The end, nearly, on stand by.
Today we wrapped up our last day of our trip finishing off some last minute shopping and then dropping off the rental car. This was the easy part.
We arrived at Tampa airport with plenty of time. When I checked into my American Airlines flight to LA via Dallas I was informed there would be an hour delay. That was fine because I had booked it with 4 hours until my international connection.
Meg was booked onto a US airways flight which left on time a 15:00 to LA via Charlotte. At 15:02 I heard a recorded message over the PA saying “lightning storms cause delays at Tampa airport”. This didn’t worry me because it sounded like a normal announcement just like the repeated security warnings. Then a big thunderstorm rolled in and the next thing I see is the departures board reporting my flight being delayed by 3 hours. We have a problem.
Thunderstorms at Tampa ground the aircraft because union rules state that workers can not be placed in danger by an electrical storm. For this reason no planes come in or go out.
I spoke to an AA customer service representative who checked and said that my Dallas flight was also delayed and that I would be fine with the connection, but she booked me a seat on the next flight from Dallas just in case.
I arrived in Dallas and looked for my two flights on the board, neither were there. I saw another representative who told me both these flights have been cancelled. They put me on priority standby for a later flight. I slowly watch my name rise up the standby list until there are no more spots on the flight, the representative takes me through the air bridge to the plane door, checks the aircraft for seats they may have missed and tells me there are no more places on the plane. I stood there as the crew closed the door to the plane. I’ve never felt so rejected.
He put me onto another standby list for another flight. The standby list had 106 people on it. 3 full flights does not fit onto 1 aircraft. I got onto the flight which would arrive at LAX at 2305. My flight to Melbourne leaves at 2340. Megan was able to get my boarding pass (without ID) and we met in the baggage hall and rushed to the departures gate, waved through security and onto a waiting bus to meet our connection.
We made the flight and now we’re home.