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The original plan: take the train to the airport, fly rome to boston, arrive, 3 hours later depart for phoenix. The actual: take the train to the airport (plenty of extra time). Find the gate, still well over an hour... so I walk around a bit to pass the time. Sit back down with an hour to go, bum around on the lappy for half an hour, then wait for the boarding to begin... instead, they delay the flight. The reason? The cleaning crew is on strike... it'll be another half an hour they estimate... another half hour passes, they postpone another hour. Not good, my 3 hour is now down to an hour and a half. So I go talk to the folks at the Alitalia desk and ask what they can do for me. The answer? "Nothing until your flight is delayed to the point that you can't make your connection... but if you arrive and miss your flight, go to the Alitalia desk in Boston and they'll take care of it." So basically they're setting me up for failure. Great. The flight is delayed yet a bit more, but then we actually start boarding an hour and 45 minutes after we were supposed to leave. By this time most of the other planes at the terminal are gone... but do they pull the plane up to a jetway? No... we have to take a shuttle. We get off the shuttle and there's a front and rear entrance, but no signs to help figure out the optimal entrance to use. We all get on the plane and we're ready to go. I might just make my flight. All we need to do is leave... right now... but we sit... everybody is on board. The luggage is loaded, and we're sitting. Still sitting. It's hot. We need to go. My hope is dwindling... dwindling... dying... ok, we're 3 hours late now, its impossible to make the connection... and just then we start rolling onto the runway. So, I get to Boston, and the first thing you have to do is go thru Customs... I get thru fast, my bag was almost the first one off... then I head straight to the Alitalia desk to find... nobody. !@#$%. I go to the US Airways counter, which is quite a hike, to talk to ah arrogant b!@#h who won't even look to see if there's a possible way to get onto a different flight that night. So I turn around and find a place I can plug my phone in to call Orbitz to see if they can do anything... they tell me about a flight that leaves in 5 minutes to LA, which could get me back. So I go back to the US Air counter and find someone different to help, of course now it's too late to make that flight. Maybe if annoying lady would've helped me I would've been on the plane. Instead, they do get me booked for the first flight out in the morning. It's about 7:30 at night, the flight leaves at 6:30 so I need to be back to the airport by 5ish to get my real ticket. So fine, I pull out the laptop and find that the Hilton is not only the closest, but also the cheapest... and even thou I could walk, I am feeling incredibly lazy so I go out to the shuttle pickup and wait a few minutes for them to come by. Once I get there, make a few phone calls, take a couple pictures (see below), I go down to the hotel restaurant and have the absolute worst $15 hamburger (I've just been in Europe for over 2 weeks... it's time for a hamburger darn it!). The service was terrible too. I left $1 for the tip. By the time I get back to my room (oh, and they want $10 for internet access... even thou I just paid $10 at the airport and I can see it from my window), but it's time for sleeping anyway... email can wait. By the time I get to sleep, I figure I paid $200 for 5 hours of bed time. I did make the rest of the trip uneventfully, and after getting home and having another shower, went in to work. Woohoo. I submitted my claim for reimbursement of the hotel expenses to Alitalia. I'm not holding my breath. |