Family Fotos

Wem, Lucas, Max & Sara

Montes Claros Airport

Sara, Wem, Lucas, Ron, Max, & Carol

As we were starting our "memorable" but not good journey back to Missouri.

The GOL flight to Confins Airport in Belo Horizonte went nicely, but the rest of the trip was how NOT to travel.

American Air flight from Belo to Miami was scheduled at 9:50pm but was delayed until 1:50am the next morning.  It finally got in the air and we got some sleep between dinner and breakfast.  The walk from the D gate to Customs was VERY LONG!!  They claim they are improving the airport but the distances are almost as bad as Atlanta. We knew we had an early afternoon flight which normally would have required us to be in Miami from 6am to 2:50 pm.  The "late" landing time of 9:15am did not bother us, but MANY people missed their connections.  We found a Dunkin Donuts and had coffee and donut and fiddle around until noon all the while checking for our flight to be posted on the Departures board (didn't happen) and then went looking for our gate (not indicated on ticket).  American has the entire D concourse and 3 security checkpoints to relieve some of the congestion.  We checked with a lady who had a list of the gates and she told us D24.  After we cleared the middle security set up I checked the Departures monitor where our flight was finally listed and it was CANCELLED!!  Panic ensued and I directed to a customer service desk with 2 beleagured employees trying to calm down the CANCELLED passengers.  Long story, short version: we got put on an 8:30 flight which was scheduled to get into STL at 10:35.  During the evening wait, AA changed the gate twice and rescheduled departure time 3 times!!  Eric got us a Courtyard room near the airport which had limo service.  Flight gets in after 11pm and limo service stopped at 10:30pm!!  $26 cab ride and we finally got to a bed.  Sis drove up the next morn and picked us up and we finally made it to the lake about 2pm Friday.  Should have been home about 8pm Thursday.  I'm working on a "reimbursement" letter to AA for the hotel room and cab ride.  Supervisor at Miami said policy would not authorize because they got us to our destination!!  I asked about the policy if the flight was delayed until 3am the next morning.  SAME ANSWER!!  We got you to your destination!!  I will also ask for $100 refund for each ticket, because they cancelled our flight.  When we cancelled due to visa problems, they charged $100 per trip ($400 total plus a $88 fare increase) to reschedule