The big weekend (Broncos game) had arrived! I dropped Ryan and and Jared off at the airport just after 8:00 am for them to catch their 9:16 am flight to Denver. I told Ryan to text me when they got there. Since we were already up and ready for the day, I decided to get my grocery shopping done early. Smith's in the Ave's is totally dead at 8:30 am and it was the perfect time for grocery shopping with Nolan. We unloaded and put away all the grocery's. We were back in Nolan's room playing when I noticed the time and thought I should have heard something from Ryan by now so I went to check my phone. The text should have said "Made it to Denver just fine." Instead it said we are still in SLC....my heart just sank and I immediately called him to find out if he was joking or serious. Well he was serious.
They boarded the plane on time and after being on the plane for some time, they were notified by the pilot that the plane's computer was malfunctioning and they would try restarting several times to see if the warning light would turn off. After it did not, everyone was told to exit the plane. The pilot mentioned, the flight to Denver next to them was overbooked so 'don't bother pestering them trying to get on the flight', adding insult to injury. They got off the plane and Ryan wanted an update after some time had passed. There wasn't anyone at the desk, so he walked back down the ramp to the plane and asked the crew what was going on. One of the flight attendants said he had a lot of time to wait and he could go get some breakfast.
After returning from picking up breakfast, they were told that a new computer was coming and the plane should be ready in 30 minutes. After an hour or so, a Frontier employee at the gate asked anyone on their flight to line up to try to reschedule their flights as it no longer seemed likely the plane would be leaving. This was at approximately 10:20 am. Ryan and Jared waited in this line until 2:30 when they finally learned that they would not be able to reach Denver this day unless the original plane could be fixed.
During their time in line they were given no updates, security was called twice because customers were so upset about lack of information and misinformation that was being provided. At one point were given tickets to a Delta flight, only to reach that gate and discover they had been put on a flight that was overbooked and they were not permitted to board. This happened to several customers.
Another fun thing happened to them while they were in line. They watched another Denver flight board right in front of them. They had announced over the speaker that it was overbooked but they issued roughly 8-10 standby tickets, while paying passengers were still waiting for the flight from 5 hours previous. Also a pilot cut the entire line, and was immediately offered a seat on the 'completely full' plane.
Once they were finally able to reach the counter the person at the desk really didn't have much to tell them. A part was shipped over from Denver at some point, but that still hadn't worked. Just before 5:00 pm Ryan called me and said that they were calling it quits and there was no hope of them getting to Denver for the game.
It was quite the day and I was really bothered that they weren't going to make it to Denver for the weekend. Everyone involved was really looking forward to it and for it to not work out was horrible.
The Utes lost to ASU and Denver lost to the Texans (i'm sure it was because Ryan and Jared weren't there). It wasn't a good weekend for the Wallace's!
1 comment:
Boo! That is absolutely terrible that Ryan wasn't able to make it to the game. It's unfortunate that Frontier airlines handled the situation so poorly.
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