I was on the plane to Seattle in economy class, thinking I would spend a few hours hanging with Kimmy in Seattle before taking her back to the airport. I had booked a cheap hotel room right next to the airport so I could crash for the night before flying home in the morning. Rachael texted our shared message thread and said: "You guys find another flight?" I was so confused, because we were on the flight! Then she forwarded the message from Delta that Kimmy's flight to Shanghai was canceled.
The Wi-Fi wasn't working well, so Kimmy didn't know yet. She didn't find out until we landed in Seattle. Then, it was a whirlwind of trying to figure out what we were going to do.
The first available flights on Delta were not until Sunday or Monday, and there were no other flights with seats available for the same day. We needed to get to the Delta Helpdesk.
Rachael and Hayden were at home searching flights while we found our way to the help desk in the next terminal over and waited in line. I was also looking. We kept finding options with layovers outside the country or long layovers (like 18 hours) in other cities. No matter what, Kimmy was not going to make it to Shanghai in time for the first orientation day.
There were about 10 people in line ahead of us, all on the flight to Shanghai. I was listening in, and people were taking the last seats on every easy flight to put Kimmy on. It was nerve-wracking. Finally, we made it to the desk, and Kimmy asked them to help her get to Shanghai as early as possible.
It turned out that the earliest she could depart from San Francisco was the next day at 1:30. We got her flight booked, then got right back in line to change my return flight so it went through San Francisco. We spent a couple of hours in that line and at the desks while they helped us. Luckily, the people at the desk did a great job, and I was able to fly to San Francisco on the same flight as Kimmy and board at about the same time as hers.
The next hurdle was getting Kimmy's luggage. She had packed two full-size suitcases, and since we needed to stay a night in Seattle, she had to pick them up from Delta. So, we went to another help desk for baggage. They told us they were pulling her bags out of a pile already set to go on the international flight, and it might take a while. So, we waited for another hour for them to show up. Even though we landed in Seattle in the early afternoon, it was 5 o'clock when we finally caught an Uber to the hotel. And wouldn't you know it, there was another line of people checking in! We were both done with lines and people for the day. Luckily though, this is where things started to smooth out for us. The hotel had an extra room with 2 king beds for us, so we wouldn't have to share a bed.
We were too exhausted from the travel and anxiety to explore the area, so we decided to grab a meal at the hotel restaurant and crash. Kimmy waited on hold with Delta to try to get her comfort plus seat back, and then with United to try to get a gluten-free meal and maybe a seat upgrade. Neither of them could help us the night before the flight.
Throughout this, Rachael and I were constantly talking over the phone. I'd call her, thinking I'd share where we were and then we could chat with the three of us, but then something else would come up. I wanted to make sure she knew that things were progressing and that she didn't need to worry - I was making things work.
After a not-very-restful night, we woke up at 4:30 to get back to the airport and catch our flight to San Francisco. We made it to the gate, and they upgraded both of us to Comfort Plus and put us next to each other. It was really nice that we got to sit together on that last flight.
After getting off the plane in San Francisco, we decided to go to Kimmy's gate first thing. Little did we know that was going to be a trek. Delta is in terminal C, and the international departure terminal is G. There were no shuttles. It was over a mile walk.
Near her gate, Kimmy got some Vietnamese food for breakfast, and we settled in to wait. We each had a four-hour layover. It was interesting watching the people show up for the flight to Shanghai. We wondered if any of them were NYU students. Finally, they announced they would begin pre-boarding, and it was time for one more goodbye. I knew this was the last time I'd see Kimmy in person for a while, and it was really hard walking away. But I had a mile to walk to get to my flight, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment