Cancun > Houston > Indianapolis > West Lafayette

When I got back to the hotel around 11pm last night, I made another attempt to straighten out my bill. No success.

I then booked a cab to pick me up at 5am. My flight was not until 9, however, we had been told to get there 3-4 hours early do to it being the end of a holiday weekend AND because of the idiot who had just tried to blow up his underwear on an international flight into Detroit.

Anyway – even after I made the reservation thru the concierge, the cab company called me back to confirm.

By the time I got packed and into bed – I only got to sleep a couple hours.

I get down to the concierge.. no cab.

I waited a few minutes and have him call…. Yah ALLEGEGLY there was an accident and the cabbie was stuck in Sunday 5am rush hour traffic and would be there in 30 mins.

Nope!

The concierge got me a cab immediately.

Arrived at the airport only about 10 minutes “behind” schedule.

OMG the line was insane! Literally several hundred people in front of me. I knew, there was no way I would make it to the front of the line – even though I still had 2 hours.

So I rolled the dice. The airline was Continental. I don’t have ‘status’ with them, however, they are part of the Star Alliance. I am Premiere on United – which is part of the Star Alliance. However, Premier is like Level 1 of 4 levels of the Star Alliance. The “special” line was for Premiere Exec and up… (ie: level 2-4)

Knowing I would never make it with the “commoners” I went for the speedy pass. Played stupid and thought the special line was for ALL Star Alliance passengers.

I stood in that line for about 45 mins…. When it was my turn, I killed the ticket agent with kindness and random conversation, never really answering her when asked what my specific status was in the Star Alliance.

Bam! It worked!!

Made it thru security with n hassles and on over to my gate. Hmm… delayed.

So I decided to have some breakfast and do some souvenir shopping. Headed back to the gate – delayed even more.

This was not looking good. My flight was to Houston and then onto Chicago. I have a game in West Lafayette, IN tomorrow and I couldn’t get a flight from Cancun to Indy (closest airport) – so I chose Chicago – it’s an hour or so further.

It was looking like I was going to miss my connection. Mainly because in Houston, I would have to go thru immigration, then get my luggage and then go thru customs and then re-check my bag.

I needed to get online so I could research other options. The airport was a Boingo Hotspot – however, the website was in Spanish. So I was having a hard time logging into my account and charging another session. I had to ask a shop keeper for help.

Once online, I discovered my options were VERY limited. So I called emergency travel since sometimes they can “see” seats on flights that I can not.

Again – not many options. It looked like the only thing I could do was fly from Houston to Detroit and then to Indy.

So I just hoped for the best!

After landing in Houston, I jogged to immigration, got thru there, then on to get my luggage. Wait, wait, wait… on to customs. Then when it was time to re-check my luggage, I asked the agent if I was going to make my flight since it was already boarding. He said, “No. There’s no way you will get to that terminal in under 10 minutes when the plane doors will close”.

So I stepped out of line and called emergency travel.

Asked for them to book the Houston > Detroit > Indianapolis option we spoke about earlier in the day. Sure, no problem, the seats were held for me, however, the person who could authorize the charges was not answering his phone. So I had to wait. And wait. And wait.

I dragged all my luggage the mile or so to the other terminal and ticket counter. Called emergency travel again. Nope the person had yet to call back. And the travel agent even said to me, “Ya know, he hasn’t returned any calls today. You are not the only stranded person for the network”

AGHHHH!!! The last possible flight was leaving in less than 1 hour!

So I called the “Crewer On Call” and explained that if she didn’t do something to get the charges approved, I was not going to make the game at Purdue tomorrow.

About 15 minutes later she called back and had everything taken care of.

Thankfully, there was still time to check my bag and make it thru security!

Later that night, I finally arrived in Indianapolis (after connecting in Detroit).

After getting my luggage and heading up the escalator to the rental car facility, I lost control of my luggage and it went bouncing down the steps!

I then discovered that when the emergency travel agent cancelled my ticket from Houston to Chicago, they forgot re-book my rental car pick up from Chicago to Indy.

One more hassle. One more charge to my personal credit card.

Made it up to West Lafayette late Sunday night. Ugh – what a day!