Nightmare Holiday Travel when You Have to Be at Work the Next Day

When I was in my thirties, I worked for the Boeing company as a systems analyst and took a job as a Boeing Automated Software Engineering consultant in Huntsville, Alabama. The job provided many bonuses included extra pay, per diem, housing and a car and lots of overtime along with the adventure of visiting a part of the country where I'd never visited before. One perk was I was able to go home every three months at the company's cost, so I went home, then to Germany on vacation and back home. Just before Thanksgiving, I was due back at work and travel isn't just the same as when you're going off to the beach or on some new adventure.

Travel to the East Coast Time Change Nightmare

Travel to the East coast of the United States from the west can be trying due to the three hour gain in time. Most flights leave the Seattle area early in the morning and you always have two hours early to get checked onto your plane, these things I can handle, but it did make starting work the next day seem a dreadful chore when I would arrive at 8:30pm and needed to get settled into my new apartment.

Travel by Airplane when Sick

And of course I got sick. The travel was already booked, the boss was expecting me the next day, and this time I brought my cats with me for the company. Travel when you are running a 102 degree fever isn't so bad, you'd likely spend the day in bed anyway, and some of the decongestants can help you sleep so I wouldn't even notice the time passing. It's not very friendly to you seat mates, especially on a fully booked plane, but I didn't really have a choice. So I brought a book, turned my face to the airplane seat window and prepared to forget my whereabouts.

The Screamer Arrives

Just as I turned my page, this woman stands over me and points her finger, yelling over the hubbub in the airplane of people finding their seats. "What are you doing in MY seat? That's my seat. Get out of my seat." I weakly looked up, swallowed over my achy throat and said, "No, it isn't. Here's my ticket, it shows that this is my seat."

The woman threw my ticket back at me, yelling "we'll see about this." She stalked back up the aisle way, yelling at the stewardesses. Meanwhile, folks in the airplane were giving me sympathetic looks and I just shrugged thinking, I got here first.

The Stewardess and the Screamer Return

"Excuse me, Miss. You will have to move," the harried stewardess said.

"But this is my seat." I hand her my ticket and she looks at it, sees I have an original ticket booked three weeks prior and with the airplane seat confirmed and takes the screamers which is a write in and walks off, "I'll see what I can do about this."

They returned several minutes later, "Okay, here's your new ticket, you'll have to move, Miss, and talk to the staff at Dallas, you will need to find a seat on your next plane."

My mouth dropped open in shock. At that point I wished I had the strength to argue and make as much noise in return, but I really felt putrid. So rather than prolong the agony when I just wanted to sleep, I moved to the other airplane seat. To a middle airplane seat. I felt so bad about all the people I was exposing to illness. And that closing sentence, that wasn't right. "What about the next flight?"

The stewardess shook her head, threw her hands into the air and said, "talk to the folks in Dallas".

So I let it go, but all the time I'm thinking, what if they don't have a airplane seat on the next flight? What will happen to my cats?

Dallas Airport Makes Things Sort of All Right

They find me a seat on the next airplane, but not until I take up permanent residence blocking the ticketer's booth saying "I have to be on the next airplane, my cats are on board." I complained about my treatment aboard the airplane and having to be moved another airplane seat, but they just shoved a new airplane seat assignment ticket at me and I let it go, taking another couple decongestants, aspirin and drinking orange juice on the three hour layover.

Dallas Flight Delayed by Lightning

They kept changing the flight time by twenty minutes and then after an hour and a half later than scheduled, they finally boarded up for the flight. Now I was arriving at 10pm instead of 8:30.

The Apartment Manager Office is Closed

So, the flight ended up not too bad, I was late, but still able to make work the next day, and they even had a car available and kept the rental car agencies there an extra hour, so all was pretty good. Until I went looking for the new apartment and found the office closed. It was now 11pm and I had no place to stay. I circled the place several times, looked for a phone number but didn't have a phone, so finally I gave up and went to the hotel where I'd stayed before, hoping I wouldn't have to pay for the second room since Boeing was paying for the other apartment.

Cats Require a Non Refundable $150 Dollar Deposit

Well, the hotel took me, found me a room, and let me move in, after paying a $150 dollar non-refundable deposit, ouch. So I move the cats in, unload my luggage and go looking for a grocery store for cat food because my cats are yowling and I need more medicine and breakfast and lunch foods.

No Sale Bottle of Wine

So I get my supplies, grab a bottle of wine thinking it might be nice one night and get to the check stand and find they can't sell alcohol on Sundays. That was such a small ding, I just blushed and had them set it aside but couldn't help feeling entirely disgraced and abused and it was after 12 and I was only going to get 5 hours of sleep and I didn't know what I was going to do with the cats if the apartment manager wasn't open before work, but I really didn't need to be humiliated, too.

The Night From Hell

The cats who had behaved entirely comfortably the last time we were at the hotel took offense at the new room. The spent the entire night, jumping off the bed, making a circuit of the room howling, then jumping back on the bed. By 7 a.m, I called my boss, told him I was sick, had no room, had no sleep and nowhere to put my cats and I would be in the next day.

Luckily, the nightmare ended the next day. My boss understood. Boeing by the way, picked up the costs for the hotel room and the deposit for the cats. It pays to work for a good company, it really does, even if you can't do anything about circumstances.