I Hate Airlines

The first big issue we encountered on our latest trip hit us right off the bat. Our flight was to leave Dallas at 1pm, land in Chicago around 3:15, and then we had a little over a 2 hour layover until we caught our connecting flight to Moscow. We boarded the plane, and a few minutes after 1, Brandon commented that we were already running late.

A minute or so later, the pilot came over the PA and said that the maintenance crew was replacing the radar in the nose cone and that we'd be there for at least a half hour. A half hour came and went and the pilot then announced that they were still working on it, and that he wasn't sure how long it would be. Likely another 25-30 minutes, he said.

Yet another half hour came and went, and then the pilot announced that they had put a new nose cone on, but that one of the brackets that holds in on was broken. They were going to get a new bracket to put on it, and it shouldn't be too much longer. Meanwhile, we watched the maintenance crew outside load up what must have been the old nose cone on a truck. It was in a large box that was falling apart, and they used a forklift to basically ram it into the back of the truck. This made me a bit nervous, considering that seemed to be a fairly fragile piece of equipment that they could have easily punctured with the forks from the fork lift, but I digress.

Another half hour went by, and the pilot announced that they had the bracket there, and that they were just bolting it on. He said that since it only had 6 bolts to screw in that it should only be like 5-10 more minutes. That was the kiss of death. Finally, about 20 minutes later at 2pm, he said that they were pulling everyong off the flight and that the gate agents were waiting to help rebook us on other flights.

We got to the top of the jetbridge to find ourselves about 30 people deep in a line that eventually had well over 200 people in it, with only 3 agents to help rebook them all. While waiting in line, I called the reservations desk and asked them to rebook our flight. At this point, I knew the only way we could get to Moscow the next day was if they flew us to London, and connected us to another airline, so that is what I told them they needed to do. Because our original flight had not yet been officially cancelled, the reservation agent informed me that she could only get everything set, and that the gate agents would have to finalize it.

We waited in line for about an hour before getting to an agent. At that point, the agent that started helping us left 5 minutes later because apparently he got off at 4pm. He didn't tell us he was leaving, mind you, he just left, and his supervisor proceeded to take over (even though he was in the midst of helping other people). A few minutes later, another agent came over to lend a hand, and the supervisor passed us off to her. By the time we brought her up to speed on what we needed, the supervisor from the London flight came over and said that we needed to come with him in order to get on that flight. Considering he was now be the 4th person to help us, we weren't too pleased.

As this guy finally started getting us booked on our flight, I asked him if our bags would be retagged since we were no longer going through Chicago. He said that they would simply write over the tag. Not sure how that would make anyone else feel, but I was a little skeptical. The good news is that the guy put us in business class since we had been jerked around all day. Not sure if that made up for the fact that we were now getting into Moscow 8 hours later, and that our bags wouldn't make it there until 2 days later (causing us to wear the same clothes for 4 straight days), but it was a decent gesture.

The Best of Times & The Worst of Times

Our week in Russia was extremely stressful and trying. There certainly were way too many things that happened to cover all in one entry, so this entry will be a summary of events, and we will follow up with a couple more entries to provide details.

First, the good news:
1) Our adoption petition for Alina was approved on Thursday, August 28, so we are officially parents. There is a 10 day waiting period after the court date to allow for any objections (thus why we are back home this week without the baby).
2) We had a brief visit with Alina on Wednesday. When Brandon went over to get her from her care giver, Alina saw her and got a huge smile and her face. I wish I had my camera ready because it was beautiful.

Second, the bad news:
1) Brandon's car died the night before we were flying out.
2) Our flight out was to be from DFW to Chicago to Moscow. Our flight from Dallas was cancelled after 2 hours, so we couldn't make our connection in Chicago, so we had to fly though London.
3) Our luggage got lost/didn't make it to Moscow the same day we did.
4) We had to pass a medical review in Moscow on Monday as part of the process. This usually takes about an hour and a half, but ours took 4 hours.
5) We have to take a overnight train from Moscow to get to the region where Alina is. There was a mixup on our train tickets, and we had been issued tickets for the wrong day.
6) Our short 90 minute visit with Alina was sidetracked by the doctors and the inspector getting us prepped for what court might bring the next day.
7) Court proceedings, including a lunch break, lasted the better part of the day on Thursday, including getting grilled for about 2 hours by the judge.
8) On our layover in Chicago, we checked our voicemail to find that the A/C in our house went out (FYI - for those not in Dallas, it's been in the upper 90's this weekend).

So this by far was one of the worst weeks in our lives, and at the same time, one of the best because we became Alina's Mom & Dad. It certainly will be memorable for many reasons, but I guess this adds to the story we will be telling her some day.

We'll add a little color around all our travels in the next few posts, for those who are interested. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of at least some of it.