New York - LAX - Melbourne

---

30th August, 2022

Got up around 8am, showered and packed the last minute stuff into our suitcases. We still had a bit of alcohol left but couldn’t take it with us and neither could the boys so we donated it to the cleaning staff who were very appreciative.

The doorman downstairs organised a taxi for us to go to JFK airport. Another harrowing experience. I swear New York drivers have a death wish.

We had plenty of time to get some lunch before our 2pm flight so we had a drink and something to eat in the sports bar and watched some of the tennis.

At 1.15pm we were called to board and we were given the exit row seats which meant extra leg room. Yay! We reversed out right on time. Then everything went to shit.

We stopped on the tarmac as the pilots had discovered a problem with the air conditioning. We waited and waited and after about 30 minutes, were told we were going back to the gate and we had to disembark while they attended to the problem.

We kept getting told it would be fixed soon but after 3 hours, they said the plane wasn’t going anywhere and they would get us another plane. That’s when we really started to panic as the time was getting slimmer and slimmer for us to connect with our flight to Australia. I decided to call Flight Centre to see what they could do for us and they were very helpful in getting our Melbourne flight rebooked.

Our LAX flight was called to board at 7pm and then we sat on the tarmac for 2.5 hours waiting to take off. There was approximately 30 planes ahead of us also ready for takeoff. There was storms in the area so those planes going west had to be redirected around the storms which caused the backlog. Finally at 9:30pm we took off.

It was a smooth flight with no storms. We were served a cheese platter about an hour into the flight and we landed in LAX at about 1am. As soon as we landed, Courtney, our travel agent called to say she was organising a new flight for us. Thank god for her coz I was getting nowhere with getting flights organised.

We then had to fight the airline for a hotel room as they had caused us to miss our connection. They didn’t want to admit they had done anything wrong but I convinced them that they needed to get us somewhere to sleep.

We ended up at the Hilton at LAX stressed, tired and bad tempered. Not a nice way to end what was a sensational holiday.

---