Part III

Now that we had a confirmed flight on NW, we needed to check-in with them. We walked across the terminal to the NW counter and surprise, found it empty! I was really starting to get a complex! After sending the children off to find me a soda, I was starting to feel a little wishy-washy, I waited at the desk for someone to appear. It seemed like I stood there for a long time, when finally an older man appeared and told me they would not be opening the desk until around 1 pm. Ugh! It just kept getting better and better! In my mind, everything would be okay as long as I could just get checked in and assigned seats on our flight! I know not very realistic.

About 1:15, the same man I spoke with earlier opened the desk and said he was ready for us. I handed him our confirmation number, he punched it in and looked quite puzzled. I wasn't feeling too optimistic once again. He asked if I had the coupons from United to issue our new tickets. I said, no, all the guy told me I would need was this number. He told me I would have to go back to the United counter and ask for the coupons. We collected our luggage and headed back across the terminal once again.

When we arrived at United, there were 9 people in line waiting to check-in. They were still handling Chicago check-ins for later in the day, and they were not moving very fast. There were a number of attendants working the desk, but none of them were the guy I had spoken too. Again, not feeling too good! I called Tom to let him know what was going on and the line moved along fairly well. Once the majority of the line had been checked in and I had moved up in line, I noticed the guy from earlier standing against a back wall. I politely cut the line and walked over to him. I asked if he remembered me and he said yes. Phew, that was something positive! I told him about needing the coupons and he went right to a computer and printed them right up for me. Once we had the required coupons, we gathered our stuff and headed off across the terminal for the last time!

We arrived at the NW counter and finally were able to check-in! We were given the last 3 seats and so thankful, even though we would not be sitting together. Happy to have boarding passes in hand, we took the escalator up to the second floor to find something to eat. Thankfully there was a Sbarro and we were able to get some lunch! While we were eating, we heard them call for boarding of our original flight, it was 1:45. A full hour and five minutes after our scheduled departure and forty-five minutes before the rescheduled departure. We would NOT have made our connecting flights! We were so thankful we were not going to be stranded in Chicago.