My story begins on Friday, actually, because we hit our first obstacle with this trip which is: Jarrod got sick. Talk about the worst possible timing. As you can imagine, he felt so awful about it, even though he had no control over it. So to keep me from our house of germs, I went and stayed at my parents', and Jarrod loaded up on Dayquil, Nyquil, and the zinc things to get over his cold as quickly as possible.
Then on Sunday, there was the news of the blizzard. The forecast was difficult to pin down, as with all snow forecasts, but said it would start snowing Monday morning, but be light and minor, with snow increasing and picking up by the evening, with the worst and 'blizzard conditions' to happen overnight.
The second obstacle was our flight got cancelled ahead of the storm on Sunday evening. We were supposed to leave STL at 10:55am and fly direct to LGA and arrive at 2:30 or so, with enough time ahead of the of the storm to get to our hotel and settle in for the next couple days. Instead, we were switched to a flight to DTW (which is Detroit), that left at 10:25am, layover for about an hour, then one that headed to LGA at 1:52, arriving at 3:40. This was iffy because we knew we could make it to Detroit, no problem, but 3:40 was much closer to when it was supposed to be snowing steadily than even 2:30 (I know it's just over an hour, but every minute counted here.)
Our entire goal for the day was to get to NYC and get to our hotel. We were going to be getting there before the worst of the storm, so it wasn't a big deal. We knew exactly how we were going to get from the airport to our hotel, we just needed to get there. Once I knew we were settled in our room, I would breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy my first blizzard inside my room.
We had crossed our T's and dotted our I's in preparation for this trip, health-wise for me. I got a note from my doctor, in case there were any questions about the medications and stuff I was bringing along, got the portable oxygen concentrator cleared for in-flight use with the airline, and told the TSA people everything they 'needed' to know about medical liquids, my port, and whatever. It was no big deal, at all. They wiped down the oxygen concentrator and tested that, which is nothing surprising, and we were on our way. Luckily I didn't have to lug my vest along and was using other methods of airway clearance, ones that are small, handheld, and could fit in my purse if I wanted.
Our flight to Detroit went off without a hitch. I was getting butterflies in my stomach prior to taking off! We "pre-boarded" which is something you do if you need extra time or assistance boarding, and Jarrod admitted later that it was kind of nice being able to pre-board with me.
When we landed in Detroit, we were at gate like A71, and the terminal is REALLY long. We had to get down to 39 or something like that, for our flight to LGA, which in reality wasn't all that far from boarding. It sounds like you have plenty of time: there is one hour layover between flights. But when we who pre-board get to go first, there really wasn't much time at all. We walked at a good enough pace, and thank goodness for those moving sidewalks. I bought some snacks at a shop because turned out we weren't going to have enough time to get lunch.
Sure enough, we were sitting at the gate, eating my Goldfish crackers, and it was about 5 minutes and then we boarded the plane.
So as the plane starts to board, the flight attendant came around saying to keep your coats with you and anything else under the seat in front of you that will fit. And the whole reason she was saying this was because if we had to take a delay because of baggage, we might miss our time slot into LGA. We were one of the last flights out to LGA, and we were the ONLY flight out of Detroit to LGA, so this was it. All or nothing.
Anyways, as people continued to get on, a... "situation" developed a few rows behind us. I don't know how it all started, but I guess a man wasn't feeling good and called over a flight attendant to himself. He was explaining to her all of his health problems, which included, at least, heart palpitations and diabetes. They took his blood pressure and it was 220/110! I don't know how the guy wasn't having a stroke. They told him he was unsafe to fly like that—no kidding—and then called in medical. I don't know how many medical people, flight attendants, and the pilot walked back there multiple times. And he said how he hasn't taken some medication he needs for days, because he ran out. Great...
The anxiety and frustration in the room was palpable, you could have cut it with a knife. EVERYONE wanted to get out of there NOW, because we all knew we were operating on a time crunch here, with just barely enough time to get to LaGuardia, IF we even made it at all. We were supposed to have taken off around 1:52pm, but it was already 2:15. So all these people kept coming onto the plane, and really, they should have taken the guy OFF the plane. So this guy, Fragile Heart Man, was sort of Obstacle #3. Eventually he told them he was feeling better, which on the surface sounded like a good thing, unless the guy would have a heart attack in the middle of the flight and then we'd have to make an emergency landing.
