iriseyes

I arrived at the Philadelphia airport at 3pm for my 5:35pm flight home to Manchester. Plenty of time to waste. I hate rushing to the airport, it makes me nervous. There are a whole bunch of stores inside that airport anyway, so I figured I'd shop until my flight boarded. I checked in, said goodbye to Shael, and then headed to security which I got through without any trouble. I went to a few stores, bought my mom a Christmas gift and myself a pack of gum and a drink. I managed to pass an hour of time, so I made my way to gate B7. When I got there, after what felt like a mile of walking, I checked the sign above the check-in counter, to see that it said Manchester. It did, along with the all capitalized word "CANCELLED." My immediate reaction was, Cancelled? That's good. Some ASS didn't update the flight sign. There were a couple guys sitting there waiting, so I strolled over to see if they knew what was going on. The man I asked said that he wasn't travelling to Manchester and that he didn't know anything about the flight sign. Thanks buddy. This is when I started getting a slight bit nervous. I've never had any trouble with my flights before, maybe a delay here or there, but I've never had one cancelled. In situations like this, when things don't go according to plan, my heart starts to race and I feel tears welling up in my eyes. I managed not to get all worked up and worried, somehow, and walked to the next gate. There was a USAirways rep standing behind the check-in counter, figured she'd tell me what I should do. I told her about the sign saying the flight had been cancelled. She typed some mysterious typings into her teeny computer and then said, "Yes, the 5:35pm flight was cancelled due weather conditions here in Philadelphia." It was raining. "There is a 4:02pm flight that I may be able to get you on, come with me." Now, the time was currently 4:10. While I was shopping, I had passed that 4:02pm flight gate and saw people boarding. That was a half hour before. We get to the gate, and the man said he could still get me on and told me just to take an empty seat. I boarded the plane pretty much as it was backing out. From the time I found out my flight was cancelled to the time I was sitting on the plane was about 2 minutes. I asked the man next to me what the chances were that my suitcase was on the plane with me. He said, "Well, depends on how 'on the ball' they are." Grrrreat. No clothes. No make up. No toothbrush! The plane landed in Manchester around 5:30 and I met up with my parents who came to pick me up. Waiting for the baggage, with very little hope of seeing my red suitcase with the pink tag pass by on the carousel. To sum up the story of my adventure back home, a little old lady with a navy blazer told me to call an 800 number if my bags were not delivered by the next morning. I woke up this morning and checked by the front door. There, under an inch of snow, looking as if it was put through a gauntlet, was my red suitcase with the pink tag. Thank you, USAirways.