On Sunday December 31st we got up before 6 AM and got to the airport about 7 AM. Our first flight of the day was NWA158 to Minneapolis / St. Paul and was supposed to leave 9:00 AM. It actually left at 9:24 AM and even with leaving late it arrived at 2:05 PM which almost 15 minutes early. This flight was actually the only "normal" and good flight of the trip, which isn't really saying much I am afraid.
Our second flight was Minneapolis St. Paul to Detroit. The second flight of the day was NWA758. When we landed it was already flurrying, this concerned us. We looked at the departure board and everything looked ok initially the flight was still on schedule to leave at 5:00 PM. We went to go get something to eat while we waited for the next flight. In the meantime the snow started to get harder and harder. Also the incoming flight that was to be our plane was delayed almost an hour. We had originally allowed ourselves almost 2 hours in Detroit to make the connection. Each delay made it a closer call. We finally boarded the plan about 5:30 PM. At this point because of the snow we sat on the tarmac for close to two hours. We had to be de-iced and then had to wait for the planes in front of us in line. We took off at 7:08 PM, and finally landed and got of the plane at about 9:45 PM.
The problem with getting of the plane at 9:45 PM was that our final flight of the day NWA973 actually left on time without us. This of course meant we were stranded in Detroit thanks to Northwest. After getting of the plane we got in line with all the other stranded passengers to see what happens next. We were given a voucher for a reduced hotel rate, not free and no food vouchers. We were also told we could request our bags in baggage claim however the wait was 2-6 hours. That was not good since our final flight was only 10 hours away at 8 AM the next morning. After collecting ourselves I called and made a reservation at the Airport Days Inn in Romulus, MI.
We headed over to baggage claim and ground transportation. We called the hotel to get the bus to come. They said it had already been there and would be back in 20 minutes. We got on along with many other stranded passengers, by the time we left the airport the bus was full. Luckily we were in the front seat and were able to be first in line in getting our room. We went to the room and dropped of our stuff. Amazingly the motel had a bar that was still open and serving food. We got something to eat and went back to the room. The room was a little cold due to a malfunctioning heater. They moved us to a room with a working heater. We watched the ball drop in our luxury room and went to bed.
We got up about 6 AM the next day. We couldn't clean up much due to not having clothes or much in the way of toiletries. We headed over to the airport to get to our gate. Since we had no bags and had checked in the night before we just walked to the gate. Our new flight to Pittsburgh, PA was NWA965 and was scheduled to leave at 8:10 AM. It left a few minutes late but landed on time. My parents picked us up at the airport and drove us to their house. We had some lunch, packed the car and left a little after noon. We finally made it back to my house about 5 PM.
It was a long 10.5 days. Lots of fun and a little bit of stress. Maybe the next time squeezing all this in might be reconsidered.
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