October 20: Deb, Sam, Jeff and Spencer left about 7am and headed out. All went well and smooth for them. Hertz is fast with pickups and drop offs I guess. We cleared out all the food and brought it over to our condo. The kids were a tremendous help. John and I picked up June at the airport around 10a. Her flight was a bit late. The day was sort of dragged as the kids were just waiting to leave. We did take them for lunch to Moose's which they perked up for. Matt and Sierra went to Wialea Mall to kill a little time. Then it was time to leave. I took Sierra, Matt, Jul, and Soren to the airport dropping them off about 7p. Matt and Sierra helped them get situated with boarding passes, etc. Matt and Sierra left around 9p on their American Airlines flight. Jul and Soren had quite the nightmare getting home. Shortly later they boarded and pushed back. However, they came back to the gate because someone was sick. I'm not sure how long that took. Then they were off again and 45 minutes into the flight they turned around and headed back to Honolulu because of a pressurization problem on the plane.
October 21: I got a text from them about 12:30a but I didn't see it until I woke up just before 3a. By that time they were checking into a Honolulu hotel. They were told "everything is taken care of" for their flight the next day and they would be leaving at 12:30p. That morning they got a food voucher (I was thankful, as neither had credit cards and not sure really how much cash Jul had). Julie sent me the name of the hotel and I tried calling the front desk to see if I could advance cash on my credit card for them between 3-4a. There was no answer. When I tried again at 6a I did get a person but they said they could advance cash to any guests. They advised me that there was a Western Union nearby but I thought that would only make it more complicated for the kids. This person told me they were all given a $15 voucher for breakfast, so that was a relief. Anyway, next morning they had a breakfast via voucher and back to the airport. They gave them boarding passes and sent them through "a fast security" and they thought they were set. Then they noticed they only had a boarding pass for a fight to Seattle, nothing else. Soren got in line to check and a bit later a flight arrangement came in via my email (that's where I booked them). They were going to overnight again in Seattle!!! Then fly to San Diego and then to FAT at 9:30p Monday!!! Can you believe it? I didn't hear back from the kids, I'm sure they knew. I called Alaska Airlines - Now that was another experience.
First I looked up the flight schedules and I saw that there were 3 flights, with seats, out of Seattle Monday morning. So I called and got Kirsten on the phone. I told her the plight of my kids. I informed her that this was my disabled daughter and my grandson of 18 traveling together. She was sympathetic and said she would see what she could do. When she came back on she said she found something that might work better. It was an 8a flight out of Seattle to San Diego, then to Fresno arriving 5:30p, which was a little earlier. I was stunned. I told her that was not really better that they needed a direct flight to Fresno, plus a hotel in Seattle. She was "not sure" a hotel would be available in Seattle. I expressed the opinion that there darn well better be, because you cannot leave a disabled person in the airport all night. She said these things happen and I told her I understood planes break down, but it was unreasonable to put these kids to take out of the way flights to get home. Then when I told her I see seats on direct flights from Seattle to Fresno, she informed me those were first class seats. I said, "So what? It is taking my kids 3 days to get home from Hawaii, they should have a first class seat." Now she told me it wasn't "their fault" that it was taking 3 days... That's when I asked for her supervisor. I was on hold about 15 later she came back on the phone. I thought by then she wasn't coming back! She miraculously discussed this with her supervisor and they got them some flights on their partner airlines, Hawaiian and United. They could leave on flight 12 on Hawaiian airlines at 1:20p arriving SFO at 9:30p, then take United 1729 at 11:xxp arriving in FAT at 12:21a. This seemed a lot more reasonable to me. No extra night in the hotel and home almost on Sunday. Now we texted the kids and told them NOT to get on the flight they were scheduled for and to call John's phone because I was on my phone. Kirsten said they can go to any Hawaiian airlines counter and get their boarding passes. I hope she is right. Meanwhile, unknown to me John's phone was off and upstairs, that was quickly rectified. They were happy to hear of the change and that they would be home sooner. They left for the Hawaiian Airlines section of Honolulu Airport and soon had their boarding passes for BOTH flights in hand. We are just praying everything is on time and goes well for the kids. Thankfully, it did. When they got to SFO they did not need to go to one of the remote terminals via shuttle, so that was good. They still had money for pizza, sent this photo, and had a great learning experience. I thought back to just before they left when I told Soren I hoped they had a smooth flight home. He had a big grin on his face and said, "what can go wrong Grandma?" I said, "Well, your fight could be delayed 10 hours from Seattle to Fresno. His smile immediately vanished and he said, "Does that really happen?" I advised him it was indeed possible. They are seasoned travelers now and I am so proud of them for doing so well through a stressful time.
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