Traveling to Germany Take 1

On Sunday I packed up my last few remaining items and figured out how I intended on getting from Frankfurt to some building in Heidelberg at Universität platz(no, I didn't get an address for this building). Before we left the house my parents and I attempted to devised a plan for how I was going to move around to trains and cabs and other such forms of public transportation to get to Heidelberg with well over half of my body weight in luggage. These tasks were very frustrating but my parents helped me get 'er done and at noon we were off to the air port for my 4:05 flight to Chicago.

I had signed up for text message alerts for Mom and myself for status updates on my flight and we received the first saying my flight was on time as we drove into Boston. We arrived at the airport with hours to spare so we checked my luggage, my big bag weighed exactly 50.0 lbs which is the weight limit, and went to lunch at the legal seafood in the airport. This is when we got the first of many flight delayed text messages. I was scheduled for an hour and a half layover in Chicago so even with the delays I had plenty of time. As we waited for it to become closer to my departure time we watched the Olympics and the characters running in the halls of the airport. During this time my flight got delayed more and more and more until finally I had only a 10 minute layover. We figured, since I'm flying American all the way, they would hold the second flight just a bit so I said my good-byes and went through security. Word to the wise don't leave your lap top in your back pack while going through security or else they think your a terrorist.

With one last wave good-bye I was off to my gate located conviently across from a Dunkins <3. There were plenty of seats so I sat down and waited a few minutes then I decided to make sure that I was going to make my connection. Good thing I checked because she immediately told me that my flight wasn't going to get to Chicago until 10 minutes AFTER my flight to Germany was scheduled to leave. She offered to put me up in a hotel in Chicago for the night but I didn't want to spend 24 hours in a hotel room with all that luggage alone so I called my parents to tell them to turn around so they could come back to the airport and get me.

I then booked an earlier flight to Chicago for the next day so I would have a 3 hour buffer for them to mess up instead of just an hour and a half and went off to pick up my luggage. There was no way I wanted them to have full responsibility of all my favorite clothes since they already screwed up once. I waited briefly and spoke with a very annoyed baggage person who told me they would go get the luggage then come get me when they found it so I sat and waited for my luggage and my parents to get back to me. During this wait I met a few people my age one of whom was German.

My mom met me in the airport as my dad circled around in the car and we waited and waited for my luggage to get back to me. After about an hour of waiting my mom went up to them and asked the woman where it was she nastily responded that they couldn't find it and she couldn't find us to tell us , even though we were sitting on benches directly across from her station. From afar I saw how angry my mom was and was very happy I wasn't one of the people she was yelling at. They told her that my luggage was already in Chicago and that we needed to call customer service to complain.

Then we went back home after 6 hours in the airport with nothing to show for it but a new bottle of peppermint schnapps. I called customer service and got them to refund my money for my second checked bag, at least I got something out of this. Then my mom called to ask about what was happening with my luggage which she got absolutely nothing out of. At the end of the phone call, the man told her to have a good night to which she responded "to late" and hung up, which I found absolutely hilarious.

So as I am writing this I am preparing to do this whole little adventure all over again and crossing my fingers that the bad weather today doesn't hinder my flight plans. And as for my luggage its hopefully in Chicago or Frankfurt no one really knows!