Ok, so then we were about to be on our way. The pilot told us that the weather wasn't bad at the moment, but if anything was ever deemed unsafe, they would reroute us to Norfolk. It took awhile more, but we finally backed out of the gate. We taxied out towards the runway. Then we stopped, and Jarrod made a face. Turns out he made that face because he audibly knew they had turned the engines off. Sure enough, the pilot came on and said "Well, as you can see, we are nowhere near a runway. We have been ordered under a ground stop for one hour from LGA due to weather and low visibility. So after an hour, at that time, they will re-evaluate the situation and we will know more at that time."
Everyone, and I mean everyone, was disappointed and sighed with frustration. I hopped on Twitter and news sites and such, and turns out we were 1 of TEN flights left that were grounded! That's it. That was all that was left in the entire country, that hadn't been already cancelled, heading to LaGuardia. That is an insanely small number, considering ten flights probably take off or land at LGA in the matter of a minute or two.
Not more than 10-15 minutes went by and the captain came back on to say the flight had been cancelled. Everyone was super disappointed, yet I doubt anyone was shocked at that point. The biggest question was if Fragile Heart Man cost us our flight. Eventually, sitting there, I silently cried. We gathered up our stuff and left the plane. Another guy behind us asked the pilot if that whole "situation" made any difference, and he said it didn't. In reality, the Fragile Heart Man might have saved us from being mid-air, and then having to land in Norfolk.
So after that we were instructed to go to a few different desks where they would rebook us on another flight.
We waited in line for a while and when we finally got up there, the lady told us our options. Turned out, we had already been rebooked... on a flight to West Palm Beach, then to LGA the next day! So we would have left for West Palm Beach, from Detroit, at 8am, gotten there around noon, had a 4-hour layover until 4:50 or something, and then another 2.5-3 hour flight to LGA, finally getting there around 8:00 in the evening. It would have been another entire day of traveling, would have been a long exhausting day too, and it was a very shaky plan, as no one was confident LGA would be open on Tuesday. We asked if there was any way we could get out on Wednesday morning and she said "Yeah, there's one at 7:25... no... 8:20... no... 10:15." Everything else had booked up while we were standing there! We said we'd keep the Palm Beach flight and think it over.
With the 10:15 flight, arriving around noon-something, there was no possible way we'd make it to our matinee show of Cabaret on Wednesday (which was at 2:00.) So we seemed to have 3 options, all varying in levels of complications:
- Easiest: Come back home to STL, forfeit our trip.
- Harder: The West Palm Beach plan, with the hope that the flight wouldn't be cancelled.
- Hardest: Stay at the airport hotel for two nights, switch our Cabaret tickets to Wednesday or Thursday evening, hopefully fly out Wednesday morning.
At that moment, it was over. I felt all of my plans, my hopes, and my wishes of returning to New York City slip out of my hands in an instant like water. Cabaret was the entire reason we even planned to go on this trip at this time, in order to see the show before it closes in March, and to see it with Emma Stone in the lead role before she left mid-February.
Jarrod then asked if we could get a refund, and fortunately we could. So the lady began to process our refund. I hope someone else enjoyed our seats as much as we hoped to.
Now it was time for the hotel. We had talked to them a day earlier, asking if they would give us a refund, and they would not budge and said no. On Monday, though, it was a little different and they agreed to refund us our money, which was a huge relief. After we got the theater tickets refunded, and the hotel was in the process of being refunded, I hopped back in line at the Delta desk to get on a flight back home to STL. There were two options, one at 5:40pm, and one at 7:25pm. It was already 4-4:30, so the 5:40 option was no good; there would be no way we'd get supper. And we hadn't eaten lunch, so we really needed a meal.
We finally got to the desk and I said "Hi again!" and smiled, trying to lighten the mood a little bit, you could tell she had some rough passengers to deal with. She remembered us, and we told her we changed our minds and would like to head back home to STL. She booked us on the 7:25pm flight. Then she said we would be able to get a partial refund, which was great. We were planning to ask anyway. She had to make a phone call, and I don't know what the deal was, but they put her on hold for a good 10-15 minutes. Finally she got approval of whatever she needed and printed us our new boarding passes.
