A Different Kind of American Travel Ordeal

Turns out my family's flight yesterday went from bad to worse. Not only did they get diverted to Detroit, but they weren't allowed out of the aircraft because most of the passengers were booked to get off in Chicago. On the face of it that was a fair call but frustrating nevertheless. After a couple hours just sitting inside the aircraft in Detroit, the flight took-off for Chicago, but they still didn't get clearance so they just circled around in the sky and even headed back to Detroit, when the clearance to land in Chicago finally came. This was like five hours after they were supposed to have landed in Chicago, and now they don't get a flight to Detroit till after 1pm local time this afternoon. It's thrown a spanner into the works and leaves less than a day to meet my mum's best friend (and her family). They're on the move again each day of the next week. It's the first time since 9/11 that all flights at O'Hare were grounded. Even the controllers were evacuated from the air-traffic tower for a brief period due to the tornado threat.