I thought one hour of sleep prior to taking off for S.Korea would be sufficient so I could sleep on the 14 hour flight from Dallas. It was not. Get ready for a wild ride! I've got a story to tell.
October 9th, get to RDU at 4:30 am. The flight to Dallas was supposed to be about 3 hours. Will said "pretty sure we both have middle seats and I'm one row in front of you." At which point, I decide to spite the system for inventing middle seats, and being unapologetically sorry to my near-future seat mates, I ate plain cream cheese, tomato, and an ONION on a bagel. We left at 7:30 and to my delighted surprise, I have an aisle seat. Remember this seating arrangement because it'll be important.
Besides being sat next to two bozos who wouldn't stop talking to me, the flight seemed okay. Until my waking nightmare began at 10:51 a.m.
Pilot had to land in Little Rock, Arkansas because there was a tornado around the Dallas airport. The airport wasn't receiving planes, or sending of course. We were kept on the plane the entire time, no option of deplaning unless you decided to end your trip in Arkansas. So we were trapped in a plane on the tarmac for 2.5 hours.
Checking AA's flight statuses online informed us that our flight to Seoul was delayed as well. Very angry, but no one to blame but the weather. I dropped so many F-bombs through texts just trying to release the rage. Trapped in a plane..I just wanted to SCREAM. Belt light pinged on. Left Arkansas by 1:18 p.m.
The pilot forecast the flight would take 1 hour and some minutes. By the way it only takes thirty minutes from Little Rock to Dallas on a normal day, but it took us 2 hours and 30 mins. We had to go a strange route AROUND the storm which went like this: Up through Missouri and down through Oklahoma. Then! we were holding in South Oklahoma for awhile waiting to be given the clear to land on the Dallas airway. Landed in Dallas at 3:47 pm by which point our Seoul flight had departed an hour earlier. Raining like a monsoon outside. We went through a large amount of turbulence.
By 4, we were told by the pilot the reason we hadn't pulled forward into the parking dock was because, get this: a strike of lightning had just hit right in front of the airplane so they evacuated the ramp workers for safety evaluations. At which point my friend texted a reply stating, "Oh my god, this is like every traveler's worst nightmare."
Half an hour later, we're off the plane and waiting in a whole new environment.... the Customer Service line which by the way has at least 200 people in front of us. 2 hours later, we are at the counter. True to what online told us hours ago, there are no flights to Seoul via American Airlines until Thursday which had the downside of being deposited in S.Korea by Friday. This would leave us 3.5 days to fulfill my list of sightings and doing in my favourite place ever. So we decided to cancel.
We book a complimentary trip back to RDU that departs at 9 p.m. We enjoy a nice dinner. I get a boozy drink. We dally at our gate for the next few hours, it gets delayed an hour of course. Now you're thinking, "what a nightmare." But wait there's more, let me pitch you this fresh new hysteria: Minutes before 10pm, I turn to Will saying, "Hey, ticket says Gate 35. we're at 36, lets just move over one." So we move, but the screen for Gate 35 tells us it's going to O'Hare...so..what? what? Ask the guy at the counter. He says, "Its been changed to Gate 4."
GATE 4?! WHAT THE ACTUAL WHAT
Panic! We literally have to SPRINT from one end of the airport to the other. I couldn't keep up with Will. I waved him on when he looked back. I ran, walked intermittently as fast as I could. My throat was burning. I felt faint. And we get to Gate 4 just in freaking time as the last 10 people are boarding.
The end.
P.S. The aisle seat was the best thing to happen to me.
P.P.S. Our bags were still in Dallas when we got back to RDU.
P.S. The aisle seat was the best thing to happen to me.
P.P.S. Our bags were still in Dallas when we got back to RDU.
