Philadelphia Flight Delay

My flight was from Phoenix to Philadelphia to London/Gatwick. The layover was scheduled comfortably, if all flights were on time. This was not my luck. There were rain storms in Philly and we were held in Phoenix. The original departure time was 11:50, then it changed to 1:30, then changed again to 12:15 (which was very encouraging.) The flight was uneventful with just a little turbulence. I was a little concerned at first because there was a chain smoker woman upset with her wheel chair bound husband (who had a cat in a cage to take on board). Her husband was mumbling that she was a chain smoker and could easily get angry if she didn’t have a cigarette every 20 minutes (Great…) I was talking to another woman and we were concerned that one of us would get next to them. Lucky me, it didn’t happen. I was in front of the family with a less than 2 year old lap child.

As we were nearing Philly, the pilot announced that we couldn’t land due to the storms and that we would be going to Baltimore instead. We landed in Baltimore, stayed on the plane while we refueled, and then took off for the 30 minute flight to Philly. (I called Kalen to let him know about the delay.) When we finally landed, the flight crew asked people to stay seated while the 25 passengers heading to London left the plane. When the “all clear” bell rang, everyone got up and jammed the aisles. I guess there were more than 25 people who needed to get off of the plane quickly. I checked the board for the Gatwick flight but it wasn’t listed so I knew that it was already gone (the only flight of the night that was close to being on time. They need to keep those stats positive.).

When I exited the plane, I saw a few people starting to line up at a slowly manned kiosk. I took off for the original gate. Luck was with me and I was the first one at the desk. The clerk changed my ticket to a Philly – Manchester – Gatwick flight. He said that my luggage would follow as we had plenty of time (what did he know that I didn’t know???). If it isn’t there, file and claim and they will get it to my hotel in 24 hours. So, Vera Bradley is on another adventure. (Vera Bradley is the name of my luggage and she is wild and out of control, loves to travel, and makes her own travel plans. More about Vera later when I get her part of the story.)

They just announced that the 8:30 PM flight to Manchester, scheduled to depart at 11:00 PM, will now depart at 12:15 am. The crew is on board and they will need to take the plane up for a test flight before taking off for England. Great.

Where is Manchester anyway?


I know that I’m rambling on now. I have time to write right now, plenty of time. Hopefully I’ll stay on top of this in London and Paris. The airport has wireless. It tells me that it has wireless and I can see that it has wireless, but I’m having a hard time connecting.