We’re (unfortunately?) back from our wonderful trip to Hawaii. Once I get life and the house back on track, I’ll have a series of posts about all the places we visited. Why is it a week vacation takes 2+ weeks to get life back on track? *sigh* someday we’ll get all the luggage unpacked…
On my last flight, we got to experience getting kicked off a flight. Well, this time we got to experience a computer outage! Fun, fun! Another first!
We got to the airport in Kona an hour and 45 minutes before our flight. We noticed a decent line waiting to check-in. We got in line only to realize that the computer system was down. They said it was down on all the Hawaiian Islands. GREAT! If you’ve been to the Kona airport, you know that it is an outdoor/open air airport. So we were standing in the sun, waiting in a non-moving line for the computer system to get up and running again. They assured us everyone would make their flights once the systems were up and running again.
Yeah… This was fun with 5 kids. They were pretty good at least! We got out the snacks. Sat in the shade (while daddy waited in line). This was lunchtime – no places to eat – so we survived off snacks. Ran everyone through the bathroom.
Over an hour later, they got the system up and running. Of course, the line was still huge (even longer behind us!). Not long after the systems were up and running, they started announcing boarding for our flight – WHAT THE HECK?!?! Everyone in line started complaining/yelling. They assured us we would all make the flight. Waited forever to get the bags checked and boarding passes. The counter people were super nice – I am sure they were having a hard afternoon!
Finally through all that. Up to TSA and it was moving pretty well. UNTIL they switched shifts RIGHT in front of us. Like seriously changed out x-ray people as our first bag was going through. I don’t know if it is because she was new on her shift, new to the job, or just a pain in the butt, but OH.MY! I thought the TSA person we had in BWI last time was bad – she was a cake walk compared to this woman. She was sooooo slow. Now I am all for security, but she was insane. She looked at each bag for sooo long. She made us take out ALL of our PACKAGED snacks (think little bags of cookies, granola bars, etc.) No liquids, etc. We had to take them out and they tested them. Our bag of toys for the kids (think coloring books, puzzles, and playdoh), they totally tore it up looking for some mystery metal she was CERTAIN was in there. Um… there is NO metal in there. Even after going through it, they put everything in separate bins to go through the x-ray. Yeah – NO FREAKING METAL! We take that same bag, with the same stuff through TSA several times per year – NEVER had an issue. The lady was crazy. They sent my husband’s backpack through twice. The other TSA agents were getting annoyed with her. It wasn’t just us – they did it to the people behind us too! Kid #5 started to take his pants and shoes off from boredom… My husband said he was protesting. It was INSANE (TSA on the way there was super FAST and easy – with the same bags… sigh)
FINALLY through TSA and right onto our plane. It was fairly full already. We were not the last on, but close to it.
We got home pretty late, but we got home. However, if we were to get stuck somewhere due to a computer outage, Hawaii would be my choice!! 🙂
