When I say I love traveling, I mean it. I love arriving at the destination, exploring and inevitably falling in love with the place. I think it is such a privilege to be able to mark off the places you’ve been to, collect souvenirs that will forever remind you of your time there, and fondly look back on the memories you made.
After this experience, I’m not sure I still hold those sentiments.
Last week I traveled to Neuchȃtel, Switzerland for a skating competition. The travel day from my worst nightmares started Wednesday at Addison Ice Arena at 5:30 in the morning. We had a practice that went until 8, and had to be at the airport at 8:45. No biggie. The airport was around ten minutes away from the rink and my coach was sure practice was going to be great and we would get out early, giving us even more time. Spoiler alert, this didn’t happen. 8 o’clock rolled around and we were hurriedly running off the ice and into our cars, packing away our skates and any last minute items we had needed at practice, and getting on the road as fast as possible.
Halfway to the airport we get a text from our coach stating that the FAA’s computer system has shut down and nationwide flights have been canceled or delayed, but our flight was only delayed an hour and should be fine. We had a layover in New Jersey, but this wouldn’t be affected by the delay. Perfect. We have time! We were excited that maybe now we would be able to run to Starbucks after security. It turns out we had more than enough time to do so.
3 hours and another delay later, we were finally able to board our flight. At this point, I was already annoyed with the day and over airports and flying and we weren’t even in the air yet. Despite all of the troubles we faced to get in the air, the flight itself was quite nice. Until we landed.
We had an hour from the time we were supposed to land in Newark and when our flight to Geneva would begin boarding. But when we landed, the pilot alerted us that because of the outage early, many flights had been delayed and therefore there were no gates open for our plane. We would have to wait until one opened up, but it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes tops. Lies. I think pilots should stop estimating how much time anything will take because never once have they been correct in my experience.
Finally (!!) we were able to park and get ready to exit the plane. By now, boarding had started and was due to end in less than 30 minutes and the gate we needed to get to was a ten minute walk away according to the Google maps. It felt like time was moving alarmingly fast as we all got off the plane and did a headcount to make sure all 30 skaters were present before we started running to our new gate. I’m not a runner, nor will I ever be a runner, and that sprint was easily one of the hardest things I’ve done in a while. 0/10 recommend running through a crowded airport with your carry on luggage.
Eventually, everyone and all of their luggage made it to the plane and we were able to get to Switzerland with no further difficulties. I pray I never experience anything like that again in the future. In the end, I guess it was all worth it. We came back to the US with a silver medal and memories that will last a lifetime.
Hey Abbi, I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to start off by mentioning how cool it is that you travel all the way to Switzerland for skating competitions. Travelling for a sports team is interesting, but this is the whole next level of travel sports. Getting to experience many different countries and destinations must be an incredibly valuable experience, although I’m sure it interferes with school significantly. I can certainly say I’ve had similar experiences with flights, and 100% agree with your statement concerning pilot’s promises. Rather than state that a gate would open up in a few minutes, I think it’d be preferable for them to not say anything so that the people on the flight don’t set an expectation for their own mental sake and so they don’t commit to transportation based on their expected arrival time. I had a similar experience recently with connecting flights as well; when we landed in Amman, Jordan, on our way back from our trip to India, we had merely minutes to catch our connecting flight back home to Chicago, and that included 3 sets of international customs/immigration. Either way, I’m glad you were able to successfully make it to Switzerland and back, and congrats on the accolades you all took home!
Hi Abbi,
I was honestly quite surprised to read about your experience. I didn’t realize you were so competitively involved in ice skating. I’d be happy to read more blogs about what it is like.
During this winter break, I also happened to travel abroad and visit family. Unfortunately I had a similar experience to yours. We spent a week in India before our own return journey. I can’t say I’m happy that someone had such a terrible experience parallel to my own, but it is what it is . My sister and I traveled back from India alone where right off the bat our flight was canceled and the next one would come the next day. After returning back to my grandparents’ abode, my sister and I ventured forth once again. After 5 hours in the airport, our flight decided to take off. All in all, this time we spent 29 hours traveling door to door. Between immigration, delays, and layovers it easily became the longest journey in our family’s recorded history.
It can honestly be quite frustrating when you are stuck at the airport. I’m not sure why pilots are allowed to spread such rampant misinformation about departure times. One thing I would like to point out is that for me my journey home became an extension of my vacation while yours kept you from your destination. I think it allowed me to better enjoy all the travel.
Ugh what a travel nightmare Abbi!