Canceled

We went directly over to the parcel of angry people arguing with the people behind the counter. They said that they had created another flight for tomorrow at 11am that we'd all be on. Because the airport was fogged in, we recieved nothing from the airline. They don't give hotels, meals or drink coupons for acts of God.

Tricia went to luggage claim to get her suitcase while Nikki and I stood in the customer service line and got on our cell phones, trying to find alternate routes up North. By this time it was 10:30 and all other flights up north had already left. This included flights into Sacramento, Chico or even San Francisco.

We got to the front of the line, and told Christie our problem, and asked for our new tickets for the new flight tomorrow, and tried to get a hotel out of them... considering we had called Mom and she said that Redding was clear and not fogged in... that she had been told that the plane was actually fogged in in Medford (Oregon).

Christie apologized, but then clearly stated that none of this was her fault, or Alaskan Airline's fault, as this was a Horizon Flight, run by Alaskan, but all the Horizon people had already gone home.

So helpful Miss Christie of the non responsible Alaskan Airlines began to check us on to the 7400 flight tomorrow. By this time the rest of the crowd from upstairs was behind us in line and Tricia and Nikki made friends with two girls traveling to Eureka (the next stop on the flight.) We gave Christie all five of our driver's licenses and she got busy typing things into her computer.

"Nicole is now booked on the flight. Jennifer is now booked on the flight." Type type type. "The flight is full. Tricia is not guaranteed a seat, but I think it's just a glitch."

Huh? Apparently the plane for tomorrow's flight was only 35 seats... when the old one had been full with 77 seats.

"So what are we supposed to do? Leave our sister at home."

"It may or may not be a computer glitch. They may have put the wrong plane in the computer... but we won't know until 5 am... so if you come back here at 5:00, we'll be able to tell you if she's on the flight or not."

We stood at the counter debating for about an hour, trying to wheedle our way into a better deal. Christie gave us some Distressed Passengers Coupons for cheap hotel rates. We figured we'd stay at a hotel and sleep for at least 5 hours before calling in at 5.

We headed over to the courtesy phones and called the Sheraton. They said they had rooms and we hopped on a shuttle to their hotel. When we got to the reception desk, suddenly they had no rooms available.

What were our options? At this point we called all the other hotels and the flyers but they were also all out of discounted rooms. So our new option? The Budget Rent a Car was across the street. Why not drive?

We crossed the street and hopped in line. After about 20 minutes in line, one of us got the brilliant idea to actually call Budget on the telephone and have a reservation before we got to the desk... which was probably still a 30 minute wait away. Unfortunately, Budget had no more one way rentals... so we headed out of line and learned from our mistake. We called Hertz and got a reservation. We hopped on the Budget shuttle and headed back to the airport so we could be picked up by the Hertz shuttle.

After about an hour in line, we got to our burgandy Pontiac Grand Prix, and made it halfway out of the parking lot before Nikki realized she couldn't find her driver's license. After 20 minutes of looking, we find it behind the driver's seat and we head out. By this time, it was 2:30am.

Tricia took the first shift and drove until 4:30. I took the second shift and Nikki took over at 6:30. After a McD's stop for brekkie, Tricia took over and drove the last hour and a half. We got in around 10am... and learned from the parents that the flight was already delayed, and it really was a 35 seat plane... so we really would have missed Christmas Eve celebrations, and would have had to leave Tricia behind.

I love making the right decision.

On top of this, I had been coming down with a cold since Friday morning. After two hours of sleep, I got in the car and we drove to the Redding airport... where our flight still had not come in. Tricia and I had been told, since we actually had paper tickets, that we had to turn them in for a refund at an airport... so why Nikki dropped off the rental car, Tricia and I headed into the terminal... which looked more like a minimall than an airport. The Horizon lady told us that since we had American Ticket stock, that she couldn't refund our tickets. We'd have to go to an airport with an American terminal.

So I pretty much slept through Christmas Eve. I woke up long enough to eat dinner, and hug a bunch of relatives, and get slobbered on by my aunt's dog. Fun.