Back from Rome by way of Atlanta on Wedesday

[vivian02]

Our flights to Rome and back were uneventful until we touched down in Atlanta last night. I am writing this because of the traveling the wife and I have done going to Europe at least 7 times over the last six years.

In May of 2007 we arrive in Newark with a 5 hour window from Rome and made it back to Albuquerque an hour behind schedule but acturally made it after a heavy heavy air traffic issue that hit Newark late in the day. From that experience we decided to avoid the NE heavy traffic schedule and got flights through Atlanta with a three hour buffer coming and going. Because of the late evening flight cancelations our three hour buffer went down to and hour and fourty five minutes. Just had enough time to get through customs and fly home....Right! A week later that disappeared and we were stuck with 40 minutes window. I know for a fact that I had a better chance of making my flight with a transer at CDG instead of ATL. The airlines believe it or not were great. I requested our flight to be changed to returning to Albuquerque on the 27th instead of the 26th with a confirmed reservation. There was no change for the change. Sure I know I would have had to spend alittle extra cash for a hotel room on the 26 however I got a really good deal on Priceline. A four star for $71 at the Airport. Just think no stress trying to make a 40 minute window on a oversea flight. Instead there would be delex bed and hot tub waiting for us.

OK our flight out of Rome was alittle whacky since the cruise ship made us take an early transfer off the ship.... 6:40 AM to be exact. Our flight didn't leave until 12:45 PM. We arrived at the new Terminal 5 at 8:00 AM. We we had to wait about an hour for the Airlines to open up for our Flight 77. Look again... the earlier flight out was still being processed? Gee if I would have booked that flight I could have made the 9:45 AM flight. Wrong...there are three or four processes you have to go through to get to the departing gate. I was correct with taking the 12:45 PM flight. By the time we got processed it was 10:30 AM so we had around an hour and forty five minutes before bording the aircraft. The weather was fantastic....hot, crowded and expersive but we had a great time (12 day cruise). We flew over Nice, France and you could see the airport no big deal but futher inland I could see St Paul de Venice. Approaching Canada the clouds picked up and I did remember hearing there might be some rain shows in Atlanta. As we approached Atlanta the weather got pretty dark but stable. The pilot touched down and came on the speaker and announce there were apparently some issues going on. There were no ope gates available for our plane? My wife made a cell phone call to our son who said there was a computer glich in the FAA computer system. If you could only see the look in the other passengers eyes you could read there minds. The guy behind us knew right away what was going to happen...."Its going to be along night in Atlanta". It was now 5:45 PM and we were parked out on the run way with the Engines shut down. I immediately told the wife "We have a booked Hotel". We acturally got to the Hotel at 8:30 PM. Just think it was a 10 hour flight with an extra 1 and a half hours on the plane until we could get to the gate. Our bodies were telling out it was 2:30 AM Rome time so you know how it felt to get in that hot tub at the hotel. Yes, yes, yes....I once again pulled off a maracle. We didn't get stuck at the airport and had a nice bed waiting for us. This morning I saw people still decked out sleeping at the airport and I really did feel sorry for them. Now they would have to be put on standby and hope they could make it home for the night.

When making that Europe connection next year plan ahead. Know what can go wrong and prepare for it. Save by the skin of my teeth once again. Tim and Cathy

[wrp96]

See...aren't you glad you had that hotel booked?:D

 

 

Glad things worked out for you and thank you for the details. They are helpful when people come along later and ask the "Can I make this 10:00 flight, oh and is my 30 minute connection too short?":p

[vivian02]

WRP,

Here is some more advice for those planning for next year. This is Meditterean Cruise number 4 and this is the first time I took the risk flying in on the day of the cruise. The flight got into Rome an hour early. 10:30 AM instead of 11:20 AM. It took the ground crew in Rome over an hour to get the luggage to the luggage pick up area. Remember this was Rome in August. We took the train to the port and I really heard about it from the wife. Once again this is Rome in August and she did not get any sleep flying over. I do give the wife alot of credit for pointing out to fellow cruisers that you really do see things in a different perspective without a night's sleep. I think her words were something like this: WAY ARE WE DOING THIS!

 

Answer: You have to do like the Italians. Later sleepers and no air conditioning.

 

By the way. The flight was not a full flight. I would put it at 85% full. I saw 95% full in May of 2007.