Safe at Home

I have made it safely home, though it took a lot more effort and energy that I would have liked or hoped. Here is the story in a nutshell.

I was leaving from Newark Airport and flying into LAX via Minneapolis. My train ride to the airport was painless; very easy and convenient, so I had arrived at the airport by 11:30 for a 1:15 flight. Plenty of time.

Or not. When I arrived at the airport, the one of the sets of gates - including the gate I was departing from - was closed. No one was allowed in and everyone was being evacuated from that section of the airport. When we asked the police officer, he very rudely informed us that the area simply wasn't safe and told us to wait. So we travelers have no idea what is going on. Is it a bomb threat? Is it an injured passenger? Is it something ridiculous?

Turns out it's a natural gas leak. Better yet, it is a natural gas leak that had happened the day before as well. But so far it hadn't become too frustrating because we were told that all the flights were going to be departing from different gates. Great, no problem, I had a two hour cushion to get to Minneapolis to get to my next flight. So I go through the new set of gates to get to my flight.

Now the way Newark sets up their security is that you go through security not when you initially enter the airport but when you enter your specific set of gates. So I go through security and wait to eventually get on my flight. When the Northwest people arrive, they start boarding a flight for Detroit. By this point it's about 1:00, and my parents have let me know that my flight has been delayed to leave at 2:00. Still no problem. So I ask the northwest people when the flight from Minneapolis is leaving. They tell me it's still leaving from it's original gate in the closed off section of the airport. After talking to security and them telling me that all northwest flights are leaving from the new set of gates, I go back to the northwest people who tell me that, no, it's still leaving from it's original gate.

So I go to the northwest check-in counters, where I am told that yes, the flight is leaving from the original gate. I set up a back up booking now, just in case I miss my next flight, because it's now 1:30, and that entire section if airport is still closed. So I am forced to wait for another hour before they finally open that section of the airport. I have to go through security, again, and then I board my flight.

We're supposed to take off at 2:45, 3:15 at the latest. That's still enough time for me to reach my next flight. But there's still another problem: baggage was never loaded, so we're forced to wait another hour hour before we finally take off. It's about 3:45 at this point. My next flight is supposed to leave at 5:15.

Needless to say, I missed my flight. No big deal, I still can get home on my other flight, but I'm going to miss dinner with my family and friends, which I was really disappointed about. So I arrive at my next gate for the flight. It's on time, so that's good. I go to get a quick bite to eat because I haven't had much to eat at this point. I return to my gate to find that my flight has been delayed by 15 minutes. No big deal, after a two and a half hour delay, this is fine. So we finally board the flight ... and once again we're stuck sitting at the gate. Turns out there are some customs problems with some of the crew for our flight who are coming in from Canada, so our flight is delayed by yet another 20 minutes. So we finally take off. Smooth flight.

I arrive at LAX and my parents pick me up. Getting picked up from LAX is a nightmare in itself, but this time is was not too bad. So we're on our way home. I'm eating my fish tacos from Rubios. We get to the 605 and our exit, ready to go home. Until we find that the exit is blocked. A big rig stalled out and it left the entire exit blocked. So we have to drive over a island separating the exit from the freeway, get back on the freeway, and exit on the 210. It wasn't a huge delay, but it capped off a day of travel characterized by delay.

But the good news is I'm safe at home. I'm probably going to call up Northwest and find out how I am going to be compensated for this mess. I realize but it wasn't completely their fault, but the fact that they were able to get one of their flights to leave from a different gate means they could have done it for others as well. It's just a matter of whether I really want to take the time or not. Anyway, that's my story.