A Travel Miracle

There I was, sitting on the plane typing up my earlier blog, and we had already been sitting stagnant at our gate for about 45 minutes.  Seemed like normal rain delay at first.  This was supposed to be my second and final leg of my flight to Paris.  Warning flags started popping up that this flight might never leave the ground, but I was not paying attention at first.  The fact that the flight attendants continued to announce that we would be delayed another 15 minutes should have been my first clue.  A second clue lurked beneath the surface that we had yet to even leave our gate.  A third and more glaring clue that I should have keyed in on was the fact that the hatch was open and they continued to make various opportunities for people to get off the plane for a few minutes to walk around or grab a snack.  Our flight was originally scheduled to leave at 5 PM, and by about 10 PM I was taking one of the opportunities to leave and get back on the plane.  About this time was when I started to think maybe I should call the airlines to start figuring out my back up plan (a seasoned traveler knows to do this and I learned this trick from my dad).  Once back on the plane still hoping my flight would take off I made the call to United Customer Service and had an agent on the phone right away.  We started discussing back up plan options, and in the midst of our conversation they announced that our flight was cancelled and that we needed to disembark the plane.  Scramble mode kicked in for myself and the agent, and as I disembarked the plane I noticed that the gate check area had about half the people from the flight trying to get answers or re-booked.  And then about the other half of the plane went running to the customer service desk that already had a line, since many flights had been overly delayed or cancelled today.  Internally to myself I laughed and knew I was part of a select few that knew how to best handle this situation to get on the next available flight out of D.C.  The only direct flight to Paris the next day was already overbooked, and other flights trying to connect in other European destinations was looking grim too from what my agent was telling me.  I started being pro-active and went to the departure board to see what flights were headed for Europe the rest of the night.  Since some had been delayed due to the weather, I thought there might be a chance of finding another flight I could jump on.  I knew if I could make it to most any major city in Europe tonight that I would have no problem finding a connecting flight into Paris.  United Airlines is partnered with Lufthansa, and I saw on the board a flight to Munich that had been delayed and might still be at the gate.  I went running through the D.C. airport full speed towards this gate.  But whoever designed the D.C. airport thought it would be a funny trick to make it a maze.  There are trains like in the Denver airport that take you to different terminals. Yet at every stop they tell you that you can disembark to get to all gates and it is unclear where you are really at.  The Munich flight was at gate B42 and after getting lost several times trying to get to that terminal I started to realize my chances were bleak.  I found the gate around 11:15 PM, but the flight was already long gone.  Still not completely discouraged, I started walking to where there were still people at other gates to see if there was anything I could maybe try to get on.  In all of this airport, there was only one more flight headed to Europe, a British Airways flight headed for London.  Keep in mind that this whole time I have my headphones connected to my phone and I am working with the United Airlines agent to find out what we can do.  I head to the ticketing counter for the London flight and at this moment I am on hold with the agent.  I ask the lady if there are any seats on the flight and she tells me that it is full.  Thinking I will try to figure out the next step, she runs after me as I walk away to tell me that she thinks if I can get on the flight in standby that she can get me on the flight.  My agent finally comes back on the line again and tells me he has a flight reserved for me the next day on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and has the connecting flight from there to Paris secured too.  I told him about this option to London and he tells me that he doesn't think we can make it happen.  But at this point I figure that I have nothing to loose and I will do almost anything to get on this flight so I ask him to try anyway.  I have him talking to the ticketing agent on my phone so that hopefully between the two of them they can come up with a solution.  The British Airways agent says he has no idea how to make it happen and gets his supervisor involved.  At this point they are boarding the flight and I still don't have a ticket.  I am watching people board this aircraft right next to me, and I know with each person that boards my window gets closer and closer to closing on me completely.  Yet I am still hanging on and hoping this agent will come through for me.  As the last person boards this plane and I have already been standing here for a good 20 minutes I start to think my agent won't come through.  The agent working the desk tells me that he will have to close the door soon and I am listening to this awful hold music that seems to never end!  My agent can't hear me while I am on hold and this makes it even harder to bear.  As the agent reaches for the radio to give them the go ahead to close the door my agent suddenly comes back on the line and says he has the reservation confirmed for me! I could hardly believe it!  I immediately stop the agent and hand him the phone.  Within about another 2 minutes they have me running down the boarding gate area with a ticket in hand.  I don't even have the right seat on the flight and they put me in the business world class area.  What a great upgrade after such a long day!  I think I smiled and laughed a bit to myself for the first 45 minutes of my flight after we took off.  I never even left my seat for the flight, I think out of fear that it wasn't real and I wanted to be sure I made it into London.  At any rate, I prayed almost the whole time I was running around and sweating bullets until that last minute when my agent came through.  I believe God showed up and granted me this flight!  A great moment like this just had to be highlighted.  I am happy to say that I finally made it and am sitting in Paris now as I type this up and wait for my beautiful girlfriend to arrive here as well.  I can't say what next adventure awaits me around the corner, but I do hope they are a little smoother! Ha!  And a big thanks to both United Airlines and British Airways for working together to make this happen!  I know my girlfriend and I are very grateful!  I also hope this story helps others in the future when they run into trouble and how to handle it...also, I hope many of you will also take note that it helps to be a nice and courtesy person in any situation.  Getting upset and being rude will get you no where, I watched it happen.  When tensions are high, keep your cool and provide honey to the situation, you will be happy you did!