In the annals for travel, today wasn’t the worst day or even close, but it did have some moments.
I arrived at the airport in plenty of time for my flight. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to board, they canceled the flight due to maintenance issues. I was bummed and frustrated, but it took me about a second to get over it. First, that wasn’t going to help. Second, I’d much rather they cancel a flight over maintenance than push it and kill everyone on board.
They asked everyone to go to the counter to rebook. That meant about 180 people lined up with one guy behind the counter. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. I called my wife and asked her to check on flights (it’s a lot easier on a desktop computer than a phone). No more flights on that airline today or tomorrow.
However, there was another flight on another airline at another airport. While my wife got the ticket, I grabbed an Uber. Halfway there she told me she couldn’t book the ticket, so I asked the Uber driver to take me home. Halfway through again, I was able to book a ticket (same flight my wife couldn’t and on a phone, yeah me). Once again, I asked the Uber driver to change destinations and made it to the gate with 10 minutes to spare.
I kept thinking something was wrong with my new ticket given my wife couldn’t book it. I even asked the gate attendant to double-check my boarding pass. I think he thought I was special needs. “Yeah, that’s a boarding ticket, sir.”
Anyway, long story short, I made it to vacation on time and, while it did cost a wee bit more, it was worth it.
I really feel bad for a lot of the people at the first airport. No other flights to this town and a lot of them were families traveling for spring break. Not easy to get five standby tickets, plus there were multiple families. The one that hurts is a young couple (mid-20s) with five kids under 7 or so. Ouch.
So, in the end, could’ve been a LOT worse.
A reminder that sometimes things go your way.