We went back to the gate to try the last flight of the day, another Atlanta flight at 1:50. By now the gate attendants all knew us and were saying "you guys again?" (in a friendly way). At about 1:35 the plane was loaded and our name was called. I went to the counter and the attendant asks "did you get the tennis shoe problem resolved?". Turns out they had 4 seats for us in Business Elite but would not allow us on the plane with those non-conformant shoes. I begged, pleaded, and told her we did everything we could. Not good enough... the Germans culture is to follow rules to the letter and they even printed out the dress code and showed us. I explained they would be taking them off as soon as we got on the plane and would be wearing the foot warmer socks (gotta love first class) just like everyone else. Still no go. I told her Ryan had flown Business Elite 3 times this year with the exact same pair of shoes on and no one ever said anything. Still no go. *** She really did want us to go but just could not bend the rules. She suggested one other store at the opposite end of the terminal we were in. I took off running (we were down to about 5 minutes before the gate closed). I get to the store, interrupt two clerks babbling in German, and ask if they have any shoes that would fit 9 and 12 year old boys. I think the only words they understood were "Shoes" and she pointed me to a counter that had some lovely pink clog type shoes with flowers painted on the toes. I figured those would be worse than what they had on already and took off back to the gate. *** When I got there, Gina said the attendant had gone out to consult with the flight crew to see if they would let us on. With about a minute left, she came out and said they would allow us on the flight. Whew... finally we were headed home.
We boarded the plane and 10 hours later arrived in Atlanta. *** Now we were at least back in the states... worse case I could drive us home from here! We listed on the 8:00 flight to Cincinnati and got called with about 8 seats left. We landed at 9:30 and my brother Kevin picked us up to take us home. All told it took 22.5 hours from when we left Mike and Amanda's house until we got back to our house... what a day!
