January 9-11, 2024
“This weighs a ton, travel’s a curse, but here we try to lighten your purse”
Thenardier, the Master of the House
“I am really sorry about yesterday’s mess. Everything should be fine now”
Overhead announcement from the Captain before the flight shortly before we experienced another delay
It has been an ignoble beginning.
It is fair to say we are experienced travelers now. We plan carefully, pack light , and over and over again we review our kit to make sure it is streamlined and efficient. Like most people we have heard tales of nightmare travel stories but to date we have mostly avoided them.
It was our turn. The travel Djinni felt it was time for our personal travel jihad.
It started on Tuesday with a typical cold , grey Indiana sky. It seemed to be a good time to get out of town with the frigid weather approaching. We were flying south to the summer sun. We felt protected.
Then it began.
Our flight was delayed over 2 hours. This simple act set in motion the chain of events that would follow. We had a three hour layover in Miami to catch our connecting flight so we felt we still might make it in time. It was a red eye flight to Buenos Aires.
As we cruised over the Florida panhandle we received the announcement that close to the time to descend to the airport, a major storm had wrecked havoc on flights in Miami. Still we landed safely and proceeded to the gate.
We had carry on luggage, were seated in the front of the plane, our connecting flight was not scheduled to leave for 25 minutes and we were in the same terminal. “We can still get this done, “ we thought.
Then, just short of the gate, the plane stopped.
The Captain came on and announced that there were some 45 planes ahead of us to get to a gate and we are going to have to wait. The Djinni from outside the aircraft tapped on our window and with a grin pointed at an aircraft. It was our plane that we needed to catch.
We watched as our flight south was pulled away from the gate and taxied away into the gloom of night with a tail light blinking in laughter. It was another 45 minutes before we could reach the gate.
We tried to be in good spirits. These things happen. We will reschedule a flight for the next day. We had flexibility in our schedule. No big deal. We deplaned and felt a little disoriented. Miami is a very large airport and it took a few minutes to get our bearings. We were fortunate in we had not checked any bags.
So we proceeded to try to find the airline service desk. After a long walk we noticed an enormous line. Initially we dismissed it not knowing what that was about. Slowly, we realized that was the line to the customer service desk. And it was no ordinary line, It extended 1/2 the length of the entire terminal, a distance of approximately 1/3 of a mile! It also was moving at a glacier place. Dozens and dozens of flights all failed or were canceled at the same time. Everyone of these hundreds of people had an individual itinerary to sort out. This tangled mess was going to take hours to sort out. And it was midnight with every local hotel booked. We saw people settling down to sleep in the airport everywhere.
Colleen swiftly got on line and tried to contact American Airlines directly. No luck. All circuits busy. But she did manage to secure a hotel room. Or so we thought.
Finally, after several hours we managed to book a flight for the next day we made it to our hotel just after 3:30am. Here we were told we did not have a room after all but after around an hour of confusion we were able to secure the room we actually booked and collapsed into bed. Our next flight was not due to leave until 11:15pm that day so we spent the day resting.
The time arrived to return to the airport and we met the transfer bus and proceeded to the gate. We settled down and waited around 30 minutes, Everyone’s phone at the gate alerted at the same time. The text read that the flight was abruptly cancelled and you would need to reschedule to the next day! Colleen left me with bags and took off running to the customer service desk, determined not to be in the back of that line again. After another 2 hours we returned crestfallen to the lame hotel. They had not sold our room yet. The Djinni offered to clean things up but we declined.
Rinse and repeat. The next morning we returned for our third attempt to escape Miami.
I must say, during this trial, we were consistently met with helpful kindness by staff people. Almost uniformly they were immigrants. Despite having language barriers, people were unfailingly helpful. This was the bright spot of this entire ordeal.
Skeptically, we boarded the plane figuring any minute the Djinni would pull the carpet out from under us. We settled into our seats nervously. They closed the outer door.
The captain announced we were leaving and apologized. for all the craziness. Then he said this, “Everything is going to be all right now. We are on our way!”
We taxied out to the runway. It was raining out side hard. Drops were spraying the windows. Despite being 9:15 in the morning at was rather dark and overcast.
Then we stopped again.
The captain came on again, “Ladies and gentlemen we have another delay. There are a number of airplanes in front of us so our departure is postponed”. You could actually hear the djinni laughing in the galley.
After 40 minutes or so we at last lifted off.
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