"let's sit right back and hear a tale . . . a tale of a faithful trip . . . a three hour tour", Yes, who remembers Gilligan's Island TV Show . . . I know many of the readers of this blog have had bad travel days . . . but I had one yesterday that might be an all-time worse.
I had a meeting that I needed to attend for my future opportunities. It was suppose to be a total of about 3 hours (a three hour tour) . . . well, if you had been paying attention to the news, I just so happened to be flying American Airlines, so the following is the chain of events . . .
4:30am I wake up early because I wanted to go for a run
6:25am Check in for my flight online
6:30am I head for the airport for a 8:15am flight
7:10am I arrive at airport to a complete zoo . . . lines that were so long that I thought the entire city of Austin was suppose to fly American Airlines on the same day
NOTE: since I just moved back to the USA, my status for frequent flyer is fairly low on American Airlines (AA), so I had to stay in the longest line
NOTE 2: I really need to attend this meeting since I do need a job soon
11:00am I make it up to the front of the line and discuss my status with the agent, only to find out, every seat on other airlines are totally sold out (as those in the USA know, airlines have been cutting back on flights and are always flying at capacity anyway), however, I was able to get the same flight the next morning. The agent suggests I check in with Southwest Airlines (SWA) because AA can not see flights on SWA.
11:30am I go home and use home computer to search SWA and find out there is a SWA flight out of San Antonio that will at least get me in for the planned dinner with this group, however, the flight is at 2pm and the airport is at least 90 minutes away (driving over speed limit)
1:20pm Make it to San Antonio airport through rain and traffic (I think 50% of all trucks in the USA were on the highway between San Antonio and Austin), but thinking I am still flying AA, park in wrong terminal, run to the other terminal where SWA is located.
NOTE: Good luck, no line to get ticket . . . bad luck, line for security . . . good luck show up at gate at 1:40pm
1:40pm find out that plane is delayed 30 minutes
1:50pm Realize that my connection was only an hour to begin with . . . so now I might miss my next flight
2:20pm Board the plane . . . however, those that dont know SWA, they do not have assigned seats and you board by the order that you check in . . . I boarded 149 out of possible 150 seats on plane.
2:25pm I have to take a seat between two large (seemingly, American Football players) guys whose shoulders were much wider than the seats . . . needless to say, my elbows were implanted into my ribs for the entire 3 hour fly
5:30pm Landed and run to next gate
5:35pm Boarding already happening, but since I was again the last to board get stuck between someone who has been at the bar since noon, and a young lad who played his ipod at the loudest setting possible that even made my hears hurt.
6:40pm Land . . . but realize that I could nto get into the city that I wanted but instead got a flight into a city that is a two hour drive from where I needed to be . . .
9:00pm Made it to the dinner . . . I hope I scored well in persistence?
So, after 14 hours after I started I made my destination versus a scheduled three hour tour.
Anyone want to share there recent mishaps with travel . . .
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3 comments:
Yikes!! I was just thinking today that I'm glad I don't have any travel plans anytime soon. I have not similar stories - my bad doesn't seem that bad anymore. :)
Of course, this doesn't compare to your "3 hour tour" but we did have a bit of adventure with our traveling party today. Five of us were flying back from Paris and four of us made it through the first passport check when all of a sudden the windows were closed. Unfortunately, it was the fifth member of our party that speaks french so while the four of us looked blankly at one another, the fifth member of our party mimed that an unidentified package had been found. Turns out it was a suitcase and after moving all passengers back they blew it up. Fortunately he made it to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare :-)
Hi Steve,
thought I would share my trip from hell with you....
I was on a round the world trip to the regions my first stop was Bangalore. Before I even left the UK I bit into a roll and snapped a tooth at the bottom right at the front! WONDERFUL. As I already had a partial denture I figured it might be easy to just get the tooth pulled and a replacement put on the denture. However, undecided on whether to fly out or to cancel my trip and go home and find a dentist I phoned home - my husband assured me that they had really good dentists in India and that I had nothing to worry about (first mistake).
On my flight to Bangalore - eating on the plane (second mistake) my existing denture moved and cracked a second tooth at the bottom. (I only had 4 left to begin wth!).
On arriving in Bangalore the team managed to get me in to see a Dentist in the local hospital on the Sunday. They were really nice, gave me some antibiotics to take and told me to come back the next day and they would remove the teeth and make me a temporary denture.
Duly went back the next day (Monday) as there was no way I was going into the office with 2 broken teeth. Don't read the next part if you are squeemish about dentist.....
after what seemed like 10 injections he finally started taking out the teeth. You've guessed it the nerve wasn't numb in my tooth! Despite my screams the Dentist continued to assure me that I couldn't really feel any pain it was only the pressure of him pulling the tooth. (would love to change places with him).
