I woke up early Monday morning to go to New York for customer meetings and I proceeded to have the worst travel experience of my life. It was noteworthy though and by the end I figured I would just chronically everything. This has been a rough sketch of my chain of events
- Wake up at 3:45 AM to catch my Laguardia flight through Detroit.
- Get to the airport and realized Jet Blue emailed me around 10PM the night before to say my flight was now 7:25 instead of 6:00 and going through Orlando instead of Detroit (I could have arrived an hour and a half later).
- Flight to Orlando is delayed and I have trouble sleeping on the flight.
- I arrive in Orlando and around 2PM and am told my 4PM flight to New York is delayed.
- The flight keeps delaying and delaying and delaying until I’m told around 6PM that the flight is cancelled.
- I wait on hold with global business traveler American Express for 30 minutes and finally get a helpful agent. We work together for 30 minutes to see if there is any way to make my lunch appointment the next day in New York.
- He finds one Jet Blue flight late at night, and he puts me on it.
- He calls back 30 minutes later to say the flight is full and so he was unable to get me a ticket.
- He confirms there is no way to get me to my lunch appointment on time.
- We explore options through Philadelphia and BWI that are getting crazier and crazier, and I didn’t find any options to get me there on time.
- I finally decide it’s a lost cause and ask for the first flight back to Salt Lake.
- They put me on 6:30 flight to Salt Lake that has been delayed and is now leaving at 8 so I have time to catch it. I have them put me on that flight and we will cancel the whole Delta trip.
- The flight to Salt Lake is reliant on a delayed flight coming from New York.
- The New York flight is more and more delayed, moving our departure time from 8, to 10, to 11, to midnight, to 1:30 AM.
- The New York flight arrives at 12:30, in time for our 1:30 AM departure, but only then do the gate agents realize the pilot is over his allotted working hours if he flies to salt lake and can’t do it (same with some of the crew).
- They ask us to hang tight because they are trying to recrew.
- While waiting, I hear gate agents talking about a white plains flight they are getting people on. It takes a little while, but I eventually connect the dots and realize (after a google search) that that is close to Manhattan. I go to that gate to see if I can get on (even though my ticket is now for salt lake) on the off chance I can still make my on-site, but the person before me (who I assume already had a white plains ticket) took the very last seat. So I go back to the gate for the salt lake flight.
- We wait an hour and a half, until about 2:00 AM, and then they announce that they were unable to recrew and the flight is cancelled.
- They send us to a line for the jet blue ticketing desk where four agents are helping rebook. The line has over 100 people in it (I’m number 60 or so).
- I also get on the phone with American Express (on hold) as a back up.
- The line starts moving well and I’m halfway there after 30 minutes, so I hang up with American Express thinking I’m making good progress. It’s now 3:15 AM.
- While in line, I get an automated message telling me the flight has been cancelled, but I can rebook online. I already tried rebooking not he app, but the app doesn’t recognize the flight has been cancelled, and then when I tried again, it freezes. The automated call tells me I can rebook online, however, when I try that, I get an error message and am unable to do it.
- The line comes to a screeching halt. A half hour goes by with almost zero progress (I will later learn that at a certain point Jet Blue only had availability on flights for 3 days later on July 1st (today is June 28, early in the morning, or night of the 27th considering I still hadn’t slept)
- This is about the moment the fire alarm goes off by accident, and we have an announcement and flashing strobe lights in the airport for the next hour.
- With the line no longer moving someone in the line starts to gather it’s not moving because they have no good options to get people home.
- It’s now almost 4AM and I ring American Express Global Business Traveler again for help and leave the line and find a place to sit. It’s now 4:23 AM waiting on hold with them trying to figure out if I stay at the airport for an early flight home with another airline, or if I grab a hotel for a later flight. I’m very confused, and very very tired.
- Many people are in my situation, but worse. One family had 6 kids, some of whom were actively crying.
- After 40 minutes being on hold (now 4:30 am) I get on concur myself to look at options. There is a 7:00 AM, but it’s too close to book through the concur website, so it says I need to call an agent (still on hold).
- I redownload the American Express global business travel app and plead for help in the chat
- I’m talking with someone within 10-15 minutes.
- While chatting, I notice I’m still on hold for an agent and it has been a full hour.
- While chatting, phone agent picks up.
- It takes 40 minutes for agent to find and process a Southwest flight for 7 hours later (12:20). Ticket number 5267978801767 confirmation #: 4MHNTW. 2890 Orlando 12:20 through Denver at 2:10. Leaves Denver at 6:50 at gets home late around 10:30 or 11:00.
- I head over to Southwest gate, getting there just before 6AM to try to get some rest.
- I rest from about 6 to a little after 10. I drift off a little, but mostly stay awake and just rest lying down on a bench.
- I then go through security again and catch my 12:30 flight to Denver.
- I arrive in Denver without incident, spend 3 hours for my layover and catch my 6:30 flight to Salt Lake without Incident.
- I arrive without incident, drive home and step in the door a little before 9PM in the exact same clothes that I left in.
three dots are app trying to load 
After waiting in line, I saw this announcement so I exited the line to rest/sleep on a bench 
alarms I set for myself while resting on a bench starting at 6AM so I wouldn’t miss my flight to Denver.