Beijing had record snowfall and cold weather right before we flew home. We thought we would miss the chaos but we didn't.....! We flew from Thailand to Qingdao on Jan. 4th and picked up our luggage from the BYU teachers. We went shopping and picked a few last minute things. Our first flight the next day, Jan 5th. was canceled and so they rescheduled us to a later flight which made us miss our flight from Beijing to the USA. :( We probably would have missed our flight from San Fran to Colorado anyways but it all worked out! We probably wouldn't have missed that flight if our luggage hadn't taken forever!! But because we did miss it 13 other people who had been stranded because of the storms were able to get on that flight. We were at the airport from noon until about 8 that night just hanging out. We tried to catch the later flight that day to Chicago but no one was able to get on that flight. It was kind of a joke getting things done. They were super strict about having ONE carry on. Adam and I both had "purses" that were stuffed and our carry ons were packed AND our luggage was weighing in at 50 pounds. So we were kinda like great we will just pay for an extra bag and as we were about to pay $250 when we heard that you can check 5 bags for free. They didn't give us any options... it was kinda ridiculous. There were people that had been there for a few days and that airline only had two flights a day to the USA- San Fran and Chicago. Our first flight airline compensated us with a hotel that night and dinner(way better than sleeping at the airport like we were planning). We woke up bright and early at 6:30a.m. to catch the bus and get to the airport to stand in line for the stand bye tickets. The counter didn't open until 8:30a.m. but we wanted to make sure our name was on top of that list. There were two other people on that same bus so Adam got all our luggage(I don't even know how he did it) and I booked it to the counter to wait. There was a couple already there that had been there three nights that had slept at the airport. Luckily they got on the list for Chicago. We got on the list for San Fran. and there was a family of four that bought $1,000 tickets because had to be back. It was frustrating because the airline didn't give us any options. They couldn't guarantee us a seat on stand bye but we could pay more money for a seat...not a better seat, just a seat. I talked to the counter for a while because I couldn't understand how they could tell us the flight is full but if you pay more money they could guarantee us a seat. Needless to say Adam and I were very blessed and we were the only ones who made it on the flight to San Fran. and we were able to be on the plane with our good friends that teach in Qingdao through BYU. We were very happy to make it back home! We had a great time in China but we love the USA!
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