Unfortunately, since we were a little late taking off, that means we were a little late landing (only 10 minutes or so). But then, my luggage was almost last to be brought off the plane (which took another 10 minutes or so) and then I had to run across half the airport.
See? I basically ran that entire black line. To give you a sense of perspective, the part between the two blue portions of the map is three motorized-walkways long. I was sure I would make it considering I had 45 minutes between the original landing time from Salt Lake and the take-off time for London. And if you read the previous paragraph you'd know I really only had 25 minutes left over due to the plane being late and my bag taking a while to get off the plane.
When I got to gate C21 the door was still open and I had 13 minutes to spare (3:47 CDT) so that must mean I made it right? Unfortunately, 13 minutes early is not early enough. United had already sold my seat and before I could utter the sentence Here's my boarding pass they told me that the plane was full and I wouldn't be allowed aboard. The guy asked me to wait a few minutes in case there was something he could do, but another set of people came up. They were very angry that they had missed their plane because apparently they had been delayed for more than an hour in security because they had been randomly chosen to have their bags checked. The angry guy asked to see the manager and was yelling decently loudly. As another traveler later noted "it's
been a long time since I've seen anyone raise their voice in an airport". The guy was warned that if he did not calm down that they'd have to remove him from the airport.
So, now I'm stuck in Chicago. They send me over to the United customer service counter, which I wait in for half an hour. The lady behind the desk listens to my story and says that the only way she can get me to London today is by flying me back to Denver and then onto Heathrow. She says that it's Denver or wait overnight for a flight from Chicago. So I took the the boarding passes she handed me and went to get on a flight that was leaving in 15 minutes.
On the flight to Denver I sat next to a nice older couple who had just returned from doing some mining work in the Orient. They were very nice people and help me to put a bit of perspective on my flying woes as they had been on a plane for almost 40 hours so far.
As I had commented on the fact that I had a driver waiting for me that I should probably call at some point, they noted that if I called as soon as we landed it would be 2 in the morning, but that the driver would probably be grateful he didn't have to wait at the airport even if he didn't find out until just before he left. So as soon as I landed I tried to call the driver's number in England. Unfortunately, the pay phone didn't seem to like me dialing an international number (I think I forgot the leading zero come to think of it) even though I had inserted my credit card. So I called mom and told her as much information as I could think of about who she had to call and why. According to the driver, he did get the call, but it didn't do him much good (more on that later).
So, now I'm in Denver waiting to get aboard the flight to London which is supposed to leave in 50 minutes. But, there's no one there to talk to so I go get some fast food for dinner. When I come back I look for my boarding pass and notice that the papers the lady in Chicago handed me were not boarding passes, but a list of the times of the flights I was supposed to be on. So, I went and talked to another lady behind the counter who confirmed that I was not signed up to be on this flight, that I was only signed up as a standby passenger. She asked me to wait and she'd see what she could do.
After overhearing the counter-people telling passengers things like "there are only two seats left", "There is no room to upgrade", "I can put you on the seat change list but it's unlikely I'll be able to move you", and finally "You're very lucky, that's my last seat" I was very put out. Thinking that I was going to have to spend the night in Denver. Luckily, after most of the plane had boarded (almost an hour later than planned) the guy behind the counter noticed me sitting nearby and asked if I was waiting for something. I explained my situation and he asked me to hang on a minute. He was able to move one guy from first class to business class, another guy from coach to first class, and put me in the extra seat. Woohoo! I'm on my way to London.
It could have been much worse I suppose. I met a woman at the airport in Denver who had been trying to get to Finland for almost 4 days. Unluckily for her she had actually checked some luggage which ended up all over the world. So now, she was also standby on the flight to London, hoping that she could then get a new flight to Finland to meet her husband. Somehow, they got her on too. Unfortunately our flight to London had left so late that she missed the connection to Finland. I don't even know if she's made it to Scandinavia yet. Especially considering the volcano in Iceland has started acting up again and many airports in England are closed.
Another snafu occurred when I got to customs. I showed them my Canadian passport with its migrant worker entry clearance but they told me they couldn't stamp it because it didn't become valid until Monday May 17th. It goes into effect automatically on May 17th, so I could still work, but they weren't allowed to allow me in the country on that visa so I was to be a visitor on Sunday and a worker starting Monday morning. Maybe all this is happening because it was so easy getting my passport and visa eh?
When I finally got through customs, it turns out the driver person had been waiting at the airport since 6 am. He had gotten the message that I was going to be late but there wasn't much else for him to do as other incoming passengers that he might pick up were being held back by the volcano.
The driver guy was fairly interesting though. It turns out he lives in the south of France in some small town that starts with a 'B' (I can't remember the name but it's near Rennes-le-Chateau a town that has something to do with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code). He used to work in TV post-production for indy racing. Before that he apparently even did a little indy racing of his own (which is how he got the TV job in the first place). He apparently designed a camera for the indy circuit that would follow tracking beacons placed in driver's helmets. Because of this they had him over to the states to try the same thing in footballs for the NFL. He says that's when they started using those cameras that could follow the action all over the field by using those guide wires above the field. Whether he's telling the truth or not he seemed like a nice guy and we talked about the confusion of switching between countries where they make you drive on different sides of the road.
He dropped me off at my hotel, the Grand Brighton, and went on his way. Time to start my new adventure in a new country.
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