours on the ground.
- We hit turbulence, the guy sitting in my row pukes, we hit more turbulence over Canada, he pukes again.
- Missed connecgting flight, next flight to MSP is cancelled, get a confirmed seat for the next day, but blizzard is hitting the city, expecting 2 feet of snow.
- Can’t get a hotel for 3 hours, everything is full.
- Can’t get through to CO or NW agents via phone.
- Airport is closed the next day, can’t get home, need to stay overnight again.
- Finally get an earlier flight home on standby on Tue. morning, I was suppose to be home Sun. night.

Before I left, I checked to see if seats where available up front, yes there were. I hoped on my MSP – IAH flight, no problem. I had time in IAH, so I checked to see if I would be upgraded, that’s when reality set in. I was told that I needed to use miles to upgrade to WBC, that was news to me. Then I was told my ticket needed to be reissued by NW. Okay, what the heck let’s try. I spent over an hour trying to get through to WP service center, no luck, kept getting “We are unable to take your call at this time”, click, hang-up. Frustrating! Talked to CO agent, she made sure I had a whole row to myself. Ok, now I know.

I purchased my ticket several weeks prior to my trip. Needless to say, I found out right before my trip that there was going to be an anti-war protest march in London, no problem, I’ll just stay away from them, hopefully on the opposite side. Well, I headed toward Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London eye, London Aquarium and Dali experience; I could take care of 5 things at once. Just after exiting the tube, and crossing the Westminster bridge, I ran into what I thought was the protest march. A fairly small gathering, I would say 200 – 400 people. I waited for them to pass by and I was on my way. Once I got on the London Eye, and headed to the top, I realized I was wrong about the protest march. At that point I could see what amounted to be several thousand people getting together on the other side of the Thames river. Oh boy! I continued my other stops and wanted to go see Westminster Abbey. Sorry, this bridge is closed; you’ll have to go down to the next bridge, no problem. When I finally crossed over to the other side, you could see more people heading toward the march, bus loads. This was getting BIG. Over all, I into the protest march everywhere I went. A minor inconvenience, I guess, I was watching history in the making. This was the largest protest Great Britain has ever had.

So far, so good, just some minor problems. Well, the real part of the nightmare is about to start. Again, no WBC seat, but no big deal. Again, I had a row to myself. But after take off, some sat at the other end of the row, no big deal, there is a middle seat between us. Not to long after take off, they call for a doctor. We are almost to Birmingham. It appears to be a minor thing, but then they ask for insulin and the whole coach crew is involved in the incident. Next thing you know, they have 4-5 people helping the gentleman to the front of the plane and he looks pretty weak. When they do this, we are just over Dublin. Why don’t we stop now, and drop this guy off, we are close to an airport. Okay, now we are almost an hour past Ireland. They tell us we have to turn back, we have a medical emergency, we are going to Shannon. Most people past row 26 haven’t gotten their food yet and they tell us to eat fast, that they are going to stop service and come through and staring collecting everything in preparation for landing. It takes about an hour to get to Shannon. We landed pretty heavy in Shannon, not sure if they dumped fuel or not. We get to the gate and they get the passenger, good news, he’s going to make it. They tell us we are going to have to wait 1 to 2 hours, because of the heavy landing, they need to check the plane. We can’t get off the plane until the airport gets a passenger list, but phone service is out at the airport. We finally get off, they give us vouchers for 10 Euros to spend in the waiting area. We finally get to leave; it’s been at least 2 hours or more. No way will I make my connecting flight to MSP and now they say that’s it’s snowing at EWR. We hear a rumor that Washington and Baltimore airports might be closed. Oh boy! We continue on… Pilot comes on, he’s turning on the seat belt sign, hears talk of some pretty good turbulence up ahead. The guy in my row is starting to look sick, the bumps are pretty good, at one point it feels like we dropped 10-20 feet at once. He looks for the bag and starts puking, okay, now I need to breath through my mouth, because I will follow shortly if I smell that, gag reflex. Now we are over Canada, close to the US border. The start serving dinner and drinks. When they get to me, we start hitting some light turbulence. Now they have to stop serving, turbulence is getting worse and the guy next to me is staring to look pale. Oh no, here we go again, he starts to puke again. We circle once and land, it’s snowing pretty good. We have to wait to get to our gate. It’s been almost 13 hours since I left LGW, what a day so far. I get through customs and immigrating, and now I’m running around to trying to find an agent, no agent in sight. I finally come across the international check-in counter, they said they will help me. I can’t get out tonight, flights are cancelled and a blizzard is coming our way. He says, I can’t get home till Wed., I tell him I have a flight on Tue. from MSP to MDW. I tell him I’ll go to IAH if I need to, he gets me a confirmed FC seat on a later flight the next day to IAH and then to MSP, cool more miles. I get my hotel and meal vouchers, this whole thing takes an hour. I try to find the Air Train, what a pain. I get there and then the darn thing goes out of service because of the snow. Finally bus service is started to P4. I get there and the place is packed, the shuttle I need if full, and I have to wait for the next one. An hour later, the shuttle arrives. We get on board, the driver states that the Howard Johnson is full, get off here at the Hampton Inn, they have rooms. I asked the driver point blank, you are dropping us off here because they have rooms, he says yes, why would I lie. We get in there and they state they don’t have any more rooms, what a friken liar. They find us some rooms in downtown Newark. It’s now midnight; we arrived at EWR at 8 PM. The restaurant is closed and everything close by is closed. I get up the next morning and it doesn’t look good. It snowed pretty good overnight and the hotel gift shop is the only thing open. I tried calling CO and NW, no luck, can’t get through. I get to the airport to talk to an agent, my flight is cancelled, we will put you on a Tue. night flight at 7 PM. Now, I won’t make my 7 AM flight from MSP to MDW. Now I need to get a hold of NW, I need to change my flight, this takes for ever, can’t get through on the phone, no one at NW counter. Oh yeah, and for the last hour, the darn fire alarm keeps going off at Terminal B, on-off, on-off… Now, I’m trying to find a better hotel with movies and a restaurant, no luck everything is full, good thing I kept my room on hold at he previous night’s hotel.

