A Trip to Remember (Day 3)

Saturday morning, we woke up and put on our same clothes again for the third day in a row. (Our luggage had made it to Heathrow but we left it there because we didn't know from day to day when we would be flying and where we would be staying, etc.) I did give Kim one of the shots to prevent a blood clot, which she hated and almost hyperventilated before I even got out the needle. We got a cab and headed back to the airport. When we arrived at the section of the airport that the BA customer service people had told me to visit, they directed us to another section at the other end of the terminal, which was nice because there was a short line there but it was not easy for Kim to walk that far. When we got to the counter they confirmed what the customer service people had said on the phone - that all flights headed to the States were full even in business and first class on virtually any flight and especially on the flight we needed to Philadelphia because London's summer break had begun the day before and half of the UK was flying (apparently hundreds to the States). While standing in line to talk with the ticket agent, Kim had to go sit down because she was in pain. She was really doubting whether she was "fit to fly", but she proved that a person's will often wins out over a person's condition/circumstances. The man at the counter was very kind and helpful and even checked other airlines to see about flights out, though he was supposedly not allowed to do that. Ultimately all he could do was allow us to be put on the list to fly standby on a flight scheduled at the same time as our original flight (12:25 PM to Philadelphia). The chances of five people all making it on the same flight when flying standby, especially when the flights are literally full are so slim that all we could do was pray. If we didn't make that flight, he said there was a 1:45 PM flight to New York or a 4:25 PM flight to Philadelphia. The man said we needed to go back across the terminal to Zone A and talk with them about getting on the 12:25 flight standby.

We slowly (and for Kim, painfully) made our way over to Zone A and waited in line for a while, but Kim eventually had to go sit down. Once we got to the counter, the man was friendly but said we had actually not been put on a waiting list, even though the man from BA's customer service on the phone the day before had said he put us on the waiting list. The man at the counter at Zone A wanted us to go back across the terminal to have them get us on the waiting list, but I explained that my wife could not make the trek back there and asked if he couldn't just call over there and get it cleared up. He did and got us on standby for that flight. Meanwhile, I headed downstairs where the man from BA's customer service said I would need to go for lost luggage to find out if my phone had shown up. The man at the lost luggage counter said nothing had been delivered and that I would actually have take a train to another terminal to see if the phone had been turned in at the main lost luggage office, but I did not have time to do that before our first standby flight.

We then spent the next two and half hours sitting and waiting at the airport for the right time that the standby passengers find out if they make the flight. As the time neared, I went toward the counter and watched as John, the man behind the counter, picked up different boarding passes for standby passengers and scanned them to find out if there was any space on that flight. Just before he picked up our boarding passes to check our flight, I saw him scan the boarding passes of two women who were waiting. He got a slight smile on his face and called them over. One of the women began loading her suitcase on the conveyor belt, when John said, "Wait a minute." He called down to the gate, and they had closed the flight. He had to tell the women, who had apparently slept in the airport the night before because they had been waiting to fly standby, that they actually would not be able to fly on that flight and would need to come back around 8:00 PM to see if they would make the next flight. As John saw me walk up, he picked up our stack of five boarding passes and scanned them and frowned. He called me over and told me we would not get on that flight. Disappointed, I asked him about the 1:45 PM flight to New York. He looked it up and said it was not only overbooked by 16 passengers but there were already 18 passengers waiting to fly standby on that flight, which clearly meant there was no hope for us to make the flight. He then looked up the 4:25 PM flight to Philadelphia and reiterated that it was full but that it was overbooked by 11 tickets but had 11 possible seats, which somehow translates to a higher likelihood of us getting on that flight but still difficult for five people. I then walked slowly back to Kim and the kids and told them we did not make the flight and that we would have to wait four hours to find out about making the next flight.

Over the next four hours, we prayed, sat, ate, played, talked to other passengers waiting to fly standby, prayed and waited some more. During that time Cotter and I took the train over to the other terminal to visit the main lost luggage office. After we got there and gave the man a description of my phone, he returned empty-handed and said no phone matching my description had been turned in. We then returned to our terminal and waited until it was time for me to go the counter to find out if there was any hope of us flying out that day. After waiting for what seemed like an hour, a new lady behind the counter called out my name. With excitement I went to counter, where she asked if we would be willing to split up: three fly out on that flight and the others fly out (standby) on a later flight (i.e., the next day at the earliest). While that was progress, it didn't really make the situation easier, but I told her I would check with my wife. I went to Kim and told her the option we'd been given. I told her it would probably be best if she went up to the counter with me because in her hunched-over position, she could certainly better convey the sense of urgency and gain much more sympathy than I. Walking toward the counter, we discussed the reality of separating; Carli offered to stay in London with me but that would have obviously meant that Kim would have to take care of the boys (which is not always easy when at full strength let alone recovering from surgery). When Kim got to the counter, she pleaded with the women for two more tickets, but the lady patiently explained that even the three seats that appeared to be available could be taken if the original ticketed passengers were to show up in the next four minutes. With tears coming down her face, Kim knew she had to say no to the three tickets though it took every fiber of her being to utter the words. The woman behind the counter did, in fact, take notice of Kim's hunched posture and asked her if she was actually "fit to fly", which by this time had become clear that while Kim was mentally "fit to fly" she was really not physically "fit to fly", but there was no stopping her at this point - well, aside from having to fly with only part of her family. Kim asked what would happen if we said no to the three tickets; the lady implied that they would be given to crew members waiting to fly. At that moment, the phone rang and the lady behind the counter told us that it was the gate wanting to know if we would split up. As Kim said no and we walked away from the counter, the woman on the phone, now obviously moved by Kim's plight, explained the situation to the woman at the gate and then turned to us with a big smile on her face and said, "We have five; we have five seats!" Now the tears from Kim's face were streaming but more out of joy than a mixture of sadness and pain. The woman told us we would need to hurry (i.e., run) to the gate to make the flight before the closed the gate - to which Kim quickly responded, "I cannot run. I need a wheelchair!" The lady told us we didn't have time for a wheelchair, so we hurried off as quickly as we could toward security. Explaining our situation with Kim's surgery and the standby flight that was scheduled to take off shortly, security moved us into the short line and got us through quickly. At the gate, we saw a number of BA staff, who probably had been waiting to take those three available seats and had perhaps sacrificed two more just so our family could make that flight.

The bus took us to the plane where we, including my hurting wife, had to walk up the stairs to board the plane. Because we were flying standby and had only barely made it on the plane, our seats were not together. Kim sat by herself closer to the front of the plane. Cotter sat by me. Carli and Caleb had their own seats near the rear of the aircraft. But we did not care - we were all on the plane and finally headed to the States.