Adventures in Holiday Travel

Or Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

When we went to New York to spend Thanksgiving with my family we decided to do what we did last year, take the train there and fly back. The trip out went without a hitch. We were a little late into Chicago on the first leg. That was caused by track maintenance in central Wisconsin. The train from Chicago to New York had a few miscellaneous delays and was about 30-45 minutes behind when we hit the Albany-Rennselear station. The schedule allows for over an hour at that station because they need to get people and baggage to a split off train to Boston. I think they even took one of the coaches. We got out of there quickly enough to be back on time and with only a few slight delays in the 100 miles further south we needed to go we got in as close to on time as we ever have on that train. So far so good.

The adventure started yesterday. We specifically chose to fly on the Monday, not the Sunday, after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately for us it turned out to be a very foggy day at the Westchester County Airport. My brother dropped us off in time to check in with some time to spare. When we checked in the nice gentleman (and I really mean this, he helped us a lot later on) at the US Airways Express counter mentioned that the flight was "currently running about a half hour late but that shouldn't impact your connection." By the time Orbitz called with an update it was an hour late. Not long after that the airline posted the change and asked anyone with connections to check in with the agent inside the security area. By the time I got to the counter the flight had been canceled. Not the first flight canceled that day and certainly not the last. Since we checked our bags we needed to retrieve those and go back and stand in line to find out what our options were.

So for the second time in about an hour we are standing in the US Airways Express check in line. When we get to the front of the line the same agent helps us again. US Airways Express is right next to Northwest Airlines at the Westchester Airport. So our guy leans back and asks the Northwest guy if he has anything to Minneapolis. He does, we get booked on a flight leaving at 4:59PM direct to Minneapolis. With US Airways we would have gone through Philadelphia. So we get into the NWA line and try to check in. The NWA counter agent was very good at his job but he had no backup. So when we got to the front of the line he told us "we were really early and he needed to check in people for a flight to Detroit that was scheduled to leave soon." So we stood to the side. Basically it took three tries to recheck the bags with NWA. So we go to get lunch and watch flight after flight get delayed or canceled. After lunch we are finding someplace to "camp out" until closer to departure time. The area inside security at White Planes isn't very big and it was already crowded in there. The next thing you know NWA is paging Megan. We figure its because the agent didn't want to attempt Ungerleider. Cancellation number 2. We're back to US Airways.

Now the thing you need to know is that Megan got stuck for 3 days at that airport back in 2000. They had a possible flight to Minneapolis by way of Charlotte. The flight left a 6:20PM. Departure was iffy because the Airport was closed until at least 6PM because of the fog. While we're waiting for things to happen I'm working the BlackBerry. I had checked earlier and it looked like there were still seats on the train to Chicago, but none on the leg to St Paul. So this is where the adventure kicks into high gear. I tell the desk agent for US Airways to cash the ticket. I want a refund. She does what she can. Kudos to the US Airways folks at White Plains they did everything they could to get people where they needed to go.

I'm still working the BlackBerry and Megan gets us a van ride to the Croton-Harmon Amtrak station. In the van I get through to the automated telephone reservation system and get two coach seats, there are no sleepers available. I get the reservation number and as am about to purchase the tickets with my credit card the call drops. But I have the reservation number. We get to the Croton Amtrak station and I purchase the tickets from the machine they have there. At 4:45 we get on a packed train headed for Chicago.

When we stop at Albany to pick up the Boston part of the train I call Hertz Rental Car and reserve a car at Union Station in Chicago one-way to Minneapolis-St Paul with return at the Humphrey Terminal by 10:00PM. The train gets to Chicago about an hour late. Why you might ask??? Well around 11:30PM we stop at Rochester NY. A squad of at least 4 US Border Patrol agents board the train looking for someone or something. By the time it was all done we were over an hour late, we were about a half hour late getting to Rochester in the first place because the activity in Albany took longer than expected. Back to the roundup. At least three people, one in handcuffs, were removed from our coach along with several baggage items. Its possible others were removed from the other coaches. We don't know what the issue was. Someone said that the guy they handcuffed had outstanding warrants. I'll keep an eye on the Border Patrol's web site for a few days and see if anything shows up.

When we got to Chicago we went straight to Hertz where the agent was working "below desk" fixing her printer. Because they had no Economy cars we got a mid-size (Mazda 6 if you're keeping score) at the same price. Because we were going 400 miles on highways we hadn't been on for a while and didn't know what was out there, I took the insurance for $10.50, we didn't need it. About 6:30 this evening we pulled up in front of the house, we were home.

As it turns out Tuesday was a lovely day in New York and we might have made it out on the flights we were originally scheduled for. But that would have entailed playing the game Megan calls "airport roulette" with everybody else who got stranded on Monday and all those people who wanted to fly on Tuesday.

Moral: We'll take the train from now on - both ways.