Travel NIGHTMARE!!!!!

[trueX5er]

ughh..... American Airlines sucks...(why I call them crAAp)

So I had a nice flight set out for sunday at about noon from OC airport in CA to O'Hare, that would get me in at about 6pm.
So yesterday I decided to check my flight online, because there was heavy fog that rolled in that morning. I have the AA site open, go to the flight status, and see "Flight Status- CANCELLED" I thought it was some sick April fools joke so I called up AA and managed to talk to an agent. Apperantly, the piece of sh*t junk that American calls an "airplane" had a mechanical. (Meaning the duct tape wore off). So I asked if there was any more flights, and she said no. Crap! So we talked for about an hour trying to get out of there. She finally found a flight out of Long Beach airport (I had never been there) on Alaska Airlines to SeaTac (Seattle) leaving in a few hours. She said we were booked on that, and on the connecting flight to Chi-Town. Well, we jumped in the Escape, and literally floored it to get there in time. I was going between 80 and 105 mph the whole time. So I think I may have set the North San Diego to Long Beach record time. I did it in like 40 mins.
So I get to this tiny airport, and got in the line there. It turns out the AA agent didn't book all of us on the flight, only one of us. So he is frantically trying to get us on, and the people behind us are going crazy because there were only two agents and we were talking forever. So after that is over and our luggage is checked through to chitown, we make our way to security. Of Course, being on a one-way ticket, we were marked "SSSS" for secondary screening. Fantastic. They were already holding the plane for us. So we put our stuff in the special red bin, got patted down, had our stuff swabed, the whole deal. That's when AA called to say our flight was canceled. Thanks for the early notice!!! We ran up the stairs to the plane, and got on. Almost everybody stared at us, knowing we were the people who had caused the 20 min delay (SORRY!!!) Of Course, our seats were the very very last row, right smack next to the engine (It was an MD80) I had a lovely view of it the entire time. And I couldn't hear much over the roar of it. But at least I got on. So two hours later, we land and we rush to the AA agent at the desk, wondering if we were still on the chicago flight. Again, only one of us had a seat. And it was overbooked. And everybody was checked in. Fantastic. They said I could wait to see if they got volunteers, or I could go to St. Louis so I'd be closer to my destination. I said sure, and hopped on it. Three hours later, we arrive at the seemingly abandoned STL airport. They give me a voucher for a hotel, and tickets for the earliest flight today. Exhausted, we walked all the way to the other end of the airport (of course ) to catch the Marriot shuttle to the hotel. We get there, check in, go to our rooms (which were nice) and went to sleep .We didn't have any other clothes, and had to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste. Fast forward to today, 5am. We board the shuttle again to go to the airport, where we hop on to our 6:10 flight. I was a pleasant 45mins, with a great view of the sunrise. We get in at 7:00am, and manage to find our luggage, sitting in a heap in a corner with 200 other bags.

So we should have arrived at 6:00pm, but actually arrived at 7:00 am next day. What really worries me where the people who didn't check the flight online. Only a few of us from the original flight made it to SeaTac and then to STL and then to Chi. What about the rest of the people? I bet they are still stranded now.
I did have a good time in SoCal, though. I have some pics, but I'll download them and post them in a new thread later this week.

Oh, almost forgot. My SAAB ('04 9-3 Convertible) refused to start, even with a jump from the E70. It was towed from my garage today.