I know a lot of people complain about the headache that is air travel, but to be honest, I rarely have issues. And I fly a lot. And in strange, foreign countries, on odd airlines.
I choose to fly nearly exclusively on Delta or SkyTeam. They've proven to me over the past few years that they rarely have, incidents, and when they do, they fix them. Also, the benefits of status aren't too shabby.
I should have known getting back to Belgium wouldn't go smoothly. The exit hadn't flowed since the start. I was supposed to fly out over a week ago, but unexpectedly stayed an extra week to finish up on my condo purchase, puppy sit and deal with some health issues.
Is there anything cuter in life than a puppy belly?!
I finally boarded a plane yesterday heading to Atlanta scheduled to head on to Amsterdam and finally Brussels. The first flight was smooth. It was the ATL-->AMS that went wrong.
I boarded around 7:30pm, got ready to sleep, started reading a magazine and soon fell asleep. As I fell asleep, I knew we hadn't taken off but didn't worry. They always board super early for international flights. After what felt like a decent nap, I noticed we were still on the ground. Apparently, there was a mechanical issue, so I went back to sleep. Then I heard them announce that people could deplane if they'd like. I ignored it and slept more. Once I woke up, nearly fully rested, I noticed we were still on the ground. It was 1:30am.
At 2am, they cancelled my flight and deplaned all of us.
2am check in to the hotel. Feeling a little ripe.
The next steps went fairly smoothly. As we walked back into the terminal, our boarding passes were scanned and each person was given a ticket with a hotel voucher. You could wait and rebook, but I figured calling would be faster.
I headed to my assigned airport hotel (thanks Marriott for the great bed!) and called Delta in route. I got rebooked on a flight the next afternoon (technically later that afternoon) from Atlanta - - >New York - - >Brussels.
But I did get to run into one of my coworkers unexpected in the airport. I look great, sans makeup and plus glasses.
Check-in was super speedy. I slept as late as I could and headed back to the airport. Now I'm delayed again due to bad thunderstorms in Atlanta.
Atlanta closed down for thunderstorms.
“Will I ever get home?! ”