The never ending day

The lady at the American Airlines counter was not happy with us, but she gave us our boarding passes for the flight to Miami, BUT not for the flight from Miami to Honduras. She said we would need to pick those up in Miami.

2 hours later we land in Miami and proceed to find our gate, but we have a 5 hour layover. We could not find a screen that told of our flight so we had to ask which one it was. Once we march all the way to the end of the airport, from D terminal to A terminal, we find there is no one at the gate.

Well, since we had 5 hours to kill we decided to head to get something to eat and watch the world cup. Well, the game went into double over time and then into penalty kicks. We dragged ourselves back to the gate at the end of the hallway to get our boarding passes. We still had about an hour and 20 min before boarding time.

We waited in line and THEN we we reached the front of the line we were told that the plane was over booked and our tickets had been given away.....WHAT?.

Yes, the counter guy at TACA airlines said that at an hour to boarding time, if you have not checked in your tickets are given away. Well, Judy went to work, I was put in time out over by the people mover.

See there is a saying about TACA airlines which goes something like this...T=take A=a C=chance A= airlines

After about 2 hours, alot of walking and being reassured our luggage will not be lost we leave Miami airport with vochers for 2 rooms at the Courtyard Marriot, 2 free meals, and a $200 TACA vocher. Oh and transportation to hotel in paid for.

At this point we are all tired and realize that we will need to wake up at 1:45 am to get to the airport at 3am for the 5am flight, so we order our food, take showers and go to bed....at 6pm. The boys on the other hand decide to go to the Fl marlins vs Boston game.

I feel asleep about 6ish but wake up around 830pm and cannot fall back asleep untill about 1130pm. Of course I packed underwear in my backpack but my plan to pack an extra pair of cloths fell through sat morning, so I had to put back on the cloths I wore the day before.

We make it to the airport on time and get our boarding passes, BUT when I asked about our luggage TACA responds with "American Airlines never transfered your luggage to TACA"
So I spent the next few min talking with AA and trying to figure out where I bags were. Well, here is another meaning for TACA, T=that A=aint C=coming A=amigo or "Take a carry on always"

American said we could not claim our bags untill we made it to Honduras and then we would have to claimthem with TACA....oh yeah right.

We made the lonely walk back to the end of A terminal to await our flight.