Initially appeared on vox.com on 5/3/2009.
In the end, the cheapest deal was far more expensive than i was willing to pay.
We booked the itinerary on expedia.com way in advance - roughly sixty days ago. Although we had previously decided that the convenience of flying out of Grand Rapids was worth the dollar difference of flying out from Chicago, in that particular circumstance we decided that getting cheaper plane tickets was definitely worth the hassle (i forget the exact amount, but it was at least $400 and at most $700 - multiplied by three!). No sweat - drive to Chicago, fly out of ORD, get to LAX two hours before the connecting flight leaves, get on the 14-hour flight to Taipei, and Manila would just be four more hours away.
Unfortunately the American Airlines flight from ORD arrived late and left late - two hours late to be exact. We got into LAX at 0100 with the connection scheduled to leave at 0115. Hoping against hope, we quickly went over to the China Airlines counter (which, incidentally, was in another terminal around a quarter-mile away) but were too late. The two-hour delay had cost us our outbound flight... and the next available flight with guaranteed seats was forty-eight hours away.
At that point i was too tired to be irate (try driving to Chicago from Grand Rapids then flying across the country with a bored two-year-old and you'll know what i mean) but was determined to make the best of the situation. Without going through the details, we bounced back and forth between China Airlines, Expedia, and American Airlines, and had to wait two hours in a deserted Terminal for the ticketing counter to open before we made any headway, but in the end American Airlines (who was responsible for the debacle in the first place) booked us a two-night-stay at the local La Quinta Inn (they called up the Hilton right in front of me - no vacancies, although for all i know they could have been talking to a dial tone on the other end).
(As an interesting aside - the China Airlines people were exceedingly helpful while American Airlines was the exact opposite. With the way my mind works, it's hard not to make macroeconomic generalizations from this, but i digress.)
While Gianina calls it an "accidental vacation," i view it as just an extended layover. We went around LA for two days, saw the Kodak Theatre, walked down the Walk of Fame, tried a $4 hotdog, drove through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, and took pictures of the Hollywood Sign. For a moment we considered visiting Universal Studios or Disneyland but decided against it - Adrian will appreciate the experience most when he's not just concerned with running around at top speed and trying to break every expensive piece of gadgetry we carry around with us.
So my second visit to LA was at least as memorable but slightly less horrible than the first (someday soon i'll talk about the first visit). It wasn't a total loss, but i'm not quite certain that dropping our Philippines stay from 21 days to 19 was worth the money we saved plus two hotel vouchers. I'm sure El Cheapo will find a way to rationalize this a few weeks down the road, but another part of me would have gladly paid the extra money to get those two days back.
Forty-eight hours after our missed flight, we were eventually able to make it on an airplane bound for Taipei, which - in contrast to everything that had come immediately before - was quite the pleasant surprise.
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