Happy President's Day! Which means... a day off to actually finally get this trip wrapped up. I know that many of you have lost sleep over how the travels would end. Would their flight back to Maryland actually happen? Where was their luggage? Who the heck books a 5:30am flight out of LAX? Why does it keep taking him over a week to get the next post up?? These questions and many more that you most likely didn't care about...coming up!
So, alarms went off at 3am. Nobody was happy about it, but it had to happen. Quick check of the Southwest app to see that our flight appeared to still exist and still be on time and we were up and getting ready. Much as you might think that with much less luggage it would be easier to pack. Oh, wait - we had only one suitcase out of three and had bought 3 days worth of clothing. Suffice to say, there was some serious cramming. But, we got all packed and met our Lyft driver at about 3:30am on New Year's Eve for the drive to LAX.
Once at the airport, we split up so that
@MeffysMom could get through her TSA pre-check and go get us some breakfast while we slogged our way through regular security. She took the bag with all the electronics so we would have less to deal with (this is our normal approach now that she has TSA pre-check). The line for security was very short so we were feeling pretty good. Until our ONE and only suitcase got pulled. Opened up and searched. Agent pulls me over - "what's this in the plastic?" Umm... pretty sure that's a salami that my wife got at her parents (some brand we can't get on the east coast and always pick up on our visits). "We have to take it out and search it." Umm... okay. Salami unpacked and examined. Outside paper packaging dusted with whatever the dust they use. Supervisor called over. Supervisor examines salami. "This is just a salami, right?" Umm... as far as I know!? "We are getting some odd readings. I'm going to put it back through the scanner." Umm... okay. At this point, our daughter is texting
@MeffysMom to let her know that we have been delayed, but are still hungry - so she is in line at the airport Chick-fil-A. "Still coming up strange, I'm going to dust it again." Umm... nervous laughter... okay?? The supervisor was actually quite nice about it all and also laughing a bit over the salami situation. "I think we are okay, here's your bag and your salami." Please note, this is the suitcase that we have crammed three extra days of clothing into and the salami had been on the bottom. So, I'm back to cramming everything in.
Finally done with security and with (new nickname) Mommy's Drug Salami back safely in our suitcase, we headed to meet up at the gate where it appeared our flight was still on time. Chick-fil-A secured, we nervously enjoyed a half hour of sitting and eating with no posted delays or announcements of cancellations. And, here it is... the picture you have all been anxiously waiting for...
Yes, it's real! It's legit! It's the three of us on a plane. And the flight home went smoothly with no real issues. We all got a little bit of sleep and some wonderful airplane food and were even on the ground a little before our scheduled arrival time. First thing to do upon landing was check the status of our suitcases, which (according to both the FedEx tracking and the Southwest person we had talked to on the 29th) should be arriving at some point that day. Both bags had made it to Tennessee or someplace like that, but for some reason only one was showing as departed from Tennessee (and, in fact, now out for delivery). So, a little concern was creeping back in. Using the FedEx app, we were trying to make it so we didn't have to sign for the suitcase since it looked like it might get delivered before we got to our house - we had tried to do this a couple times in the past few days, but it hadn't worked. So, a little additional concern that they weren't going to deliver it since nobody would be home and we would have another day to wait.
Hopped into our car, which was sitting rather happily in the parking garage right where we had left it just a week earlier. I think it might have been jealous that we had spent so much time in other cars over the past week. And we were home by about 3pm. And, much to our surprise... there was a suitcase sitting outside our front door. Very glad it was there!! But, a little concerned that when we looked on the FedEx app, it showed that it was delivered and signed for by a person with some strange mixture of both of our first names. The other suitcase... still in Tennessee.
New Year's Eve was a relatively tame affair. Our daughter got together with some friends and we went to the local brewery for a couple pints. Not sure if we made it to midnight, but I think we did - but not much later than that. On New Year's Day, there was still no real update on suitcase number two. Of course, it was the one that had all the stuff for our visit to Disneyland - Disney shirts, Mickey/Minnie ears, some Disney jewelry that the girls like to wear on our trips. Around mid-day, my wife called FedEx to question how an overnighted suitcase that was shipped on 12/30 was still not at our house two days later. And she was given lots of excuses. But, of course, they would not admit that the suitcase might've been lost. They would not even agree that it was misplaced. "it's the Holiday weekend, so some things are taking longer than usual." But, we got one of the two suitcases that were shipped together. "oh, that's interesting. I'm sure the other one will be there soon." Umm... okay, but isn't it your job to KNOW when the other one will get there? "well, it's the holiday weekend..." - I think you get the idea of how that conversation went.
January 2nd. Still no update on suitcase two.
January 3rd. App is showing suitcase as checked in again in Tennessee, which is supposedly where it has been now for four days. Another call to FedEx. Another runaround with no real answers, but lots more excuses. FedEx rapidly starting to sound like Southwest Airlines.
January 4th. App is still showing suitcase in Tennessee. But, we get home from work at about 4pm and... there's the suitcase. Sitting outside the front door. No signature required again, evidently. And the app suddenly showed it as delivered, but nothing between Tennessee and delivery ever showed up and nothing about a signature. Luckily, everything was still in tact and we could finally say that the trip was over.
Well, not quite. Had to collect all our receipts for everything we had bought in California and submit them all to Southwest. We had already gotten credited for the cancelled flight from Sacramento to LA and gotten the bonus frequent flyer miles they gave to everyone who had issues. Pretty quickly after that we got the refund for the first cancelled flights and about a week later we got fully reimbursed for all our expenses.
So, by mid-January it really was all over. And (silver lining time), with the extra miles they gave us, we were able to book flights for our trip coming up this weekend for the Princess Half Marathon. We had planned to drive overnight both directions, but are now very happy to be flying down and using the flight refund money to cover our rental car in Orlando as well!!
Which means, it's almost time for my next trip report. Thanks for traveling along with us. Crossing our fingers that we NEVER have another adventure like that again.
