AA 1617
Flight | ORD
Chicago O'Hare |  | LAX
Los Angeles |  |
Economy
Class | 1,743
miles | | 4:25
Flying Time |
Three days in Chicago did not seem enough, yet it was time to go. Traffic in Chicago could be quite bad during peak hours, so we decided to head to airport a little earlier. It turned out that the traffic was smooth. We arrived at the car rental facility way earlier than estimated, and hopped on the shuttle bus to Terminal 3 where American Airlines operates out of. We asked the ticketing agent if we could catch the 6:55pm flight instead of our original 7:40pm flight. She said we could stand by at the gate and wished us good luck.
Flight AA1617 bound for Los Angeles would be leaving from Gate H11B at 6:55pm. The waiting lounge was small and claustrophobic. I decided to walk away for some fresh air. Starbucks was around the corner, so I got myself a frappucino and a gigantic blueberry muffin. Yum! When I returned, boarding was in progress and the standby list was being cleared. What I like about the U.S. carriers is they have a monitor at the gate that shows who are on standby, the priority and how many more seats are available on the flight. Altogether eleven passengers were on standby for this flight including us two. Our names were seen at the very bottom of the list indicating our priority was the lowest amongst all. In front of us were a family of four and two couples. The family and one of the couples were cleared. With three seats remaining, either the couple and one of us could get on, or none of them but us two. I could recall the agent paging for them for over five times and in our mind we were hoping they would not show up. Yay!! They could not be located and our names were called. Both of us got on despite being seated separately. Doors were closed right after we took our seats. I was in the window seat this time. Next to me was a daddy with a young kid and a lap baby. Oh my god.
Push back was on schedule. After what I thought was a normal stop on the taxiway to disconnect the tow bar, there was no further movement for some fifteen minutes and we found ourselves stranded on the taxiway. The Captain regrettably announced that the tow truck might have damaged the nose gear assembly during push back. He informed us that the mechanics were on their way to check on us and would advise us on the progress.
For another fifteen minutes, the mechanics had not arrived yet. The purser turned on the inflight entertainment system to keep passengers occupied with NBC programmes. I looked out the window and realized that all aircraft movements at the nearby gates stopped. Departing flights could not leave the gates; flights that just landed could not get to the gates simply because we blocked the taxiway! They must hate us so much!
here we were towed back to the gate. the 737-800 next to us was supposed to leave for miami at 7:10pm.
At about 7:45pm, mechanics arrived and found no damage. Captain informed us that we would be towed back to the gate so that the mechanics could sign off our flight. Papers were signed. Priority was given to the aircraft nearby to leave first and let the inbound flights taxi in. We were finally on our way at 8:10pm. Had we taken our original flight, we would have been airborne already! The night view of Chicago skyline never failed to impress me. It was gorgeous!
The gigantic muffin from Starbucks was very stomach-filling. I passed the snacks for purchase and just ordered a cranberry juice. I was served the whole can.
Something flashing outside the cabin caught my attention when we were over Las Vegas. I thought it was the flashing strobe on the wingtip. In fact it was the lightning striking and it literally lit up the sky! Rather impressive.
The remainder of the flight was uneventful. It was almost midnight when we touched down in LAX. The crew apologized for the delay once again and thanked everyone for choosing American Airlines.
