Omaha - Day 4, Part Two

And so the ugly begins....

We're sitting in the Omaha airport waiting for our plane that will take us to our connection in Detroit. The flight is scheduled to leave at 5:45, so we figured we'd be boarding about 5:15.

5:00 rolls around, and there's no plane there.

5:15 rolls around, and still no plane.

5:20 the plane comes to the gate, and folks are hurriedly departing.

We see folks doing inspections, and getting the plane cleaned up. But it's taking a while.......

Meanwhile, my mom calls, and tells me what I've been dreading. My grandmother had passed away that afternoon. I knew it was coming, but it was still really sad.

Somewhere around 6:00ish, they make an announcement that they were waiting on maintenance, since the plane took a bird in the engine on landing, and they need to check it out.

Sucked a bird in the engine!

So, out comes maintenance. Let me just paint the picture for you... This man was easily in his 70's and walked with a limp. He struggled to get the ladder out of his van alone. But he managed to get it out and set up to evaluate the engine. He climbed up. Looked. Climbed down. Went to get paper towels, climbed back up and removed the bird. Climbed back down, got a squirt bottle of some sort, and climbed back up. Squirted the stuff inside, then climbed back down. Got his scrub brush, and climbed back up. Scrubbed. Climbed back down to get paper towels again, and climbed back up to wipe everything down. Honestly. Certainly not the most efficient, but we were hoping for the best...

All this is happening as all the passengers are watching out the window. I even took some video, and if I could figure out how to rotate it, so you wouldn't have to turn your monitor sideways, I would post it.

They made an announcement that they didn't "think" there was any damage, and they would board shortly. Didn't "think". I guess they were waiting to see when we took off???? I kept hoping and praying that Captain Sully was going to show up in the Omaha airport to make sure we got to Detroit ok. No such luck.

By now, we are over an hour late leaving, knowing we only had a 50 minute layover. We were assured in Omaha that since this was a mechanical issue, if we missed our connection, we'd be put up in a hotel for the night, and given food vouchers.

So, we finally take off, and are flying without too much incident. Some turbulence, but at least the plane works. The pilot assures us that he's going to make up time in the air, and we should only be landing about 20 minutes late at 9:15pm. Our connection is at 9:45, so there's hope!

We actually land about 9:20. Still holding out hope.

We pull within 10 feet of the gate at 9:25. And sit there. And sit there. And sit there.

Until 9:35.

A plane with 54 people on it, and 45 have connecting flights within a half hour. And they sit there.

And we were at the BACK!

Needless to say, we got off of the plane, and RAN to our gate. I did mention that we came in at the opposite end of the terminal that we were departing from, didn't I? Oh, yeah, we did.

It was about 1/2 a mile. We ran, walked, ran, walked. And missed our plane by about 5 minutes.

We found a representative. She scanned our stuff, and we had been re-booked on a flight at 10:15 the next morning. A voucher printed out for a hotel room, but it was a $59.00 rate that we had to pay. We asked her why we had to pay, since we were told otherwise in Omaha, and she just said that's what printed out.

So off we go to catch a shuttle bus filled with other angry Delta passengers to try to get a couple hours of sleep at a hotel that we now have to pay for. Without our luggage, without toiletries, without clean clothes. UGH! We get there about 11:00pm. Good thing we ate something at 4:30! So, we had ice cream....

We were able to catch our flight the next morning without incident, and got home early afternoon on Saturday. Tired, hot and stinky, but home! And really glad this happened at the end of vacation instead of the beginning....

And, in case you are wondering, I DID call Delta to complain about the fact that we had to pay for a hotel that should have been taken care of. They said it was coded at weather related (last I checked, birds had as much control over the weather as I do), and said they aren't required to pay for weather related issues. When I mentioned the bird issue, and the video I had, they managed to find out that it was in fact a maintenance issue, and issued us both $75 vouchers for future flights. Not too bad, since we had only paid $59 for our room.

And that concludes our Good, Bad, and Ugly series of vacation...

AMW

Ever have one of those days?

Yesterday was one of those days for me.  It was a Murphy's Law day, to be sure....

It started when I jumped in my car to head to work, and it wouldn't start.  I was about 90% sure it was the battery, because we'd been saying for months that we were gonna check to see how old it was, and replace it if it was near it's expiration.  You know how that goes, though...  Time gets away and you don't check until there's an issue.  Like yesterday morning.

So, I decided to take the Jeep.  Which is still dressed for summer (the top and windows are off), and I knew it was gonna be a chilly ride, but I was thankful to have a spare car at the house.  First I had to get the cover off which had filled with a TON of water from the rain.  I was already dressed for work, and didn't wanna change, so I used a bucket to get most of the water out before removing it.  Only got a little wet, so it wasn't that bad.

