How many agents does it take to change your flight?

It's snowing. Not hard, but enough that it could be problematic. It looks pretty from my hotel room, but I know it's going to be cold outside. I'm glad that I brought my scarf, beanie and gloves. And I don't even want to think about what the bad weather's going to do to my flight home. Having flown in and out of O'Hare in bad weather before I know it's not a question of if it will be delayed, but by how much will it be delayed.

The air is really dry out here too. I can feel my the static electricity in my hair. And when you get under the sheets and/or move under the sheets, you get shocked by the static electricity. The craziest thing is that this morning, when I rolled over to turn off the alarm clock, I saw little green flashes whenever I felt the static shock. I've never seen static electricity before! It was actually kinda cool.

I was scheduled to fly from Chicago to San Jose via a connection in Denver. My first flight was scheduled to depart at 4:47 PM. My co-workers were on a direct flight to San Francisco that was scheduled to depart at 5:00 PM. The entire day we kept checking our devices for an email message from United about flight delays. Nothing. It wasn't until we were at the self service check-in kiosk that we received an email saying our flights were delayed.

My co-workers' flight was delayed until 7:00 PM, but they were able to get onto the 3:00 PM flight that was delayed until 5:00 PM. My flight was delayed until 6:30 PM, which meant I would've missed my connection in Denver. I had to see an agent at the ticket counter. Ugh. The agent switches my Denver connection to a later time, and I'm on my way through security. Since I've got time to kill, I stop at Starbucks for some tea.

At the gate, I find my co-workers who're waiting for their flight at a nearby gate. I get another email update saying my flight is now delayed until 7:30 PM. Are you serious? I'm going to miss the later connection in Denver. Experience tells me that my flight is probably going to be delayed even more than this. I do *not* want to spend the night in Denver (or Chicago for that matter) or get home around midnight or later.

One of my co-workers tells me that she'll give me a ride from SFO to my home, if I get on their flight. That was really nice of her because she lives in Menlo Park, which is about 20 minutes from our home. And she has a 3 year old daughter that probably misses her mommy. I told her that if I could get on the flight, it would be great if she could give me a ride from SFO to her house. Greg can pick me up there.

I walk to the counter, where *several* gate agents are standing around.

"Can I help you?" says Agent1

"Yes. My final destination is San Jose, but I have to connect through Denver. My Chicago to Denver flight is now delayed until 7:30 PM, which means I'm going to miss my connection. Is it possible to get onto this flight to San Francisco instead?"

"You have to talk to the agent over there by the jetway door."

"Okay."

I'm wondering why this agent can't help me, but I give her the benefit of the doubt and walk over the Agent2. Agent2 sees me and is trying to ignore me while he talks to another agent.

"Excuse me. They sent me over here to talk to you."

"Yes. How can I help you?"

I repeat my situation to Agent2.

"Hmm...well, I don't think I can do anything because you have a connection.

"Why not?"

"Well, your luggage is checked through to San Jose."

"I didn't check any bags."

"Well, I'd have to open your ticket up, which means you'd lose your seats on your existing flights. And we're not sure there's room on this flight. It'd be best if you wait until we start calling standbys."

"Okay, can you add my name to the standby list?"

"You just need to wait over there by the counter."

"Really? Don't you generally take the names of passengers for the standby list?"

"Just wait over there by the counter, ma'am." he says in a very dismissive tone and goes back to his conversation with the other agent.

I walk *back* over to the counter, and speak to a different agent, Agent3.

"Can I help you ma'am?"

"I hope so." I say and proceed to repeat my situation for the third time.

"Hmm...I'm not sure we can do that because you have a connection. I think you have to go to the customer service desk."

I walked by the customer service desk on my way to the gate and there as a loooong line. I *know* they can re-ticket me at the counter, but for some reason none of the gate agents I've spoken with so far seem to know this. Are they all in training or something?

"Really? There's nothing you can do?"

"I'm pretty sure because you have a connection, you need to go to the customer service desk. But let me double check with him." he says as he points to yet another agent holding a phone up to his ear with his shoulder while he types on the keyboard.

Agent3 proceeds to tell Agent4 my situation.

Agent4 confidently says, "You can just re-ticket her here." I'm doing the happy dance in my head and thanking God that this agent is here.

Agent3 looks perplexed and says, "You can?"

"Yes, like this."

He starts typing on the keyboard; stops and looks at me. Oh no...is he going to tell me there're no more seats available? Please no.

"There's only middle seats left. Is that okay?"

"That's fine. I just want to get on the flight."

"Okay. Here you go." he says as he hands me my new boarding pass.

Hallelujah! I'm good to go! Now all I needed was for the flight to take off! After a gate change, boarding (which seemed to take longer than usual) and de-icing the plane, we finally take off around 6:30 PM. Our estimated time of arrival: 8:06 PM Pacific (10:06 Central).

As Greg and I are driving back home, I found out that my original Chicago flight was delayed until 8:45 PM and that my Denver flight was delayed until 10:05 PM! If I had stayed on my original flight, I would've just taken off from Denver instead of being in the car headed home. Thank goodness I got on that flight. I'm so happy to be home.