What are the odds!!

I'm not so sure where to start. A friend's daughter came (from Taiwan) to US to study, she is in a small town (total population of 2000) high school, this holiday she and her friend decided to stay with us. The plan was for them to go on a East Coast tour (12/16), the tour ends in Boston (12/21), then they will fly to Chicago on 12/21 and stay till 1/2.

We've been very happy with this December's weather, not much snow and not too cold, perfect for traveling! These two girls are only 16 years old, don't really speak English, first time flying by themselves, so I made them promised me to call me at every stop/transfer city (me being paranoid). Nightmare starts here! This is gonna be a LONG LONG LONG post. ~sigh~

On 12/16, they called me and told me that they got to Chicago alright, but their connecting flight to Newark got cancelled, the airlines (AA) has arranged for them to take the next flight which will depart 2 hours later. Okay, I contacted the tour operator and gave them the new flight number for pick up. Whew, no problem, they will monitor that flight and pick them up accordingly! An hour and a half later, got another call, their flight has been delayed for another hour. I asked them if they know what the problem was, they had no idea, they tried to ask the gate agent, the agent told them that she was busy, don't have time to talk to them!! What the....! I told them to be patient and just wait, there were still time, worse case scenario I'll pick them up. One of their question was what if the airlines cancel this flight again (that was the latest fight to Newark for that night) then they would miss the tour. Well, we'll worry about that later, I said. That flight delayed for another half hour, finally headed to Newark. Everything was fine till the 21st.

12/21, first phone call, the fight was delayed for 2 hours (not again, I thought), then the 2nd phone call, the flight got cancelled, and there was no next flight, that one was cancelled too! WHAT ARE THE ODDS!!! I mean, if it's snow or thunder storm I can understand, there was NOTHING going on (after talking to AA, it was heavy fog)! Hubby called AA (he being a "great" negotiator) try to figure out the whole situation, the reservation agent was able to find them two "first class" seats for coming in the next day. I thought, okay, that wasn't so bad. Then hubby yelled, no, you booked them on 12/23, Saturday (he was online checking the girls' reservation at the same time) not 12/22! The agent apologized and checked again, those were the only 2 seats available, because the holiday all flights were sold out and possibly over booked, and they still need to take care all those passengers whose flights had been cancelled. Fine, we got the picture!!

Hung up the phone, called the girls back let them know about the new flight. Now, problem is, where will they stay? Go to a hotel (checked, around $110 + tax per night)? How are they going to get to the hotel? They are only 16, can they even stay at the hotel by themselves? I was pulling-my-hair frustrated!! The girls are exhausted, don't really want to move, they don't have credit cards, don't have a lot of cash on them and they rather "stay" at the gate area so they can save the money for Chicago! Do I really want to let them do that? I'm assuming my "host family responsibility" starts when I actually "picked" them up, so I shouldn't worry too much right?! Ahhhhh...but she's friend's daughter! The search for a solution goes on.

We checked all other airline for available tickets, none, zero, nada; while doing that, found out all other airlines flew to Chicago either on time or delayed, no cancellation (I'm keeping this information to myself, can't let the girls find out)! We also checked Amtrak and Greyhound. Amtrak's schedules didn't work. So we focused on Greyhound, we checked the route from Boston to Chicago, it takes too long, and bus won't leave till Friday night which means they won't arrive until Saturday. We checked other destinations, Detroit, Akron, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati...based on the bus fares and number of transfers, we thought Cleveland ($96) was a reasonable choice, we should be able to drive there pick up the girls turn around and drive back to Chicago. We offered this option to the girls, they liked it. Now they just need to find someone to get them their baggage (checked-in already); find a taxi to go to the "South Station" (after a few phone calls to the Greyhound, finally got the name of the station); all these sounded easy for us, but it's kinda hard for the girls. I've been on the phone with them the whole time try to walk them through everything and make sure they didn't get lost.


After they got to the bus station, bought the tickets to Cleveland, I told them to call me once they're on board the bus (12:30AM EST), and at every transfer city, New York (4:50AM EST) and Pittsburgh (3:10PM EST); did I mention that this is their first taking the bus and they have to transfer at 2 cities!

We knew it would take us about 6 hours to get to Cleveland, but with holiday traffic we decide to leave around 11AM just to be safe. We were on the road, tried to enjoy the "drive", expecting to receive a call around 3:15PM, I didn't, I thought, okay, maybe they want to wait till they are on the Cleveland bound bus then call me; 4PM, still no call. Finally around 4:20PM, they called, they said they are still on the road, not yet arrive Pittsburgh, there were lots of traffic, and heavy rain, so they are a little late (and they couldn't tell me where they were at the time). @#%$^$& I want to scream!!! That means they missed the bus to Cleveland!!! I have to be calm, I can't panic, the girls depend on us! Told the girls, we will check with Greyhound and let them know "whatever"...basically I'm speechless. How can this be???


Okay, don't panic! Hubby started to call Greyhound. Can you believe the Greyhound people said they don't have this schedule on their system, they kept asking what was the bus number, what was the "carrier", was it really "Greyhound". We printed out the schedule directly from their website, and they are telling us they don't have that schedule! We must've tried at least 3 different agents, finally the last agent told us that once the bus is enroute, they can't see the schedule (really?). That agent said we can get more information from the departure station or the arrival station; we tried, we call Boston, got transfered, then click, got disconnected; tried calling Pittsburgh, went to voice mail, and the voice mail box was full, click, disconnected. Whatever, it looks like we won't get any help from Greyhound.



Then, the unbelieveable thing happened, the girls called again said the bus now has broken down, the bus driver already called it in to have another bus to pick everyone up and drive them to Pittsburgh. I don't know how to react anymore...Really, WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!!!


While this was "happening", we already drove passed Cleveland, it was only another 2 hours to Pittsburgh. What to do? We'll drive to Pittsburgh to pick them up, so nothing else can go wrong!





We got to Pittsburgh around 8PM EST, I've never been to Pittsburgh before, I just have to take some pictures. I don't know where we were at, but it's Pittsburgh!! This is the proof that this really happened! We picked up the girls and headed home. All 4 of us got home around 3AM Chicago time. Exhausted, but safely home!

What a day!!

We are determined to have a very very Merry Christmas (we need it)!!!