Home: The Story

Our private car arrived a few minutes early Saturday morning at our hotel to take us down to the airport. As it was Saturday just before 10, traffic was light, so we made good time. We got to Domodedovo (DomoDYE'dovo) Airport about 10:30. The ticket counter for American opened at 11:10. But, we were nearly first in line by the time they started setting up the area with the ribbons to cordon off lines and such. Finally, they opened at 11:20±. We checked in, one of the guys pulled us aside and said he'd give us our boarding passes (for Business Class) right away, so we could get through the Passport Control using the Business Class line, which should be much shorter. We never found that line. But, we had ample time, so 30-45 minutes or so, we passed through the processing, and our visas were stamped for exit. (They stamped them upon arrival, and upon departure effectively closing the loop.) Officially, we have now left the country using our "Single Entry" visa.

We found a few expensive places to eat, but chose one that was less shockingly pricey, and ate lightly, figuring we'd be soon boarding and being fed all the way back to Chicago. But, there was a delay. Of course the gate people could/would tell me almost nothing, but I gathered it was a maintenance delay. I couldn't find anyone to speak to, in order to see if I could be of assistance. After about an hour to an hour and a half, we began boarding. The flight attendant (F/A) told me it was a leak from the engine, but she didn't know if it was oil or fuel. We finished boarding, but still waited while "someone in London was trying to find a number". I asked when the crew went "illegal" (they have a limit on how many hours they can work, so if they can not get to their destination within that time, they can not depart). At that time, she said we had about 40 minutes.

We finished boarding and they closed the forward cargo door with a "KATHUNK!!!" (it was right below us). A moment later, the F/A came by to tell me they had a door light issue (when the cargo door is NOT closed and secure, they get a light on the Flight Deck to tell them they have a problem). Then the pilot came on and told us that there was a problem with the cargo door, and they couldn't leave with it as is. But, the gate was needed by another plane, so we were going to push off the gate to a hard stand (parking place) and they'd trouble shoot it then. FINALLY, it was resolved, and we were a go (uncomfortably close to the crew's illegal point).

A passenger in the back had consumed way too much alcohol. Based on the stories floating around the plane, he had drunk about 1/2 of a bottle of Jim Beam from the Duty Free store. Whether or not he drank it alone, or how big the bottle was, we don't know. But, he was passed out, and proceeded to vomit on himself in his sleep.(Charming!!) The passenger next to him was NOT pleased, and protested to the crew that he felt unsafe next to this guy so drunk, and was not sure how he would act when he awoke. The passenger wanted off the aircraft if the crew wasn't going to remove the "slosh". Well, for an international flight, they can't go with a passenger's bags without the passenger, so they'd have to pull off the bags, sort through to find this guy's, and then load the rest back up. Recall we are out of time? The police met the airplane, Sloshy was removed, and then the flight was cancelled. Ugg!!! It actually took about 30 minutes from when they cancelled the flight until they actually began letting us off the plane. We (Theresa and I, or at least just me?) were still in good spirits, figuring we'd find out what the plans were, and go from there. I asked the F/A (jokingly) if we could get our ice cream "to go" (we knew they would have ice cream sundaes for dessert). She took me more or less seriously, and was about to go get them. I didn't think we'd be on the plane long enough, and also suspected it would start a riot if people in Coach saw us eating ice cream, so I declined.

As we deplaned, we went through a special line for Immigration. They wrote down everyone's name (by hand) as we went through, and asked who's visas expired that day. AA was going to make every effort to get those people onto the British Airways flight to London that night. They'd be stuck in London, but at least not arrested and detained in Moscow tomorrow. Fortunately, we had gotten our visas set up for a couple days later than our planned departure, or we'd be in trouble. After we got through Immigration, it was pandemonium. All 200 passengers basically rushed the desk for AA with 3 people trying to help all of us with hotel, rebook, and what ever other assistance we might need. You can imagine, if they spent 3 minutes with each passenger, and there were 3 people working, it is going to take 200 minutes, or just over 3 hours. Well, the Russians aren't much for waiting, which is probably why they have little concept or respect for "lines". So, what started as a line of Business Class passengers quickly became a mob of loud, increasingly angry people. There were a few passengers who believed it was their role to yell at the agents and demand that there should be "200 people here to help" and such things. Interestingly, the person he was yelling at to get to "help us" would have been helping us if he were not being yelled at, but that irony we chose to keep to ourselves.

At one point, some people recognized the man who insisted Sloshy be removed, and they started calling out "That's the guy! That's the guy who made the flight get canceled." I seriously wondered if they were going to lynch him, and opted to give up my spot in line and step away from the fray.

We found out that AA canceled the inbound flight, so they would just take two days worth of people on Sunday. Oh boy... We realized this was NOT going to work out well, so we started looking at options. We figured out if we could get on the 7:05 Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, we could maybe catch the AA flight to DFW at 10:55. But, we had to buy the passes for LH from the AA ticket counter...and they were a tad busy. We also got a tip of a hotel that was only about $100, and was coincidently the same as the AA passengers were going. So, we found an ATM, got some money, got on an internet cafe, and made the reservation (and paid for it too). So, we waited until the crowd was nearly cleared, and got back into "line" to buy our passes on LH.

We caught the last bus to the hotel about 9-10PM. When we went to the desk to check in, the very nice, helpful woman informed us that our reservation was sent by email, and the reservations office was closed, so the hotel did not have our reservation yet. Additionally, since our visas were cancelled (because we "left" the country), she could not legally check us in anyway. So, she said she would have to check us in under "fake names" (I'm not kidding!!) and they would work it all out in the morning when the reservation office opened at 9. Uh, we aren't going to be here at 9!? But, she gave us room keys, and off we went.

We figured out the "restaurant" was on the 2nd floor after 10, so dropping our bags, we headed back down for a meal. It was set up as a buffet, with no one counting or taking names, so when we entered with a group announcing "American Airlines", they waved everyone through. Hey, we paid for our room, and the food bill wasn't incremental, so... Anyway, I did get my Beef Stroganof, which was fantastic!!

We got to bed about 11:30, and back up at 3:15, feeling as fresh a rinsed piece of wilted lettuce. Anyway, Lufthansa gave us seats, we got to Frankfurt without incident about 3 hours later. We checked in for the AA flight to DFW, and eventually got seats (First Class!). 11 hours later, we got off in the United States of America!! By 5PM, after 43 hours from the time we got up to start our journey, we were finally home!!