Missing Connections, but making it work: a story.

For the vast majority of flights, we choose to fly nonstop and direct.  The stress of making connections and risk of losing luggage are not the most joyful aspects of traveling so avoiding them is worth it, even if it requires a slightly more expensive ticket.  If we have to connect, we pick a city with lots of options or for instance if  I'm flying to Europe, I prefer to connect in Europe (at least you've made it across the pond) then getting stuck in Atlanta or New York, for instance.

But sometimes connections are inevitable.  We had a wedding in Austin and made the decision to fly out  of DCA rather  than taking a nonstop, direct flight from BWI or IAD.  This ended up being a mistake, but we made a bad situation better with some quick thinking, here's the story:

A pleasant surprise duirng our
ORD lay-over: Rick Bayless grub!

We arrived at DCA only to learn the flight to DFW was delayed by TWO HOURS because...a pilot called in sick! A long line snaked from the counter as the airline officials started calling out connections that were going to be missed because of the late arrival in Dallas.  I heard Austin being announced and my heart sank.  We joined the long line and on impulse, I made the decision to call American Airlines while waiting to speak to the person at the desk.  The call was patched through immediately and she informed me if we took the next Dallas flight we could get to Austin by 7:30 p.m., meaning a major lay-over in Dallas (it was only about 8:30 eastern time at this point).  I asked her to see if there other ways of reaching Austin and suggested Chicago perhaps knowing flights to ORD happened quite often, in fact one was boarding as I was talking to her.  She confirmed that if we made the ORD flight that was boarding right then, we could make a 12:30 flight from ORD and get to Austin by mid afternoon.  The problem was the flight closes 15 minutes before it departs so she couldn't access the flight to add us, but she confirmed there was room.  I asked her to stay on the line and charged towards the ORD flight.  They were in the final boarding call and although one official basically told us "screw you," but another official calmly added us and apologized that we wouldn't sit together on this leg.  I was so grateful for the American Airlines official on the phone as well as at the desk for making it all work for us.

We did face about a 3-hour lay-over in Chicago, but it was better than the multiple hours we would have been sitting in DCA and then DFW.  Life got a lot better when we discovered a newly opened Rick Bayless tacqueria at ORD.  We wandered around the airport and discovered a very pleasant indoor garden space.  We also ended up getting seats next to each other on the leg from Chicago to Austin and we arrived by 3, allowing us to go for a walk, take a shower and grab a beer!

The lesson to this story: use every available option.  I ended up having amazing luck calling the American Airlines reservations department.  I also knew the other major hubs for American so I could help guide our choices.  I also had to be a bit pushy.  Maybe some would have heard the final boarding call and said, oh well.  I, on the other hand, thought: we can still make this happen!