Up at 4am to catch 6am flight for business appointment. Traveling light bc I’m supposed to come home the same day.
The first flight is fine, 2 hour layover beforethe second flight to the city where the meeting is to take place. Then the wheels start to come off. One hour delay. Two hour delay. Finally board. Sit on the tarmac for 30minutes before take-off.
Get to destination, circle in the air for 30 minutes bc runways are icy. Not allowed to land, so back we fly to the other airport.
Stand in the mob waiting to be rebooked. Get a seat in coach although clients had paid for first class for me. Ok, I’m just glad to be going, even tho now I’ll be spending the night without any change of clothes, makeup, toothbrush. Clients graciously agree to me me at 7:30pm, which would give me an hour to clean up after landing.
Hike to the next terminal for the new flight. Haven’t eaten since 10am, now it is 3pm - the time of my original flight back home. Agent assures me that later they will rebook me to come home tomorrow, .. oh, and don’t leave the gate area to get food bc we will board any minute. Used the time to book a hotel room, non-refundable due to late hour.
One hour later at 4pm, we actually board. Sit on tarmac for the next hour. Take off at 5pm. Halfway there at 5:30pm, they turn the plane around bc the target airport is now closed for arrivals due to wind shear. Bye-bye, hotel money.
The lady sitting behind me was on the way to her ski wedding and was. remarkably cheerful. Alcohol may have played a part, or the fact that it will be her third marriage so she’s relaxed about it all. Lots of time to hear all about marriages 1 and 2.
All around, strangers are becoming friends as they plan to rent cars and drive to the destination. At this point, my clients agreed I should just go home, so no car rental for me.
Deplane at 6:15. Eat my first food since 10am. Attempt to call airlines to rebook my return flight home (which they canceled bc I did not catch the first leg of the return). Can’t get through due to call volume. Book and pay for ANOTHER TICKET home, which does not leave for two hours.
Chat with husband, answer some work emails, see a nice email from
delta that they’ve credited me with 15k miles ... and then look up to see that my flight is now delayed, and I won’t be home till 1am. Or so they say.
if you never hear from me again on this forum, check for news stories about mummified human remains found in the SLC airport.