Missed Flight

Written Wednesday July 7th:
I’m on a plane to London! You have no idea how brilliant this is. I got back from my wonderful trip to Nantucket (more on the trip later) Monday night and got hit with a horrendous heat wave – triple digits not including the humidity!

Long story short, the heat fried my brain (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it). This morning (Wednesday July 7th) I pack and make it into work this afternoon to wrap up the last bits before heading to the airport. I’m running late and doing the editing as I go – what’s essential versus what would have been nice. When I get it – a text from my colleague in Scotland asking how my flight went. And that’s when I suddenly realized I messed up. And messed up big! I have a big meeting in Scotland that I have to be at tomorrow morning at around 11 am and I just screwed the pooch! I was about to head to the airport to catch my flight except it was for the day before. I’m a day behind!! I have 19 hours to get to a small town in northern Scotland. Actually I think it’s 14 hours with the time difference. I was originally supposed to fly in the day before, through London up to Glasgow, do a little work (i.e. prep for the meeting), a nice night at the hotel and the next morning catch the 3 hour train with my colleagues to Inverness on which they were going to debrief me about the previous meeting and the project. There is no way this plan will work. Even if I talk Virgin Atlantic into moving my ticket to the next day I don’t get into Glasgow until after the meeting has started. Let making it up to Inverness. I’d just get there at the end of the day when the meeting would be finishing.

I have to say there is something about the versatility of the word fuck. I yelped it loudly when I was suddenly realized my mistake and then proceeded alternating between the repetitive version – saying the word very fast in repetition about a half dozen times each set – all within 5 seconds, and saying the elongated version – fuuuuuuck. My colleagues jumped in to help but there was nothing to be done other than to confirm I had not read my ticket wrong and to let me know they had done the same thing before too - which I do find comforting as I had never had this happen to me.

I hopped on the phone to Virgin Atlantic and after about 5 minutes of hold music, picked up another phone and dialed my travel agent I use (but not for this reservation) in the hopes she can come to my rescue. No luck – she’s out of the country and the guy I get is not very helpful. All the while desparately searching online to see what flights I can find. At this point I’m desparate – this isn’t some vacation I’m a day late for. This was a meeting that had already gotten pushed back a month because of me and has about a half dozen companies in attendance. It turns out that the travel agent guy is helpful after all. From this point until about 10 minutes ago, everyone I encountered seemed to be working at a very slow, laid back pace. He took forever searching but finally found one flight arrangement that would work. A British Airway flight would get me into Inverness by 11:30 am. But it cost several thousand dollars. I could feel the tears starting to rise. I have a company credit card but no clue how my new boss would play this – more important to get to the meeting or was it too expensive. The travel agent told me – just get to the airport now and start working with the ticket agent people. The British Airway flight leaves at 6 pm which meant I might not even make it even if I left right then and there (my other flight was leaving at 8 pm).

So I scoop up all my papers and computer and stuff and grab my phone with the hold music from Virgin Atlantic - going on 30 minutes now. And head for the elevator and just then the person on the other end of the phone is there. I’m trying to tell her my story while not dropping anything and praying I don’t drop the call. In the end she tells me she can do nothing as even if she booked me on a flight for today there would be no record of it as it takes 24 hours for the information to get to the ticket counters at the airport. WTF – seems a bit archaic.

I flag down a cab – crossing two lanes of stopped rush hour traffic and shove my suitcase and stuff into the back seat. The cab driver then proceeds to drive so slowly. I tell him my predicament and he has tons of stories and drives even slower. I end up having to ask him to drive faster as I’m going to miss the flight. We pull up at departures and he asks if I want him to wait as it seems to him I’ll need a taxi back. That’s how slim a chance I had.

I run to the British Airway ticket counter. They say they can’t do anything without paperwork from Virgin (unless I want to buy a new ticket). And that I have 15 minutes before I can no longer get the new ticket. I run to Virgin Atlantic ticket counter and there is a line. And it takes forever and everyone is trying to catch flights. Finally, my turn. I explain the situation and say that I spoke with someone on the phone. I was equipped with just enough information that I could use “they”. “They told me you could transfer the ticket to British Airway”. And it worked. No charge even!! Can you believe it? It’s a $200 or $300 fee I was told for the situation I was in. Maybe it will show up on the credit card later but I don’t think so.

I run back to the British Airway ticket counter. The lady doesn’t know what to do with the ticket I give her. I have two ladies working on it and the clock is ticking. One lady is typing away, the other is calling on the walkie-talkie about the checked bag. No dice. I have to take it with me. Except I have all these liquids. I buy the ticket from London to Inverness – only $200 – much better than the thousands I thought I might have to pay. And they tell me to run. Run to security and take the special line for the staff. Luckily I had smartly packed so that I was wearing my sweaty-get-to-the-airport-and-then-change clothes. While I was waiting for the ladies to print the tickets I change into my jeans, taking off my skirt and packing it away.

Security – no problem. I even had my pocket knife and nothing. I see my gate and they’re just wrapping up boarding. I stop by a kiosk and buy a water but they had no food. And then I board and a friendly gentleman helps me get my heavy suitcase into the overhead and I collapse into my seat.

And what seat do you think I have? I would have assumed, being the last one checked in that it would have been a squashed middle seat. Nope. Not only did I get an aisle seat on this flight, which is about 95% full (in economy), I get a whole row. The four seats in my row and it’s just me. Everywhere else – it’s packed. How crazy is that? Maybe I will get a little sleep before this meeting. If I make it. There is still the little issue of me arriving into Heathrow but having to leave out of Gatwick. The taxi drivers in London better drive faster than they do in Boston. But there is still hope.

Know the only downside, not that I’m complaining, is that I haven’t eaten. I haven’t really eaten much in the last two days (heat) and only had some granola early this morning. I’m running on empty. I was going to pick up food on my way to the airport, but that got scratched. No worries normally, except 20 years ago I finally figured out the trick for me not throwing up on trans-Atlantic flights: a full stomach. When I traveled without enough food, I’d have to use the barf bags, guaranteed. I got frightened they weren’t serving dinner, but it looks like they are. Here’s hoping I can somehow finagle two meals out of them. I could probably eat three, but I think I’ve just used up a whole bunch of my miracles.

The adrenaline is still pumping. But I’m so thankful that all these people helped me and when I thought I had passed the point of no return – not enough hours to make it work, there was one itinerary still left. Only one left, but that’s all it takes. And I was able to be on it with very little charge. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. I smell food. Now they’re serving dinner and my stomach is rumbling. So I’ll shut the computer down, put on a good movie, chow down and sit back and try to relax. For now, until the next leg of the trip kicks in. Wish me well!