I had the travel experience from
hell this past weekend. I was supposed to board American Airlines at National
airport to Norfolk to attend the TCE Summit. I was excited in the Uber en route
to DC airport when I got this cancellation email. Immediately I called the
customer service and that lady was a grade A witch. She told me that she
cancelled my entire reservation because I did not want to fly out of Baltimore,
layover in Charlotte then fly to Norfolk. That would had taken 5 hours. I hung
up on her returning home to book a Sunday American Airline plane ticket then
Amtrak business ticket to Newport News. I arrived at Union Station at 5:30pm
but the train was late boarding everyone at 6:15pm instead of 5:50pm meaning
that I didn’t get into Newport News until 10:50pm. The only thing keeping me
calm was talking with my girlfriend. My train ride was the first stop because I
had to board a transfer bus from Newport News to Norfolk. Finally, I had to
call Uber to my hotel arriving after midnight. What angered me the most was
that I was unable to eat dinner with my father. My saving grace was that he was
still up when I arrived there (and offered me a piece of chicken because I
refused to pay exorbitant food rates on Amtrak).
Newport News Amtrak Station
I
spent all Saturday morning recuperating and overcoming my travel headache which
I attributed to downing caffeine. My father said that he would be on the road
at 6am so I drug myself out of bed, put on my business slacks and took a photo
with my Dad because that was what I initially wanted on Friday night. I posted
it on Facebook and Instagram ASAP. My Dad stayed an extra day to see me and
that photo represented redemption. American Airlines could not hold me down!
After he left, I crashed missing half of the TCE Summit.
Dad and I at the Norfolk Springhill Suites
I made it to the
other session. Then we had lunch.
Afterward I was stuck at the Me/Self table which I did not understand because I
took time out for myself. What I hated was this woman who complained to us
about her being invisible to her husband but when I called her on it she played
victim. I did not need that. Furthermore, I noticed that some reason there was
always 1 crazy at my conference table. I should attract better. I took my
photo, did a Periscope and returned back to my room to await my Ohio State
game.
Sunday morning I
was ready to fly out to DC. My flight was 10:05am and I left at 8:30am to
ensure that I was there on time. Nope! American delayed my first an hour. On
top of that, my original return flight ticket was honored. I tweeted the
airline immediately because that meant that I bought a duplicate ticket. Things
got worse because I ended up waiting 3 hours and 45 minutes for my flight to
leave. That was the worst flight experience I ever had. Although I applied for
my refund Sunday night, I spent Monday and Tuesday recovering from the hellish
travel weekend courtesy of American. I am sticking with United and Delta after
this!
Norfolk Airport outside