So DTW has this awesome indoor tram that runs the length of the terminal (remember how I said it was a long terminal?), and boy was that nice. You could board at the far ends, and in the middle. So we took the escalator up and waited two minutes, at most, then got on board and rode down to the higher numbers where we needed to be.
We ate dinner at a brew pub of sorts, and both enjoyed a beer. But immediately when we sat down Jarrod said "Uh... can I see those boarding passes?" in a very concerned way. Our flight had already been delayed from 7:25pm to 9:00pm... yay. Also, our gate had moved to 51, so we had to go BACK to near where we were. We finished dinner and made the long trek back to gate 51, all the way from 80 (for reference, Terminals A & C at Lambert have 21ish gates total, this place had 81.) We sat down at the gate and they were handing out snacks, complementary because our flight had been delayed, which was a nice gesture.
The plane arrived on time, we pre-boarded once again, and things were shaping up well. We ended up getting out at 8:45, and I breathed a sigh of relief. They booked it home, too, and cut about 20 minutes off our flight time. We arrived at 9:00ish, so the flight was barely over an hour. I'd also like to add how happy I was we never checked any luggage. We were able to both pack in one carry on suitcase, and put extra shoes and all my meds stuff in a backpack. Thank goodness for that.
I was extremely disappointed we didn't make it to New York, but after we got our refunds squared away and it was a done deal, I was relieved to get a flight back home and know I was not going to have to stay the night in Detroit.
Clearly we were not destined to go on this trip. It was a bummer to wake up Tuesday and see that NYC, in fact, did NOT get the predicted amount of snow, surprise surprise. They barely got 8 inches, and everyone was complaining that they blew everything out of proportion so badly, that it's almost comical that the city was SHUT DOWN at like 11pm Monday night (all cars were ordered off the streets, and the subway closed at 9pm, which is a first in its 100+ year history [and that one really doesn't make sense... it's underground! that's half the reason it's there is to get people around when there is weather, they could have easily closed some above-ground tracks without shutting the whole thing down.])
So DTW has this awesome indoor tram that runs the length of the terminal (remember how I said it was a long terminal?), and boy was that nice. You could board at the far ends, and in the middle. So we took the escalator up and waited two minutes, at most, then got on board and rode down to the higher numbers where we needed to be.
We ate dinner at a brew pub of sorts, and both enjoyed a beer. But immediately when we sat down Jarrod said "Uh... can I see those boarding passes?" in a very concerned way. Our flight had already been delayed from 7:25pm to 9:00pm... yay. Also, our gate had moved to 51, so we had to go BACK to near where we were. We finished dinner and made the long trek back to gate 51, all the way from 80 (for reference, Terminals A & C at Lambert have 21ish gates total, this place had 81.) We sat down at the gate and they were handing out snacks, complementary because our flight had been delayed, which was a nice gesture.
The plane arrived on time, we pre-boarded once again, and things were shaping up well. We ended up getting out at 8:45, and I breathed a sigh of relief. They booked it home, too, and cut about 20 minutes off our flight time. We arrived at 9:00ish, so the flight was barely over an hour. I'd also like to add how happy I was we never checked any luggage. We were able to both pack in one carry on suitcase, and put extra shoes and all my meds stuff in a backpack. Thank goodness for that.
I was extremely disappointed we didn't make it to New York, but after we got our refunds squared away and it was a done deal, I was relieved to get a flight back home and know I was not going to have to stay the night in Detroit.
Clearly we were not destined to go on this trip. It was a bummer to wake up Tuesday and see that NYC, in fact, did NOT get the predicted amount of snow, surprise surprise. They barely got 8 inches, and everyone was complaining that they blew everything out of proportion so badly, that it's almost comical that the city was SHUT DOWN at like 11pm Monday night (all cars were ordered off the streets, and the subway closed at 9pm, which is a first in its 100+ year history [and that one really doesn't make sense... it's underground! that's half the reason it's there is to get people around when there is weather, they could have easily closed some above-ground tracks without shutting the whole thing down.])
Some vacation, eh?
But hey, Jarrod had never been to Michigan so at least he got to cross that state off the map, right?
But hey, Jarrod had never been to Michigan so at least he got to cross that state off the map, right?
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