JAX-CLT-DFW

Flights from 2.25.09.
For some reason Charlotte was a popular layover as far as being cheap for many of us to get to/from Texas. The direct flights were just too expensive. First flight - US 952 from JAX-CLT, connecting to US 1126 CLT-DFW. About a 70 minute layover in CLT. Met up with Clete in DFW who was flying in from SAT. He actually missed his flight, so I waited a few extra minutes, but not too bad. His flight was on AA, but it was easy to find him even though I had to go to a different terminal. DFW, I find, is super easy to get around. Picked up the rental car and headed to the hotel. Had dinner in Grapevine at Wilhoite's. Very enjoyable patio seating. Hotel located in Las Colinas.

SFO-ORD-JAX

The next day(12.9), the red eye is set to go from SFO to ORD, departing at 11pm. KD and I get to the airport, return the car, and head to the gate. The flight leaves a few minutes late but we basically get to O'Hare on time. Then the fun begins. We pull up to the gate with about 45 minutes to go until the connection to JAX. Everyone stands up immediately(by the way, why do people do this, especially those in the back? Are you going to get up and walk right off? Never.) Anyway, after about 10 minutes of standing around, we are informed that the wheel of the jetway is frozen to the ground and that a crew will have to come and de-ice the wheel. Frozen to the ground? In Chicago? I had never heard of that happening, much less in a place where it is actually cold for half the year. After the delay, we missed the connection. As we get off the plane and look at the TV monitors, the flight is labeled 'closed'. At this point, we head over to the United customer service desk, explain the situation, and are given boarding passes for the next flight to JAX, 7 hours later. No, that is not a misprint. I asked to be re-routed through CLT or DCA, but because there was a line of thunderstorms sweeping eastward, that option was not granted. I walked away resigned to the fact that I'd get to know O'Hare much better than I cared to. KD, however, was having none of that. She went back to the counter and asked to be flown to Orlando where she would rent a car and drive home. I wasn't going for that plan. A funny thing happened when she went back to the counter. The agent sitting next to the one who originally helped us overheard her and suggested we try to get booked on an American flight which was leaving in about 2 hours. Much better. But why didn't the first agent offer that? He calls over to AA, gets it switched, and has us go to the gate for a seat assignment. Beacuse this was in a different terminal, we found the mini-bus and arrived at the gate. We get to the gate and the AA agent can't find the reservation. Something was not 'linked' properly. She tells us to head back to the UA desk. Luckily, there was one in this same terminal. Shame for us it was a hike away. We walk over, wait in line, explain the deal, and it all gets fixed. Back to the gate. But there's more - the agent now notices that on our boarding passes, there is some kind of security code which made it look like we had not cleared security. Keep in mind, we never ventured out of the terminals, other than the bus ride, and this is still considered to be behind security. Back to the checkpoint, which was another hike. I spoke to the officer and he was actually great about it. We did not have to wait in line or anything. They just checked us right there. Back to the gate and now we were good to go. The flight leaves on time and from about 29 degrees in Chicago we arrived to about 72 in J-ville. As we are walking off the gate, we notice the people waiting there to get on the plane to go back to ORD and low and behold, one of our co-workers, JS, was sitting right there. We said hello and he mentioned that we both looked like we had been to hell and back. Funny, funny, ha ha. On to the shuttle bus for the parking lot and finally back home.