Friday had been a long day but we had a blast. After a nice dinner, we turned in early so we could catch our 8 AM flight. But just as we retired, we got a phone call from American Eagle: Our flight was cancelled.
Cancelled! Aaarrghh! They said we could call the American Eagle desk at 9 AM and see about getting on the next flight, but the Concierge suggested heading out to the airport to talk to the Airline staff directly. We weren't sure, but by sitting at the airport we were sure to catch the first possible flight.
We made it to the airport nice and early, returned the rental junk, and settled down for a long wait. About four hours, if I recall correctly. But eventually they got us on the next available flight to San Juan, with a connecting flight (the last one) to Dallas, then connecting to Austin.
And the plane arrived an hour late. So we made it to San Juan just fine, but we'd missed the last American Airlines flight to Dallas.
American cross-booked us onto Continental, who had a flight to Houston that would eventually end up in Austin. So far so good. We had to hustle to the Continental desk to get boarding passes, and after considerable frustration with the "USDA Inspection", we had our boarding passes and hurried to the gate so we could get some food before the flight.
And it was there, eating really crummy pastries and drinking soda, that we discovered Continental had booked us from San Juan to Houston, and then from Dallas to Austin! I went to the local gate agent, who apologized nicely and rebooked us through Houston - we were concerned about our checked baggage, but at least we would be getting home.
And about a half hour later, we were called back to the gate agent desk. As a thank-you they gave us a free upgrade to First Class!! So Continental ended up giving us a really nice bonus on the longest leg of our trip - thanks guys!
And it almost made-up for the fact that our baggage never got rebooked - it
spent the night in Houston. But it was delivered by 11 AM the next morning, so
all in all things ended on a good note! Good-bye Bonaire, but we'll be back!