A rather stressful journey.

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I have just spent 30+ hours on the flight/trip from hell. I arrive at DTW airport with plenty of time to spare for my 7pm flight. I am excited and ready to start my adventure in Greece! Around 6:15pm, it is announced that the flight will be delayed due to a cracked windshield. In case you were wondering, a cracked windshield will completely interrupt your trip. Initially, the flight was only delayed for 3 hours because they were either going to find us a new plane or fix the damaged windshield. 9pm rolls around, and yet again, I find myself getting very excited to board the plane and start my journey. Oops! Silly me for being optimistic. They delay the flight again until 11:45 pm because the glue they used to fix the window isn't dry yet. At this point, I'm starting to get frustrated and head to the nearest bar for some liquid relaxation. I order a beer, begin chatting with a group of people my age, and calm down and tell myself to just roll with the punches. A few beers, and 20 dollars later, I head back to my gate in the hopes we will be boarding soon.
Wrong again. Now the flight is delayed again until 12:30am so the FDA can come inspect the plane's handywork. At this point, I am beyond frustrated and the few beers I have had tell me to go up to the desk at the gate and start demanding answers. I realize it is nobody's fault in particular, so I try to keep a cool head, despite the fact I now know there is no way I am going to make my 3pm connecting flight in Rome to Athens. All I am given is a half-hearted apology for my inconvenience. I explain my situation and expect them to help me figure out how to handle my soon to be missed flight from Rome. I tell them I will most likely not be able to make my hotel reservation and will ultimately have nowhere to stay, and they give me a very unsympathetic "Oh, well. There is nothing we can do about that." I get frustrated and walk away. Perhaps this is what fuels terrorism at airports.
Finally, after waiting in line again for another 20 minutes, I explain my situation to a different customer service rep. She says she will put me on a different connecting flight in Rome. She then proceeds to take a telephone call and never returns. You have got to be kidding me! Eventually, I find someone to put me on an 8:25pm flight out of Rome and I go sit down and fume. At least they rewarded us every so handsomely with a $6 meal voucher. Too bad you can't get a meal in an airport for under $10. Cheapskates.
FINALLY, around 1am they start boarding the plane. Halelujah! We will be leaving soon! I really hate when I'm wrong about things, so this flight had really damaged my ego. Once aboard the plane, we are told that we are all set to go, but we are just waiting for the last pilot to arrive. Really??!? How the hell are you late to a plane that was just delayed 6 hours?? After an hour and a half of waiting, our trusted pilot eventually boards the plane, to a boisterous round of applause, and we push off. We taxi about for a few minutes and I prepare myself for takeoff. Silly me and my naive hope. Another announcement.
Apparently now there is something wrong with their computers and we must return to the gate. Awesome. The pilot assures us that they only need to reset their computers and we will be off. An hour later, we are told they have taken care of the problem and just need to finish filling out the paperwork associated with having a shitty plane. At this point, I am seriously doubting our ability to make it to our destination in one piece. Only 15-20 more minutes he says. My optimism is now out the window, and I no longer believe these words when I hear them. Another 40 minutes later the pilot tells us we are good to go, but that they are trying to navigate an alternative route that will get us to Rome faster. I'm no expert, but if there was a quicker route, shouldn't it have been implemented in the first place??
At this point, we should have been arriving in Rome, but are still sitting at the Detroit airport. I don't care about a quicker flight, because it is not going to get me to Rome in time to catch my original connecting flight. They spend another 20 minutes navigating. You know how much time it ended up saving us?? None! In fact, it took longer than the original route.
It is now 4 am and we are getting ready to take off...again. The plane starts picking up speed, and I can hardly believe it when I feel us lift off. Once in the air, I hope that I will at least be able to sleep for the majority of the flight. Unfortunately, to the left of me, I have a woman who only speaks Italian and who doesn't believe in sharing the armrest. She has brought an entire sleeping kit with her (neck pillow, ear plugs, eye mask, blanket), and she doesn't make it 2 minutes before she is comfortably passed out. Too bad her comfort means leaning far over the arm rest into me. Any time I tried to get in on that wonderful arm rest action, I am given a violent shove. If I knew how to snap necks inconspicuously, I would have given it serious consideration.
To my right, there is a high school kid who tells me he is traveling to Rome with his family to visit his brother who is studying abroad. I think that he might actually be a decent person to sit next to. That is of course until he also falls asleep and ends up on my shoulder. At first, I thought it was funny and that he would wake up and adjust himself. I was half right. He adjusted himself...but only to get more comfortable on my shoulder. Eventually, I give him a small nudge hoping to correct my personal space. It works, for a little while anyways. I found myself having to nudge him almost every hour.
So now I realize I won't be getting much sleep, so I turn on my TV in the hopes of watching a few movies I have been wanting to see. In particular I was wanting to see the movie Unknown with the ever so bad ass Liam Neeson. I press play, sit back and relax, and wonder why in the hell I find myself watching the intro to the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I try again to no avail. Apparently, every single movie is listed under the wrong title. After 30 minutes of going through every single movie in order to find one that was watchable, I settle on Country Strong. I make it about 20 minutes before the complementary wine (how generous!) kicks in, and I pass out. Although uncomfortable, and only half asleep, I manage to pass the majority of the flight in this manner. I must say, the only good thing about this flight was that it didn't crash into the Atlantic ocean like I was half expecting it to. Finally we arrive in Rome, where things continue to suck.
I get off the plane, and the agent outside is helping those who have missed their connecting flights. He gives me a boarding pass for a 9:40pm flight, in which I tell him I am supposed to be on the 8:25pm. In broken English, he tells me this is not possible. It's only 6:30pm, so I don't understand why he thinks I won't make it, but I am too tired to argue so I accept my new flight time. I make it through security and find my gate number by 7pm, so again, I find myself playing the waiting game.
I notice on my ticket that I don't have a seat assignment, but I don't think anything of it because I didn't have one leaving Detroit either and they assigned my seat before boarding. Finally, around 9:10pm (30 minutes before departure) I go up to the desk at my gate to inquire why they haven't assigned me a seat yet. I am told I was supposed to have gone to the Transfers desk (10 minutes away) to get my actual boarding pass. Shit. I haul ass to the transfers desk, wait in line for 20 minutes to get my seat, get assured that my bag will indeed be on the plane, and haul ass back to my gate (I'm pretty sure running in sandals with luggage causes shin splints). I get back just in time for them to make an all too familiar announcement.
The plane will be delayed due to technical difficulties. At this point, I am not even surprised so I go to find a place to sit. I see that the only open spot is on the ground next to a girl who looks like she is about to burst into tears. After listening to her talk on the phone, I realize she speaks English as her first language (the first person I have noticed in Rome to do so) and I start a conversation with her once she ends her phone call. Apparently, she has had a pretty similar travel experience as me and we both take turns venting about our travel nightmares. I learn that she is from Australia and will be staying in the fancy airport hotel. She invites me to stay with her, and I graciously accept. Finally, I have found a saving grace in this experience. We pass the time together (another 4 hours) and eventually board the plane.
I wish I could say this plane ride went better than the first. No such luck. In fact, there were several moments where the turbulence was so violent I was certain I would never be arriving in Athens. But thankfully, we somehow made it safely. Upon arriving, my new friend Zoe and I make our way to baggage claim. 20 minutes go by and the majority of the passengers have left with their luggage, and I am still waiting. 5 minutes later, I realize I am seeing the same luggage going around the conveyor belt. This can't be happening! Finally, I come to the realization that although I have finally made it to Athens, my luggage has not.
I spend the next 40 minutes filing a claim for my luggage and willing myself not to burst into tears. Thank goodness for Zoe or I think I would have had a very serious and public meltdown. It is now nearly 5am (I have barely slept in the past 40 hours), and we make our way to our hotel. Luckily, the hotel was wonderful and I fell asleep easily, knowing that when I woke up things would have to be better. Luckily for me, I was finally right.

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Comments

[Laura Shelton]

Oh....My.....God!!!!
Tiff, I cannot believe all you have gone through to get where you are! UGH! You MUST write a letter to the airline and detail your horrific experience. They at least owe you a flight voucher for God's sake! On the bright side, YAY for new friends! Make the most of your time in Greece <3