In my last post I described the wonderful visit Lexi and I had with friends in California over the October break. I left out the details of the long, eventful journey that eventually got us there. It was one of those days when seemingly everything went wrong.
When we arrived at the airport we were told our direct flight from London to San Francisco had been cancelled due to a problem with the aircraft. Hearing that, after all our preparations for the trip and the rush to get to the airport, was like a blow to the gut. The airline helped us find other flights leaving later that day. Naturally, none of them were direct flights so we had to choose between layovers in Washington DC, Los Angeles, or Vancouver. We went with the flight that would get us to San Francisco the earliest. Or so we thought!
We chose the flight to Vancouver with a 2-hour layover and then onward to San Francisco, arriving sometime just before midnight, only about 7 hours later than originally planned. It was a bummer, but we could deal with it since we'd still be getting there that same day. Or so we thought!
We drove to another terminal at the airport and arrived too early to check-in. No problem, we'll have lunch first to kill some time. Finally, the check-in desk opened. We confidently went up and presented our tickets printed out by the first airline. We may as well have handed them rubbish. We were not on the flight. Apparently the first airline did not wait for confirmation that we were on the flight before they printed off our tickets. Now we were told the flight was full. Another sinking feeling in the gut. We stood there a moment with blank faces not sure what to do. Just then, the phone at the desk rings and the clerk is told that two seats have just opened up. It was like a miracle. We're on the flight after all, great news! Or so we thought.
We are the first at the gate, it feels like forever until it is time to board, but finally we do. The plane is all loaded up and ready for takeoff. Or so we thought.
We sit and sit and sit and... there's a problem with two passengers traveling together on the plane. One of their boarding passes does not match up with the name on their passport. They are taken off the plane for questioning. Next, all the passengers have to deplane (that's a real word, I looked it up) including all carry-on items. This is a 2-story aircraft so it takes a while. The entire plane has to be searched for bombs since the two questionable passengers had been on board. About this time, we are really questioning whether this trip is meant to be. There is no way we will make our connecting flight now.
So what do we do? We were feeling nervous. Is someone/something trying to tell us not to get on the flight? Why can't another airplane be brought in? Evidently, there were no extra ones sitting around. Chris kept in contact with us by phone and told us it would actually be the safest flight we'd ever been on now that the extra precautions were being taken.
We stayed calm and carried on. No since in throwing a hissy fit. The airline re-booked our connecting flight for us to the next morning. All that was left was to get back on the plane which we all did - minus the two questionable passengers. When the flight finally took off I actually clapped.
From then on the flight was uneventful. We landed, the airline put us up in a hotel for the night in Vancouver. It was, after all, their fault for allowing the problem passengers on board. It was about midnight when we went out in the cold Canadian air to take a shuttle to the hotel. Spending the night in cold Canada was not what we had planned for that day. But at that point, we were just grateful to be safe and only a few hours from our final destination.
The next morning, the flight to San Francisco went without a hitch. The travel day from hell was over.
Thinking about it later, I am reminded of the British saying "Keep Calm and Carry On". It originated during World War II in England on posters to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster. We may not have been in a wartime disaster, but the saying was appropriate to our situation.