Eventually - despite sliding down the chair as far as I could go with the dentist hanging on for dear life to my tooth he managed to pull it out. (Can't put in writing what I felt or probably said at that time.) It seems like I was given an injection in the wrong place so the nerve did not get frozen - now he tells me!
Still another tooth to go.... this is when I should have got out of the chair - but as I couldn't go in the office with a huge gap I didn't feel I had any choice but to get the tooth pulled. Further injection later and a fully numb tooth was removed - as were 2 others! Stitching the gum without it being frozen was an experience not to be repeated either.
Oh my - now I needed a full denture on the bottom. Which would take a day or two to make and my mouth was really swollen.
I am now in a hotel in Bangalore with my gum stitched - no teeth at the bottom and unable to eat! Unable to go into the office either!
Eventually got some temporary teeth (still couldn't eat - but the hotel were wonderful with soup and ice cream).
With the worse over I went back into the office and managed to work with the team for at least part of my 2 weeks in the country.
Even though he put me through hell the Dentist was a really nice guy -but I was really surprised when he give me his wife's CV to see if there were any vacancies in Mercer! Of course I passed it on - no hard feelings.
Feeling better I started my trip to Singapore - 3 flights! On the the flight I sat next to someone who coughed the whole flight - I distinctly remember thinking "I do hope he has asthma or something...!
Arrived in Singapore and 3 days later went down with a flu bug from hell. I always carry antibiotics with me so started taking them immediately - needless to say they didn't work so spent 3 days stuck in the hotel with a really high temperature and tonsils and ears infected. Should have got the message and gone home here!
However, I felt slightly better so decided that it was only a matter of days and I would be over the bug.
Added to this I had asked my husband to decorate my room and had ordered a new bed to be delivered for when I was due to return. When I phoned home and said I was considering coming home he told me not to bother as I didn't have a bed and would probably be more comfortable in the hotel. Hmmmmm......
So I flew on to Australia (guess I am as bad as the person who sat next to me - although I did make a point of going into the loo everytime I needed to cough - don't laugh I know the air conditioning will still have spread it but I felt better for hiding).
Arrived in Australia and had to go immediately to their emergency centre at the hospital to get some more antibiotics. (It was now Easter weekend and I spent the whole time in bed in the hotel).
This time I managed a whole 3 hours in the office before once again being banished to the hotel for the rest of the week.
I was now 2 - 12 hour flights from home and although I still didn't feel well really couldn't face this amount of flying. I had already taken 2 courses of antibiotics and was sure they would kick in pretty soon.
So started on final leg of the journey to the US. Arrived on the Saturday feeling dreadful and spent the weekend in bed in the hotel.
Went into the office on the Monday morning - and this time lasted all of 10 minutes before they whisked me out to the emergency care department. Further tests - threat of hospitalisation, vapouriser and a course of even stronger antibiotics later I finally got back to the hotel for yet a further 3 days stuck in bed.
Finally I started feeling better and managed to get into the office for well over a week before I needed to travel home.
Thursday evening before I was due to fly out the following day, I left the office to walk to the hotel - which must be all of 150 feet away. For those of your who know Lousiville I was crossing Fourth Street outside of Borders - pulling my computer bag behind me.
The traffic lights went red and the traffic stopped. I duly crossed and stepped up on the kerb on the other side - next thing I knew I was on my hand and knees on the floor! Don't ask me how I got there I have no idea whether I tripped on the kerb or caught my foot on the computer bag - but what ever it was there I was on my hands and knees on the pavement laughing like a loon! I could really see the funny side - I expect everyone looking on thought I was drunk! If only......
I managed to damage my thumb/wrist and when I went into the office on Friday they offered to take me to the emergency room again, to which I responded "No thanks I have seen enough medical rooms to last me a lifetime - think I will just go home and get it fixed there...."
Turns out I had badly bruised and damaged some ligaments.
Things come in three's so they say - guess I just proved the point.
Many lessons learned here - including
Go to the dentist before your tooth breaks...
don't trust generalities e.g. my husband saying "THEY HAVE GOOD DENTISTS IN INDIA" - he obviously forgot what a large county it is and that this might not be true of all cities!
Don't give your bed away when you start travelling and arrange for the new one to be delivered weeks later when you are due to return - you never know when it is going to come in handy.
If you sit next to someone on the plane and they start coughing - move seats. Failing that carry a mask at all times and wear it. (might not help but would have made me feel better that I had tried).
When you fall over in the street - act injured! Looks much better than laughing like a mad woman I am sure.
Finally - we have some really lovely people in our teams around the world who took such good care of me during all suffering. A big thank you goes to all of them.
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