The Wednesday morning after Easter, Stanton and I woke up super early. Our family had a 7:35 a.m. flight out of the Albany airport, to visit with Stanton's mom and other loved ones in San Antonio. We were leaving our home by 5 to get to the airport, park the car, etc.
"Mel, we really could leave at 5:30 and be fine," Stanton told me the night before.
"Stan..."
"Fine, we'll leave at 5."
I like to give us tons of cushion for unforeseen circumstances: long security lines, last-minute gate changes, anything and everything.
I'm a bit (a lot?) of an anxious traveler, especially with two kids. I cope with this travel anxiety by being extremely organized: stuffing protein-rich snacks in my carry-on bag in case we don't have time during our layover to buy food; filling a Ziploc bag with Band-Aids, Tylenol and other first-aid supplies; and double- and triple-checking the flight reservations.
At 4:30 on Wednesday morning, I finished blow-drying my hair. I had just a few more things to throw in my bag, and then I'd wake up the girls. Things were moving along smoothly...
"Hey, Mel."
I joined Stanton in his home office, where he was frowning at his phone. He looked up at me.
"I just got a text saying our flight's been cancelled."
My heart skipped a beat. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah...it's so weird, though: This text says our flight from Albany to Syracuse has been cancelled."
"That's totally wrong," I said. We weren't flying to Syracuse at all; we were flying from Albany to Chicago, then on to San Antonio.
Ding. "Wait...I just got another text." Again, Stanton frowned at his phone, this time in disbelief. "Now this text is saying our flight, to Syracuse, is back on."
"But we're not going to Syracuse."
"I know..." Stanton called American Airlines to make sense of the texts.
I cope with this travel anxiety by being extremely organized...
In the meantime, I did my best to stay calm. I calmly woke up the girls, told them to get dressed. Calmly finished packing my bag. Calmly rejoined Stanton in his office, where he was talking with an American Airlines customer service representative on speakerphone.
"Are you sure my flight is cancelled?" Stanton was saying.
"Yes, that's what I'm seeing on my computer screen," replied the customer service rep. "There might be a weather issue in Albany."
"I'm in Albany right now, looking out my window, and it isn't even raining," Stanton said. He added that he'd just checked the departures page of the Albany airport website, and no other flights scheduled to depart Albany that morning had been cancelled.
I jumped into the conversation: "Hey there, this is Melissa, Stanton's wife. Are you positive that our flight has been cancelled?"
"Yes, 100 percent. I'm looking at the info on my screen."
Stanton and I looked at each other. He muted us on the call. "I can't believe this," he told me.
"Stan...I don't believe this." My travel anxiety was overpowered only by my wariness regarding technology. "Someone, somewhere, pushed the wrong button or something—F4 instead of F3, something like that." (I do this myself at work sometimes.) "It's a mistake."
"Maybe..."
The customer service rep began speaking again: "Folks, would you like me to try to rebook you onto another flight? I possibly could get all four of you on standby for a later flight to San Antonio, via Charlotte, which would get you in around 11 p.m. tonight..."
With our current flight reservations, we were supposed to land in time for lunch with Stanton's mom, his sister and our niece. "Stan...I think we just go to the airport, and figure out what's going on in person," I said.
Even if our flight was indeed cancelled, I believed that showing up in person, at the American Airlines counter at the airport, and talking with the staff there face-to-face would get us better results than a Q&A with the customer service rep over the phone.
Stanton nodded. "Let's get to the airport."
It was now almost 5, almost exactly the time we'd planned to leave for the airport...but the past 30 minutes had felt frenzied and nuts. I checked to make sure I had my driver's license, but I had the nagging sense I was forgetting something—or multiple things. But we had to go.
Stanton drove to the airport, still on the phone with American Airlines. The customer service rep was talking with her supervisor about our situation. "I'm driving with my family to the Albany airport now," Stanton told them. "Please do not cancel our current reservations until I talk to someone at the airport too..."
I glanced in the backseat at the girls. "What do you think, Mom?" Grace asked.
"I think...if our flight really is cancelled, and it's hard to get four new tickets together...I really don't want to do this, but maybe we split up to get to San Antonio: Dad with one of you, me with the other of you," I said.
Anna's eyes bugged out. Grace didn't look happy either. But she said, "If we have to do that, then I'll go with you, Mom."
"Awww..."
"Because you and Anna together would be a disaster."
Right.
In that moment of early-morning, pre-sunrise darkness—with huge uncertainty about what awaited us at the airport—the four of us laughed.
Stanton and Grace share many of the same analytical and problem-solving skills, while Anna and I...well, we're a bit more feelings-oriented.
The four of us arrived at the airport. Dashed to the American Airlines counter.
"Good morning," an attendant greeted us. "Your flight to Chicago, with a final destination to San Antonio, is on time."
On time. My jaw dropped.
"Someone told us our flight had been cancelled," I said.
The woman shook her head. "That's not true."
"My husband got a text—multiple texts!—saying we were flying to Syracuse instead of Chicago!"
"That's also wrong."
Aaaggghhh.
"Mel...it's OK." Calmly, Stanton gave the woman our confirmation number. She began printing our boarding passed.
I put a hand to my chest. "I just can't believe what happened the past hour..."
"Mom." The girls brought their fingers to their lips. "You're being kind of loud."
Agh.
Ultimately, we got to San Antonio just fine, and had a beautiful visit. Everything ended up working out great.
The moral of my story, though, friends, is this: Technical difficulties can happen, as we all know.
If you ever have a flight with American Airlines, and you get a text from them saying your flight is cancelled...and then you call their customer service number, and the person who answers the phone there also says your flight has been cancelled...do not necessarily believe any of this information.
If you can, go to the airport and see what's going on for yourself, in person.
Even if our flight really had been cancelled...I didn't care. I just didn't care, friends.
No matter what, Stanton, the girls and I were going to San Antonio that day to see our family. In my heart—based on nothing but feelings—I sensed that. All we had to do was get to the airport, and figure it out, face-to-face.
And we did.
Photo credit: Pixabay
+
Like what you just read? Then check out Melissa Leddy's e-books on Amazon.com. Short fiction and creative nonfiction writing that's engaging, witty and from the heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment