Well I’m back, finally, and it feels great! Traveling for 2 and a half weeks is a long time to be away and I think next time I’m going to settle on going on a cruise or something (at least on a cruise you don’t have to move your luggage around every 4th day or so.)

Anyways I’m going to introduce my trip in parts. This is the first part. And I’m starting with the stressful beginning I had leaving Chicago. Here is my answer and experience to when your flight is cancelled or you have a stressful part to any of your travels.

Day 1

It all started fine as I left in the early morning from my apartment in downtown Chicago to the airport using the Blue line. Early morning flights are hard and I wouldn’t recommend taking them if you have long travels ahead (unless you’re that person on my flights that can follow asleep before we even take off… in that case I hate you…). So I show up at the airport and already there is a problem with my reservation. I was traveling to New Delhi, India and if you’re traveling to India and staying you need a visa. But I was connecting through to Kathmandu, Nepal. Because I was flying out of New Delhi on a different flight itinerary than I used to get to New Delhi, American thought I was traveling to India without a visa. Somehow I was able to convince the person checking me in that I did have a ticket and he seemed like he only needed my word. So I was able to get all my flights confirmed and I was set to go.

Boarded my flight and took some time contemplating my travels and the long journey ahead of me. How would I get into the city of Helsinki and what would Nepal be like? Questions got me excited but as I was soon to find out that it’s pointless to ask these questions. Getting to the destination and living in the moment is important when traveling, especially when events out of your control happen.

First flight, from Chicago to Cleveland, went smoothly although there were storms passing through Ohio that later would move on to New York. I didn’t think the storms were even that bad so I didn’t think of the worse thing that could happen…

Cancellation!

Yes to every traveler that is the worst outcome of your flight. Cancellation. When I got to Cleveland everything was still on time but then came the delays. The delays kept changing and soon my flight was now 1 hour and 45 minutes late. I still didn’t think anything of it. It was delayed but they kept on assuring me that I would get on the flight and I could make it to New York on time.

Tip #1 – “Don’t take anybody’s word as the absolute truth. Follow your gut. Find answers out for yourself and make a wise decision.”

Yes please follow my first tip. If I learned anything about this trip is that people sometimes know what they are talking about and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes isn’t enough when you are traveling. You need confirmation to make decisions and to move on. Follow your gut and what you know deep down is probably the truth.

Let me continue with my story.

I actually boarded my flight and we started to taxi. I’m excited because I’m thinking that I will get to New York and continue my travels… and then the captain comes on and announced the worse. We have to taxi back and the flight is cancelled!! WHAT… like really…. I made it to Cleveland, Ohio only to have my flight cancelled. The only reason I was going through Cleveland was because American made me. Back when I was booking my ticket my advantage miles didn’t get me from Chicago direct to New Delhi. They only had availability from New York to New Delhi. Therefore I had to get myself to New York which means I had to pay for my own ticket and be on a different itinerary… This would become the root of my problems.

Tip #2 – “Make sure that you are booking on the same itinerary. Make sure that you try to get the least amount of connections when traveling. More connections means the likely hood of more problems with flights or problems with people, etc.”

So now I was stuck in Cleveland, crying on a bench because I felt stupid (I really wasn’t this was all out of my hands). Now American was telling me that I wouldn’t get out until June 1st and wouldn’t arrive until June 3rd. There was no way that was going to work for me so I gathered myself and started to make the first steps into finding a solution. I had to leave the terminal to go to American Airlines check in and tried with them to book a new itinerary.

In short is was a no go. They wouldn’t help me out and they wouldn’t rebook my flight. They kept on saying the same thing… “That because I had different itineraries they couldn’t help me out even if it was their fault.”

So now who do I call? Who is going to help me? The staff at the check in had no idea and they worked for the airline (pretty terrible to me). They wanted me to call Finnair even though I had booked through American (you see when you book with your frequent flyer miles you still have to call the airline you booked the miles with. I was using Finnair because they are part of the OneWorld alliance but I’m not part of their mile system therefore they can’t help me). So I couldn’t call Finnair.

And that is where the trust in myself had to come in. I knew what American was saying to me was wrong. Why would Finnair help me? I booked through American… But they assisted so I called Finnair and got what I was expecting… They couldn’t help me.

And so now I supposedly had to call the Frequent Flyer program of American. I seriously spent 1 hour and 15 minutes waiting for a representative to talk to me. That was an anxious time because it was already around 4:00pm and I had no seats confirmed anywhere. So after waiting for an hour I went back up to the check in counter and showed them how long I was waiting and that I needed help to get to anywhere. Then a man decided to help me…

And here is what he said “You can get to New York tonight… there is a flight…” I was ready to explode! What! I was just told 2 hours ago that there was no such flight and that it was all full. But he gave me a ticket and told me that I’m better off in New York than in Cleveland, which was true.

So I got my ticket and went back in the terminal. And finally I got someone to speak to me about changing my flight to New Delhi, India. Convenient that it was when I was going through the TSA line… I seriously had to put my phone down into the converyer belt while it was going through the security with the women on the other line still on hold.

I basically flat out told her that I need to get to New Delhi as quick as possible and that I will go through any European city that I need to. She told me the same thing. I was on a different itinerary that was affected by the storm so she can’t change it.

Tip #3 – “No is not an answer.”

Don’t let someone tell you no because when it comes to traveling there is always another way. Always a different route through. The fact was that I needed to get to New Delhi as quick as possible and I couldn’t afford to miss any more days. It would have ruined my whole schedule so I was willing to do anything and go anywhere.

I flat-out told the women on the other line that I had to book a different itinerary to New York because American would not get me to New Delhi from Chicago… then her tone changed… she started to become more sympathizing and understood that bottom-line I need to get to New Delhi. I didn’t care about protocol, American was going to have to make an exception. So I started listing off European cities that I could connect through.

Helsinki
Frankfurt
Munich
London
Paris
Rome
Madrid
Barcelona
Brussels…

I was able to secure a flight to New Delhi through London but it would cost me dearly… taxes through London airport are ridiculous… so then she was able to look up a different flight that was all booked (apparently) and to see if she could get me on somehow.

I’m not sure how she did it but she was able to secure a flight from New York to Brussels to New Delhi (I would have to change my flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu, but that was the easy part). Whatever after 1.5 hours on the phone I had flights confirmed for tomorrow and I would get into Nepal a day later now. Wow what a day and what a let down. I made it only 300 miles on my first day of traveling. Not a good start.

So I still waited on my flight to New York but I was convinced now that the flight wouldn’t leave. Again they reassured everybody that this flight will probably leave on time so don’t worry (again believe your gut instinct because it could save you from being the person who is left out in the end).

I realized that a lot of these flights were being cancelled to New York today and that this flight was probably going to be cancelled as well. And while on the phone to change my last flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu I had overheard people talking at the front desk.

Tip #4 – “Make sure you are ease-dropping always (at-least at airports). Don’t be complacent and sit where you can’t hear information. Overhearing people talking can save you time and money.”

While on the phone I had happen to overhear that the seats for tomorrow to New York were still available but they were going fast. So I had a decision to make. I could try to go tonight or I could just exchange my ticket and leave tomorrow. I choose the latter because in the end my flight was the next day anyways and I had realized that if I didn’t make this flight tonight that everybody would be rebooking for tomorrow. So I choose to pull myself off the flight and to be one of last tickets for the next day.

And what a smart choice I made. Because indeed the flight was to be cancelled and I had reserved one of the last tickets for the following day. It was a moment of insight for me. I had already lost the idea that I was getting to Nepal the next day and accepted the fact that I was already going to be a day behind.

Tip #5 – “Accept the things you can’t change quickly. No point in crying on a bench when the outcome won’t change. Take swift action and accept a new path.”

By the end of the day I had spent 6 hours on the phone rearranging my flights, spent 9 hours at the Cleveland airport and only had traveled 300 miles. Meanwhile my partner, who I would be traveling with, was already on his way to Europe. So I called my family, talked to them about my awful day, and my dad was nice enough to get my a hotel for the night.

Hard lesson learned here. I had everything planned perfectly but it was thrown to chaos after just one bad connection. I dealt with it as best I could and the trip was saved. Moral of the story, I accepted the reality of the situation and moved on…

I have plenty of more stories about my trip and I plan to keep writing and posting them on my blog days. This was lengthy but it was important to include all the information and the lessons I learned here. Traveling is about learning from your mistakes a lot of the time and sometimes realizing that it’s beyond your control. For the next parts click below!