Pack the Bags and Let's Go!

Florida Trip Travelog #1
SJC Airport - Tue, 20 Sep 2022, 11:45am

Today we're heading off to Florida. We'll be at a resort-y hotel on the Gulf Coast for several days in celebration of our anniversary. Then Hawk flies homes Sunday while I drive to Orlando for a big trade show conference my company is running. I'll be back home the following Friday.

The past 24 hours have involved bits of scurrying to pack. Packing for a 10 day trip is always more involved than packing for, say, a 3 day trip. And packing for a 10 day trip that's actually two 5-day trips, one at the beach and one for customer-facing work— including full formal clothes— is even more complex. Fortunately I have lots of practice so it hasn't been too stress inducing. And I had yesterday off from work. That enabled me to break the work up into smaller 15-20 minute prep tasks spread throughout the day.

Among other prep tasks I got our passport renewal applications sent off. Those aren't part of this trip; we're not leaving the country, and it'd be too late to be renewing passports right now if we were. But we've been meaning to update our passports for months and have procrastinated. I set myself a deadline of Git 'Er Done before we leave town. We drove to the post office this morning with all the completed forms to mail them via priority mail.

Our flight today departs at 12:35pm— if it's on time, anyway— and we connect in Chicago. The midday departure means our morning wasn't a rush. In addition to finishing our packing and visiting the post office we had time to stop for donuts at an awesome local shop on the way home. Now we're at the airport, having arrived plenty early to check a bag and walk to our gate (at the literal far end of the concourse!) without being rushed. With all the prep work it feels like we're already halfway there though we haven't left town yet.

Update: adding "food" tag because the comments are about donuts. 🍩😋🤣

Update 2: This trip started off well... for the first 3 hours. Then everything went to hell.

Unexpectedly at Indy?!?

Florida Trip Travelog #2
IND Airport - Tue, 20 Sep 2022, 8pm

Our trip to the beach in Florida today is going sideways. We left 20 minutes late from San Jose— but that's not the problem. Airlines pad their schedules so common, minor delays don't wreck the on-time statistics they have to report to the FAA. No, the problem was something really not minor occurred.

We were only a handful of miles out from Chicago Midway. I could see the airfield through the windows on the opposite side of the cabin. But instead of banking left to begin final approach we were maintaining course. Then we started climbing.

Moments later the pilot spoke on the intercom. "Well, folks...." It's never good when the pilot begins with, "Well, folks." Never.

A thunderstorm had just started near the airport, the pilot explained. We were being diverted— to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Why not just circle in a holding pattern? I wondered. Nobody in the crew was answering questions. The flight attendants didn't know anyway. All I could surmise was that the plane didn't have enough fuel to circle for too long. Like, what if it has enough fuel for 30 minutes of circling, but the storm takes 60 minutes to clear? Diverting to IND would add just 24 minutes to our flight time.

On the ground at IND the lack of information has continued. Nobody's talking. Again, I'm left to surmise. I figure the airline's Plan A, by a huge margin, is to get this aircraft to Chicago. Having a plane in the wrong place wrecks their scheduling. Having the crew in the wrong place hurts, too. They'll want to get this aircraft and crew to Chicago ASAP.

The fastest way to do that, I continued, is to fuel it up here at IND, pronto, and fly to MDW as soon as the weather clears. That's likely why they haven't let us off the aircraft yet— they'll want to fuel it up and leave quickly, and if they offload us then it'll take minimum 45 minutes to get everyone off & back on. Better we all just wait it out.

And maybe, just maybe, our connecting flight to Florida is delayed at least as much as we are, and we get there tonight!!

Update, 8:30pm: And now they're offloading us. At first they made it sound like an option to stay or leave, but now they're telling us, "This is mandatory." Uh-oh, this doesn't look good. I'm getting on the phone to an agent to help with rebooking.

Update, 9pm: It's all turned to shit. This delay is going to stretch to several hours, and our attempts to rebook are turning into a wreck. Details in next post.