Christmas Travels Part I: We Can’t get out of Pennsylvania
Merry Christmas from Ohio,
Jessica and Brian are spending Christmas with Brian’s parents in St. Marys. (It’s Jessica’s first Christmas-day visit with the Clarks, and Brian’s first December 25 in Ohio since 2003.) The trip to get to the Buckeye State was full of set-backs (delays) but no lost luggage.
Several months ago, Jess and Brian decided to fly to avoid any nasty winter weather on Interstate 80. They arrived at AVP (Wilkes-Barre-Scranton “International” Airport) for their 4:10 flight. They found a check-in desk that was booking people on taxis to the airport in Binghamton, New York (70 minutes away) so they could make their connections in Detroit. The airline was so happy to learn we had a long layover in Detroit because it meant we’d make both flights. We checked our luggage and headed to the airport’s bar and arcade to kill the next three hours.
While sipping drinks and swapping travel stories, we heard the airport’s announcements to other holiday travelers:
- The U.S. Air flight from Philadelphia was in the air, then back in Philadelphia, then in the air, then at the gate. But the return flight was cancelled. Anyone with tickets to fly from Scranton to Philadelphia got to ride the bus (courtesy of the airline) at 5 p.m.
- The United flight from Scranton to Chicago was delayed because of fog. Then the story changed. The airplane was stuck in Akron, waiting to take off to fly to Chicago. From Chicago, the plane would fly to Scranton, where Pennsylvania passengers could board for their flight to Chicago.
We considered ourselves lucky when we went wheels up at 7 p.m.
Watch for Part II: Stuck in Michigan
