Dear Family and Friends, I realize that I never posted about our trip home. It was NOT uneventful! So even though most of my readers have probably forgotten about this blog even more than I have, I will write up the story of our last adventure for posterity.
A day before our departure, I received an email from the airline (Air France) that our itinerary had been changed. Instead of flying through Atlanta, we would fly through NYC, but we would ultimately end up in Charlotte at the same time, so no biggie.
We packed up all our things, cleaned out the apartment, and departed the day before our flights so that I could return the car during the business day; get our requisite Covid tests (they were all negative); and be within a short distance of the airport terminal so that we could get all our bodies and luggage to the airport on time. (Michael generously advised me to go ahead and hire a taxi for the short trip from the airport hotel to the airport terminal - although my frugal self initially felt like it would be a "waste." It wasn't!)
Au revoir, Limoges!
A much needed adult refreshment at the end of a long day of driving, herding children and suitcases, etc.
The morning of Dec 22, we checked our bags, got our boarding passes for all three flights and waited for our first flight. The short flight from Toulouse to Paris was uneventful as well as the overseas flight from Paris to New York.
On the first flight!
The kids got invited to check out the cockpit!
Most of my kids are into "cubing." Simon enjoyed finding this souvenir cube (although he didn't buy it because the components aren't good enough for cube snobs.)
That's our flight to the States!
On the transatlantic flight!
Once we got to the States, we had to collect our suitcases, go through customs and then re-check our bags for the last leg of our journey.
We waited at the gate for our flight to Charlotte. Once they started calling passengers to board, we got in line, then presented our boarding passes. The scanner blinked red. The attendant tried the other passes. They blinked red too. He checked the computer. WE WERE NOT ON THE PASSENGER LIST! So we had boarding passes, yet we were not ticketed!!
The attendant there told us he had to finish boarding everyone else so he couldn't help us. He told me to ask another Delta agent at another gate to help us out. I started running as fast as I could to the other gate, which was not close by... initially with the kids behind me, but then I decided they had better just stay in one place and let me run. I explained the situation and she said I could go back to the other gate and by the time I got there it would be sorted out. I turned around and ran as fast as I could back to the gate, taking the kids along with me. When we got there, it hadn't been sorted out. We still couldn't board the flight. The attendant at that gate told us he had to leave; he couldn't help us right now; he gave me a toll free number to call in order to sort it out.
We were devastated. Some of cried. Some of us threw tantrums. It was a crushing blow after so anxiously anticipating our homecoming. We hadn't seen Michael for five months. It was almost Christmas. We were exhausted and homesick.
The kids and our carry-ons at the abandoned, empty gate after we were left behind.
Exhausted after a full day of travel already.
The lady on the phone at Delta was very nice. Much nicer than the attendant at the airport, but she was very limited in what she could do. It was already after 8pm and there simply weren't any more flights out of New York. We would have to leave the next day: December 24th. The earliest flight that she was able to put us on was in the afternoon. She looked at other airlines as well, but since it wasn't her airline, she coudln't book more than 4 seats on another carrier. I had no choice but to accept the late afternoon flight with her, but she advised me to find a "Red Coat" Agent at the airport who should be able to help me out more than she could.
Lo and behold, the Red Coat Agent on duty was the very same gate attendant who had already blown us off earlier. He found us an earlier flight departing from La Guardia, but then told us we would have to book our own hotel and ask Air France for reimbursement. I refused to accept that excuse because I purchased our tickets directly from Delta, and if they had an issue with their partners that was their problem, not mine. (Not to mention there is no way on God's Green Earth that I would ever be able to get reimbursement via French bureaucracy!)
He rolled his eyes at me and then acquiesced to call an off site manager to obtain permission to get us a hotel and taxi vouchers. Then he began to book us a hotel and said he couldn't because we would need two rooms and we didn't have two adults over the age of 21. I implored him to try something else! Call a "suites" hotel! Find another solution! Do something! Anything! Don't make us sleep in the airport! He called the hotel back and then simply booked the two rooms for us, shrugged his shoulders because they didn't actually ask him about the ages of the people in our party and it ultimately wasn't an issue.
So we went begrudgingly to the hotel for one more night before we could come home. (Same clothes we had already been wearing for at least a day and a half, etc. At least we had our toothbrushes!) Three people to a bed. Although, I was tired and emotional, and the kids were too, I did remind them (and myself) to thank God in all things. It was a hard pill to swallow, but we still had so much to be grateful for and it was our duty to by mindful of our blessings and not waste the opportunity to unite our sufferings with Christ and cultivate sympathy and compassion for people in worse situations than our own.
Finally on the plane to Charlotte. Michael wanted visual proof that we were on our way!
In the air and on our way!!
Once we got to the Charlotte airport, we collected our luggage which had arrived the previous day. Somewhere along the line though, I lost my coat. Oh well!
Home at last! We basically went straight to my Father-in-Law's house for the annual Wood Family Gathering.
Home for Christmas!
Annual Christmas photo in front of the crèche.
Annual family photo at Church.
17th Anniversary date. December 27, 2021
After taking a couple weeks to decompress and reorient myself to our life back home, immerse ourselves in the holiday celebrations, I wrote a complaint to Delta explaining the aforementioned saga.
It took three months for them to reply to me, but they finally did last week!! Their response was apologetic and they gave us six gift cards as a consolation.
* * *
When people ask me about the trip I tell them that it was very ambitious. It was hard. I'm glad that I did it, but it was a lot of work and I won't be doing it again any time soon! If ever. At the very least, I have decided that I don't care to travel with anyone under the age of 12. 😅 Who knows if this has opened any doors that might lead to some of the children returning on their own someday.
I had some mental challenges when we first returned because there were so many things I simply hadn't thought about in five months. My brain felt very rusty. We also got very busy right away once the school term and all the usual activities started up again. We had to hit the ground running and we haven't stopped since!
No comments:
Post a Comment