Made it to work, only about 1/2 hour late.  But as is usual for the last two weeks, my computer wouldn't start.  It finally started and stayed running about 3 hours after I got there.  I've had this issue for a while, and was offered some IT support recently, so I took them up on it, only to find out that the IT guy was out for the day.  Oh well...

I made it home without incident!

I stopped by our local mechanic shop to talk about the dead battery issue, and David gave me a battery pack to take and jump my car.  No problem.  As I'm standing in front of my car to hook everything up, I realize I'm standing on an ant mound, and they are crawling  all over my legs!  YUCK!!!

Got the car jumped, take it back to the shop, and confirmed that it was, in fact the battery and not the alternator.  David suggested I run up to Advance Auto, since it would be cheaper and they would install it for free.  It's only a couple miles up the road, so off I went.  I turn off the car to go in (not in the best neighborhood) and proceed to buy a new battery.  The service guy said he'd be right out.

I went outside to wait, and that's when I realized that sometime that afternoon, my bra strap had broken, so there I was hanging out (literally) with one boob covered and one boob uncovered under my t-shirt.  And my strap was hanging out the bottom of my t-shirt.  I have no idea how long it was like that...

After 30 minutes of waiting for the guy to "come right out", I went back inside.  Seems he had forgotten about me.  Nice.  He made it out, and 45 minutes after buying my new battery, I was on the way...

I made it home again without incident, and proceeded to dress the Jeep for the winter.  Put the top, doors, and windows all back on.  This was extremely difficult to do with one person, since everything had sat for most of the summer rolled up.  So it wasn't expanded for easy installation.  It took almost all my strength to get it all attached, but I got it done...

I sat down for a few minutes to check my email real quick, and hadn't been sitting for 2 minutes, when the dog decided that was the best time to go ahead and get sick.  On the carpet.  She's usually pretty good, and will go toward a room with no carpeting, but not today.  So of course I cleaned that up.

In the meantime - D was at the doctor for right shoulder-ish pain.  Turns out, there is probably a touch of pneumonia in the right lung.  So we made the decision to cancel our weekend away in the OBX since the doctor said to REST, REST, REST.

Finally getting a few minutes to chill out, the front door bell rings.  It's our new next door neighbor stopping by to introduce herself.  I can't even imagine what she thought if she noticed that my bra strap was STILL hanging out  of the bottom of my shirt.....

Hopefully it will be a relaxing weekend and it will be what D needs to start feeling better soon!

And the next time I see "Murphy" heading my way, I'm gonna run over him with my car!  New battery and all!

AMW

Hurricane Aqua Sports

It's been two weeks since I was blindsided with news that the manufacturer of the kayak that I've had problems with, wasn't going to honor their word.  The full (and I do mean FULL) backstory can be found starting HERE, then HERE, onto HERE, and then finally HERE.  Don't want to take the time?  Here's the short of it:

• Boat Defect
  
• Boat Sinks
  
• Manufacturer sends temporary fix
  
• Boat Sinks again
  
• Vice President offers new boat for free
  
• Vice President reneges offer 11 days later
  
• Vice President offers to sell me a new boat PLUS shipping
  

I had held off during the last post mentioning the manufacturers name, because I was hoping that they would step up and do the right thing.  They haven't.  It's been several weeks.  And what recourse do I have?  It's my word against theirs.  

So now, I must say, that I would not suggest anyone do business with Hurricane Aqua Sports.   They don't sell directly, but you'll likely find their kayaks at your local kayak dealer and at demo days.   Their trademark is producing kayaks out of a material called Trylon, a durable but lightweight plastic.  Apparently not so durable.  

Their site claims them to be "a small group of kayaking industry veterans".  Then these veterans should understand how it would feel to be without a boat.  Not because they damaged theirs, or not because they couldn't afford one.  But because their boat failed.  Miserably.

I bought the Hurricane Phoenix 120.  A small, light, sit-on-top.  I really enjoyed the boat.  But due to a manufacturing defect, it took on water and sank.  With me in it.  In any other situation than what I was in, it could have had a much worse outcome.

It's so terribly disappointing, this change in customer service.  I never asked for a new boat, they offered it.  And then took it back.  They used the "warranty period" as their excuse, but didn't take into account that I first contacted them while it was still under warranty, and they sent a tube of epoxy that didn't fix it.  How sad is that?  The VP even admitted to me on the phone that they knew there was a problem with this!

I have no idea what changed his mind in the 10 days between our pleasant phone conversation, and the follow up email.

Is this the kind of company you would do business with?  One that offers to make it right, then takes it back, then nothing.  One that doesn't stand behind their product.  One that doesn't stand behind their word???  

I'd love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment here for me, (and for the little guy everywhere that gets the shaft!).

AMW

PS - I'll be shopping for a new kayak soon.  Anyone have suggestion on good manufacturers to deal with?