Hanika and I have no luck when we travel! This time we arrived at the airport painfully early to ensure we could drop off the rental car, check in, have breakfast and change a nappy before going through customs. We were extra early when I received a text message at the airport to say the plane to Chicago was delayed an hour.
Normally that wouldn’t have been a big deal except it meant missing our original connection to Buffalo. No one was at the United desk but I was told over the phone we had been rebooked on a later flight that evening. Again, that should have been fine. Except I’m a tight ass and I booked our rental car from an off airport Hertz which closes at 18:00! I can’t remember how much I saved but it better have been more than $20.
We landed in Chicago and saw that our original flight to Buffalo was delayed. I quickly asked at a gate if we could change back to that flight but was told I’d have to take it up with the people at the departing gate. I hadn’t been to O’Hare before so I figured we could make a mad dash and catch them… wrong! It’s a massive airport, the scale of Charles de Gualle. So I dragged my poor family through a busy airport, across 2 terminals only to find that by the time we got the gate the plane had left! We collected ourselves and mopped our brows. We headed back to another terminal to wait for our flight. 45 minutes before check in I looked at the screen to confirm the gate only to find they had moved the plane to another terminal! We walked across and found another 45 minute delay!
Eventually we landed in Buffalo and made our way to the hotel. The airport charges $5 for luggage carts so I walked outside to the taxi rank and found a discarded one! Despite Ollie being Mr No Sleep we made it out with the van to Niagara Falls in good time.