On Airports and Travel

I have the worst luck when it comes to flying. I actually don’t remember the last I traveled somewhere without a flight being either cancelled or delayed.

Last summer, my family flew to London and then Italy for my brother’s wedding. This trip involved a flight to London, followed by a flight to Italy, then another flight back to London and one last flight home to Boston. I was supposed to land in Boston around 7 pm, do some quick packing, then fly out to Mexico the next morning at 10 am for a summer program.

Somehow, in this one vacation, both flights to Italy were delayed by over an hour. But that was nothing compared to when we got back to London. Sometime early the morning we were supposed to fly to Boston, our flight got cancelled and we were rebooked on a different flight. The reservation was linked to my mom’s email, however, and she’s not super tech savvy, especially when it comes to connecting to wifi abroad, so we didn’t know our flight was cancelled until we got to the airport and saw the announcement on the big screens. We also didn’t know we had been rebooked on another flight, so we waited in line for at least 45 minutes to speak to a British Airways rep—and in that time, missed the flight we had been rebooked on.

After another half hour of begging and pleading with the rep, she was finally able to find us seats on a flight that took off that night. Instead of a direct flight, however, we were put on one with a connection through JFK. Naturally, the connecting flight from JFK to Boston was delayed, again for over an hour, and we didn’t get back home until 2 AM. This left exactly 8 hours to pack and get back to the airport before I was supposed to be on a plane to Mexico.

I spent the whole night packing, got about 2 hours sleep, and rushed to the airport in the morning. Thankfully, neither of my flights to Mexico were delayed or cancelled, so I thought my luck was finally turning around.

I was wrong. I flew twice for weekend trips within Mexico and of my four flights (one flight per direction for two trips), at least three of them were delayed by an hour or more; the fourth one might have also been delayed, but I don’t really remember.

Then, on the last day of the program in Mexico, there was a group farewell dinner. But of course, while everyone was enjoying the amazing food and saying goodbye to friends for the summer, I was frantically trying to rebook my flight home because—you guessed it—my flight was cancelled yet again.

I ended up flying out of Mexico a day later than intended. Maybe this is actually good luck, I thought. Now I can visit that modern art museum that I never got the chance to see!

Nope. As per usual, my connecting flight in Dallas on this new flight was delayed by two hours. Apparently, the truck bringing the in-flight snacks broke down on the way to the airport. Instead of getting home on a Saturday evening, I ended up back in Boston early Monday morning.

I used to think airports were just really inconsistent, but having talked to several friends about this, it seems like it’s actually me. I have terrible luck at airports! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful that nothing truly awful has ever happened on my flights *knocks on wood*. I’ll take a two hour delay over lost luggage or a medical emergency mid-air any day. Still, it’s nice sometimes to be on time to your destination.

This past week, I flew to Vancouver to visit family. On the way home, our first flight was delayed for so long that we missed our connecting flight from Montreal to Boston and had to be rebooked on a new flight. But don’t worry, we definitely didn’t miss our new flight from Montreal to Boston! It was delayed by about 20 minutes too, so we had plenty of time.

I’m writing this as I’m waiting in the airport for another flight, this time to Chile! I’ve got a connecting flight in Atlanta, so we’ll see how that goes. There’s also the return flight, but I’m trying not to think about that for now. Take it one airport delay at a time.

We’ve all heard the adage it’s the journey not the destination. With my trips, somehow it really always is the journey and not the destination that results in the craziest experiences.

Update: My flight from Boston to Atlanta was delayed and ended up landing at the same time that my connecting flight to Santiago was boarding. I was the last person at the gate to get on the plane, but at least I made it!

Update, part 2: On the way home from Chile, I had a connecting flight through Miami. My flight from Miami to Boston was cancelled due to weather and the earliest next flight I could get on to get back home was over 24 hours later. I’m currently staying the night at a hotel in Miami, hoping desperately that I make it back to Boston tomorrow!

Update, part 3: My flight home from Miami was delayed by an hour and a half. At this point I wasn’t even surprised.