The brief life of a distressed traveller
On a recent business, I had more travel excitement that I would have liked. My travel day started on the west coast of the United States. The first leg of my trip involved flying into a airline hub in the south-eastern states. The flight across the country was uneventful until the pilot announced that we were running out of fuel and were diverting to Spartanburg, NC. Apparently, he didn’t have enough fuel to stay airborne and to wait out the storm. As we landed at Spartanburg, we found that we were among 15 planes that have diverted there. We sat on the ground for an hour before refuelling. It was a bright and sunny day in Spartanburg. Charlotte, NC our final destination was experiencing severe weather with baseball-size hail and a tornado warning in effect. The conditions were so severe that they closed the airport for three hours. We eventually took off and spent a couple of hours flying in wider and wider circles and eventually switched over to flying in figure-eight formations. As were approached Charlotte, the ride got more and more bumpy. It was kind of cool to loose altitude and to sort of float in your seat for a while. As we were taxiing we could see mini-lakes on the runway. Once in the terminal we met a scene of chaos and mayham as hundreds of flight had been cancelled. The re-booking line snaked throughout the terminal. The customer agent at our gate handed out chits with the 1-800 number on it. I rebooked my flight and would fly back to Ottawa on Sunday morning. It was convoluted arrangement, Charlotte to DC to Philadelphia to Ottawa. So, much of the day would be spent in the air. I lucked in and was able to get an affordable hotel room for the night. I attempted to get my luggage but they couldn’t locate it and gave me a distressed traveller kit which contained deodorant, shaving stuff, shampoo, toothpaste and brush and finally a box of Tide laundry detergent. I looked at the box of Tide for a while and decided to setup my own Chinese laundry. I washed my underwear, socks and shirts in the hotel’s bathroom sink and hung everything up on coat hangers.
I got early Sunday morning and felt pleased that the laundry was nearly dry and just needed a touch-up with the hair dryer. The hotel offered a buffet breakfast that helped temper my hungry-man appetite. I caught the airport shuttle back to airport with plenty of time to clear security and have more chilling time at the gate. On a whim, I decided to re-check the flight status only to find it had been cancelled while clearing security. I went to special services to see about being rebooked. I explored the option of flying to Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. All three destinations had a late evening departure times. I was okay with this as I still had my laptop. I’m not sure what this says about my priorities. My gut told me to ask whether I could get a meal voucher for the day. The customer service agent looked at me for a while and then made a phone call out of the earshot of the other customers. He said that we need to take a walk. This could me good news or bad news. It was good news as he had arranged for a complementary day pass to the airline’s VIP lounge. Before heading off he thanked me and appreciated my professionalism in a difficult situation. This was sweet! For the remainder of the day, I had unlimited coffee, cookies and fruit as well as access to the Masters on a large screen TV. It was fun watching people come and go throughout the day. The flight back north was uneventful and my own pillow was a welcome sight as the clock struck midnight.
