pantsfarm

The below I wrote earlier while sitting in the terminal waiting to leave.

Though I am sure I will rethink this upon later rereading, right now there are few places more infuriating, if any, that I can imagine, than terminal 1 at [tag]O’Hare[/tag] International [tag]Airport[/tag].

Clever readers might know that Terminal 1 here at ORD is home to [tag]United[/tag] Airlines. I was supposed to be taking a flight from [tag]ORD[/tag] to PHL departing at 6:40 AM this morning, but alas things have not gone as planned.

I entered the line at the baggage check in almost exactly one hour before (59 minutes by the large display clock) the scheduled departure. Now I know that this is not enough. You see, 15 minutes later when I pressed the “check baggage” button at the check in kiosk, I was informed that it was too late to check a bag. Game over. I was informed that I had to have checked my bag 45 minutes before the scheduled departure and now that it was only 44 minutes until the flight, I was out of luck.

I was directed to the other slower moving line for people who actually have to see agents. I was told I would be rebooked for a later flight. In retrospect, I think I should have just gone to the gate and when they told my my bag was too big (a backpack just a bit bigger than the carry on guidelines) they could have checked it at the gate or something. I suspect if I had pursued this course of action, instead of waiting in this new line an additional 45 minutes (why would they only have 2-3 agents working to accommodate _all_ of the people who actually need to speak to them and far more (at least it appeared) simply ushering people through the automated process is entirely beyond me).

Basically, having gotten about 3 hours of sleep last night, my frustration and rage has been building continuously since arriving at this nightmarish airport.

After being told that I’ve been put on standby for whatever next flight to Philly I can get, I proceed to make my way over to the security station where I am informed that I have been selected for additional screening. This wasn’t really so terrible, but while briefly chatting with the man patting me down, I was told that it would probably be a good idea to go talk to the customer service desk to sort out this standby business and see if I couldn’t get some sort of better option.

So, I made my way over to the customer service desk, thinking that the line didn’t look too long and I had two hours to kill until I would have to head over to the gate and wait to hear if I got a seat.

But then, there’s only two people at the desk, and one of them is occupied for about the next hour handling this one monstrous group, which appeared to be the entire extended family or something. In the meanwhile, the other woman slowly worked her way through the people in front of me.

At this point I am pretty much alternating between falling asleep in line while sitting on the floor and speculating who I will be able to direct my mounting anger. So far everybody I’ve actually spoken to was pretty helpful and so I was, and still am, left with only the faceless organization, United, to loathe. Their idiotic apparent mismanagement of their terminal has left me a fury-filled shell of a man. I can think of little else but ways I would like to bring about my revenge against this terrible airline.

I suppose their ongoing financial troubles might both have something to do with this and indicate that they’re punishing themselves well enough.

In the case of international flights I’ve actually not had nearly so much trouble, but I suspect this is more to do with the fact that I would arrive 2-3 hours in advance of my flight rather than one hour ahead. (I know, they said 90 minutes if I am checking bags, but when I used the CTA trip planner and followed the directions it gave me, I got here with only 60 minutes to spare. Perhaps I should be directing my [tag]hatred[/tag] there.)

And so now here I am, typing into TextEdit everything that I can think of that I am disappointed by in this airport. I hope my being moderately disgruntled passes with a brief nap on the plane either now, or later today, before somebody tests my patience enough, and I erupt on some poor unsuspecting person.

To follow up, I got passed over for the first flight after my originally scheduled one, but got on the next one after that. I had no plans besides getting here and sleeping for most of the day anyway, on account of having gotten so little sleep last night, so it all worked out ok and I’ve calmed down after sleeping on the plane, on the train and here at my friend’s apartment.

Anyhow, we’re off to see a midnight show of that new X-Men movie, and then a weekend of fun graduation revelry.