It’s now Tue., I’ve been wearing the same clothes for 3 days now. I hope my MR nightmare will be over soon. I finally find the standby line, not to bad of a line. I get a friendly agent, and ask for a standby seat to MSP anyway possible. She has a flight that leaves in an hour and it’s direct. I wait almost 45 minutes to find if my nightmare might be over, yes I get a seat. Now lets see if we get to take off, we have 13 planes in front of us and it’s snowing… Well, my nightmare MR is finally over, now I know why I hate connecting flights and MR’s with multiple segments.

Actually, if you flew CO it's BusinessFirst, not World Business Class http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif. Also, it usually helps to know the rules before you go -- NW/CO do not provide free upgrades to their elites for transoceanic travel. In fact, unless your ticket was Y or B -- and if it was it wouldn't be a mileage run -- you wouldn't be able to upgrade with miles at all.

[This message has been edited by IndustrialPatent (edited 02-18-2003).]

This was the trip from hell. Welome home.
Care to do another? (evil grin)

Too bad you missed joining the dozen or so FlyerTalkers who were gathered for dinner at Wagamama in Soho on Saturday night. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I agree that the protest was a major damper... unlike you, however, I encountered the thousands before I ever got to my hotel... I had to walk WITH the protesters (and then against them upstream) to get to my hotel as the tube stops were closed and taxis couldn't get through. Fun... with luggage too!

Sorry about the misadventures.
Obviously a MR. If you are aiming for Gold/Platinum you will find better luck with the WP line. Never more than a minute wait and excellent service. Much better than the Silver line.

Why were the tube stops closed...just because of the protests?

Yes, because of the protests. Some lines didn't even run at all and some of the stops were closed because of congestion at street level. It was quite a inconvenience, at times.

Very very inconvenient.

I had fun nonetheless and will be able to say now that I marched in an anti-war march.

That in and of itself is SO uncharacteristic of me that I was praying that none of the news media would catch me on film accidentally where I would have friends and colleagues asking me what the &*$% I thought I was doing.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Travelnick-
I am tired and grumpy just from READING this story, let alone actually living it http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
Glad you finally made it home.


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"I just wanna wish you good luck, we're all counting on you"
-Dr. Rumack

Not all mileage runs are fun. Sometimes you run smack into reality!

Who said that MileRuns were a fun thing to do?
At least you slept in a bed!

Good to have you home mate.
Sounds like a real adventrue, something to tell the grandkids!!

Take care now!

That's just normal! Try living in London and commuting daily on the tube....

Quite a few tube stops / lines are closed due to general incompetence - there was a recent derailment on the Central line, and until the exact cause has been determined, the Central and Waterloo&City lines (which use the same type of train) have been closed as a precaution. In addition, a number of the deeper stations were closed due to the fireman's strike as the reserve firemen would not be able to cope in an emergency in the specialised conditions of very deep Underground stations. This sort of incompetence is run-of-the-mill stuff to any Londoner...

But now we have the spiffy Congestion Charge to help pay for all the upgrades and maintenance London's transport infrastructure could ever need. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif