The weekend I arrived in Chicago to be at my nephew's wedding, there was no one left in the Air Canada baggage area 30 minutes after the flight had arrived, which was actually 60 minutes after the scheduled arrival and my sister, Maria, who was supposed to pick me up was no where to be found. So I went to the Air Canada desk upstairs to ask for her to be paged and asked about a possible free shuttle to the hotel. The disninterested Air Canada agent agreed to page Maria and advised me I could check about shuttles at the Bus and Shuttle Terminal across from the entrance to the Airport Hilton Hotel, which was downstairs, through some tunnels, etc. I then asked about US currency. The ONLY currency desk at O'Hare is in Terminal 5 BEHIND security. Air Canada flights arrive in Terminal 3. Since that was a great distance from Terminal 3, I elected not to go that route.
I went back to the Air Canada baggage area and assumed Maria was paged since I couldn't tell with all the other background noise. All announcements I heard were garbled and unintelligible. After about 15 minutes more I decided that something must have happened and I should try to call Maria. So how can you call from a pay phone in a US airport without US currency? Well to avoid exorbitant credit card charges, you need to get some US currency. So I went to the only ATM in the baggage area, one of those generic machines that charge you exorbitant service fees. I hate these machines. This one used a card reader that apparently is quite common now in USA ATM machines. You insert, then remove your card and then do your transaction. I guess too many people were losing or forgetting their cards in the ATM's. Anyway despite repeated tries this machine could not read my card and I gave up. I decided to head over to the Bus and Shuttle Terminal to see if I could get a free shuttle, eliminating the need for US cash.
At the Terminal, there was another ATM. This one read my card and I was able to process a request for cash withdrawal, but the system never asked me what account to draw the funds from. It simply went ahead and came back with an "insufficient funds" message. I keep very little cash in my chequing account and most in my savings account, so if it defaulted to the first account then that is the only message that would come back. Did I mention I hate these generic ATM's?
So I approached the agent at the counter who was selling tickets and directing passengers to the various buses and shuttles. When I got my turn I explained my situation and asked about a free shuttle to the Hampton Inn in Deer Park. He said there was none, but then I showed home the invite which included the message about a free shuttle service, so he offered to call the hotel for me to check it out. It turns out they have a shuttle bus only to bring guests to stores, restaurants and weddings, etc. within a 5 mile radius of the hotel. The airport is about 23 miles from this hotel He then suggested I check out American Taxi who offered fixed rates and a discounted taxi service that he said would cost me 50% of what a metered taxi would cost to Deer Park.
As I walked over to where the phones were, I thought that maybe I could get him to call Maria to find out where she was, so I turned back. Again he was very accommodating and not only called her, but handed the phone to me when it was ringing. The first of Maria's numbers was disconnected and the 2nd rang through to a fax line. I searched for my nephew Ben's phone number, but didn't have it either. I tried signing up on the Airport's free Wi-Fi service so I could send an e-mail or text message. Apparently in the USA free Wi-Fi service means you can get the initial web page for free - every other use requires a paid subscription, unlike Canadian airports like Ottawa and Toronto where FREE Wi-Fi services is totally FREE! So I concluded I couldn't call, email or text Maria - I'd just have to hire the taxi. I mean how expensive could it be?
So I called American Taxi and asked for a quote. Their computer was down, so the dispatcher suggested he could send the driver who had a fare book in the taxi and he could tell me the cost. (So the dispatchers don't have copies of this fare book?) When he finally did arrive, he pulled out his book and told me he couldn't read the fares, so he asked me to tell him what it said. (Omigod! They sent me a BLIND taxi driver??!!) I originally read the wrong line and said $50, but then corrected myself with the correct $68 fare. What could I do? I guess if I'd thought about it, a rental car might have been cheaper, but driving on unfamiliar Chicago freeways would be harrowing and nerve-racking.
So after stowing my bag in the trunk I climbed into the back seat and we set off for the hotel. The driver appeared to see where he was going, so I assume he was maybe just far-sighted. But to ask if I would recommend the driver or the company, I would emphatically say NO! He constantly talked on the cell phone as well as texting and making call after call speaking in a foreign language, writing notes in a workbook and looking up numbers in the same workbook, all the while driving at the 55 MPH speed limit on the freeways leading to the hotel. At one point he even had TWO cell phones going when a call came in on a second phone. His ring tone, which someone obviously thought was funny for a cab driver, was first a loud whistle sound and then the shout "Hey Taxi!". It sounded like someone was trying to hail a cab as we were speeding down the freeway. After hearing this about 5 times, he finally picked up the call after putting the first caller on his other phone on hold.
We finally made it to the hotel in one piece. He then confirmed the total fare would be $68 + $6 airport tax, and how much was that? So now I had a taxi driver who couldn't add??!! I advised him that was $74 and handed him my credit card. He laid the card on a flat binder, then positioned a paper Credit Card draft on top of the card and then began applying pressure from the side of a pen moving it back and forth over the draft as if he were doing a rubbing at some ancient archaeological site to get an image of the raised characters on the credit card voucher. When that was done, he speed-dialed the credit card company on his cell phone and then entered the information, including my credit card number and expiry date on the cell phone keypad. Well something didn't work and he asked for my card back again. Having misgivings about the whole process, I suggested we go into the hotel to see if we could make an arrangement to have the hotel pay my cab and add it to my bill.
Well I should have known better. The hotel couldn't or wouldn't advance to funds to pay the cab. Nor could they change my Canadian money to US currency, give me an advance on my credit card or debit card or do anything else for that matter. But they did have a generic ATM machine in the Business Centre that I could withdraw cash from. Oh yeah, I've heard that before.
This ATM was a little more promising. It actually asked me what account I wanted to draw the money from. But having been twice bitten by these cheap knockoffs at the airport, I decided to play it safe and ask for the balance in my savings account before actually asking for the money. The machine worked flawlessly confirming I had enough money in that account to buy out the hotel for one night, even though it took almost 5 minutes to confirm the information. Okay, so now I proceeded to complete the withdrawal request. After 5 minutes of waiting again, the ATM came back with COMMUNICATION ERROR, and no money.
In frustration I went back to the front desk and the waiting cab driver and explained what had happened, and again implored the clerk to help. He brought out the Hotel Manager who finally decided to advance me a $100 bill, which was all the cash they had in the till at that time, to give to the driver. Would you be surprised to learn the cab driver only had a $20 bill change? Since I had made him wait and his boss was now calling his cell phone to ask where he was, I relented and accepted the $20 change and let him go. That's how the $68 cab fare ended up costing $80.
But this is not quite the end of the story. The hotel manager insisted I immediately go to the Chase bank to get cash to reimburse them. They would even use the hotel's shuttle and wait for me to bring back the cash, as if I needed an armed escort for such a large sum of money. It's nice to know there is such a high level of trust between the valuable hotel guest and the hotel management. After the shuttle driver managed to get the barely functioning, recently- repaired van in gear, we were off and a few minutes later I was explaining my story to the clerk at the information desk of the Chase bank. She wasn't sure what to suggest but then mentioned I could always try their ATM. I hadn't seen it coming in since it was in a separate part of the building with its own entrance around the side. A young clerk who had overheard offered to take me there, and we had a pleasant conversation about his 3-year old son as I attempted to navigate past the initial screens which offered me 14 languages before I started, then numerous options where I mis-selected a few before I finally got it right. In 3 seconds my money was delivered and 30 seconds later I was shaking the young man's hand and climbing back into the temperamental shuttle van heading back to the hotel. I handed the $80 back to the obviously relieved clerk (he had kept the original $20 change the cab driver had given me as collateral) and then headed up to my room for the first time. The clerk also advised me that Maria had called and she would be there shortly.
When I got to the room, there was a message from Ben wondering where I was AND included in the message were his and Maria's new phone numbers.
By comparison, the rest of the day was quiet except for the laughter from people to whom I told my story to. I managed to do some shopping with Maria and Tricia and her two kids Hope and Buzz. At the Apple store I bought Bluetooth stereo headphones which will allow me to connect to my iPhone and iPad without any wires (very cool!) and then we went to Target to replace the shaving cream and moisturizer I had been forced to donate to the security staff at the Pearson International Airport.
This was my first visit to Target. Until this year, there were no Target stores in Canada, but they are coming to Canada in a big way. Target has bought 189 locations of the defunct Canadian Zellers store chain (owned by TheBay) and are making a big push north. After seeing the prices, I would say Canadian retailers are in for a big shock, and Canadians are in for some big savings. I bought a pair of men's leather dress shows for $29.99 which would easily have cosy $70 to $80 in a Canadian shoe store.
Last night was the rehearsal dinner held at a local Italian Restaurant where I got to see Ben and Christine (the Weds to be) and the rest of Maria's family including her other sons Tim and Geoy. And it was great to connect again with Tricia's husband, Tim - we had some great dinner conversation. George, Maria's ex-husband was also there with his daughter Penny. Except for George, they have all changed so much I would never have recognized them. It was a great meal but having not slept more than two hours since Wednesday night, I agreed to let Tricia drop me off at the hotel on their way home and crashed about 9:30pm.
THIS will be a trip I remember for a long time to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment