This is a long story of my journey home from the Stampin’ Up! convention – no stamping ideas or convention news in this post so you may or may not want to continue.

I don’t do a whole lot of traveling and only fly a couple times a year.  But it seems the last several times I flew I got caught up in the security check.  I’m usually the one that has to get their bag emptied (that happened last fall and the lady checking my bag really liked all my projects that I had in there but I was late for a flight and had to hurry along), or the extra scan and on my way out I got the mini pat down this time – ugh!  So coming home on Sunday I was sure that something would pop up while I was in security – but surprise I breezed right through the security at the Salt Lake City airport and I had tried something new – I had my boarding pass sent to my cell phone – so no paper to hang on to through out the airport.  I thought I was doing good – I was there early and even went to find Becky (one of my roommates) who as it turned out was in the same terminal I was and I was able to sit with her until she boarded her flight.

I returned to my gate to wait for my flight which should start boarding shortly – and there was even a plane there so that was a good sign – no delays on the incoming flight (I had that on the way out too).  I even found a group of other Stampin’ Up! ladies to sit and talk to and share swaps with.  But then the agent came onto the intercom and informed the group that we had a delay – the plane at the gate was damaged (no details given) and it could not be used – they were searching for another plane and would give us an update.  A delay causes problems for those with connecting flights – which wasn’t my case since I paid a hefty price for the the direct flight.  So no big deal I thought, I had already told the agent I was willing to wait until the next flight anyway (and he said I’d be the first on the list and get a $200 voucher).  And then a little while later the big announcement came – “Flight 1064 to Atlanta has been Cancelled”.  Ummmm – now what – I’m not a season traveler – I wasn’t sure what to do at this point.  According to the agent they had a “team” that was rebooking everyone on the flight to get to their destination and if we waited for a few minutes we could scan our boarding passes and see what flight we were on.

let’s just say I learned a lot over the next few hours about traveling and see just how big a PUZZLE the whole thing is – delays and cancellations sure do change the look of all the travel plans for everyone involved.  My step into the modern world of having a paperless boarding pass on my cell phone turned into this by the time I got home:

When I went and scanned my original boarding pass to see what flight they put me on it was a flight to SEATTLE leaving at 8:50 pm from Salt Lake – and then another flight from Seattle to Atlanta which would put me on a plane for probably 10-12 hours and arriving in Atlanta around 7 am Sunday morning.  With that I got a $6 food voucher- that’s it!  R U kidding me?  I spent $6 on a mid morning snack at the airport waiting on my flight – that wasn’t going to take me through to the next day.  There were 4 more flights to Atlanta so I thought I could some how get on to one of those.

Everyone else seemed to be getting on the phone and one of my friends said they told her to call a 1-800 nbr because they didn’t give her a flight yet.  So I called that number too and told her my flight was cancelled and I knew there was a 12 and a several more flights headed to Atlanta.  She asked what gate I was at (B3) and said start walking to (D10) while I get you on that flight.  I took a quick peek at the time seeing that it was 11:45 I decided I needed to run to make a 12:00 flight.  So I did (and boy did I need to stop at the little girls room too but I decided to wait on that until I got there).  For those of you ladies that I was sitting there talking to that was why I left so abruptly – sorry I didn’t get to say good-bye!

I ran all the way to the other gate and guess what – that flight was delayed by 1 and half hours.  And I came to find out I was only on Standby and not actually on the flight (or any other flight).  I was nbr 14 on the standby list and the agent said I needed to call again because I needed to get confirmed on a flight.  All these terms I wasn’t really familiar with before.  So I head off to do that and get on a RED help phone.  So to begin with the lady I talked to said I don’t have any flights to put you on.  And I said “well I can’t stay in the airport forever so look some more”.  So she finds a 12:50 AM flight (just after midnight as they all kept saying) – it arrives in Atlanta on Monday morning at 6 something AM.  That is what she can confirm me on.  Ok then do that, but I still want to try to get on the earlier flight too.  She said to go scan my ticket again and it will print out my new flight info.  So I went to do that and it also prints out a hotel voucher.  I guess if they move you to the next day you get the hotel voucher.  (that actually turned out to be a plus later on)

I went back to the gate to see the standby status – I moved up to 11 – progress made but not likely to get on the flight.  I went to go check the next flight but the agents weren’t at the gate yet.  I came back and waited by the desk while they boarded the plane moved over some standbys and asked the lady what to do – since I had never done this before could she give me help.  I happened to be standing by another lady on a business trip that had been trying to get home since 8 am on Saturday – a full day longer than me.  She was preparing to write a complaint letter to Delta about her experience, etc. and I decide it would be a good idea for me to stick with her and the agent that seemed interested in helping both of us.  That paid off in the end for the other lady and for me.  She was confirmed on that 3 pm flight and the agent moved her to first class.  I got added on standby and put in the Nbr 1 position because I was now a “rev” priority (because of the hotel voucher it seems you get a higher priority because now you are going to cost them more money) and she told all the non-rev people they needed to find something else because they would not get on that flight.  The two of us went on to the next gate and waited on the flight.  The agent that helped us came to us at that gate and gave the other lady the address to write Delta and a $200 voucher, and then she brought me $20 of meal vouchers just in case I needed it.

I did make it on the 3pm flight to Atlanta – we arrived about 9 pm est time.  It wasn’t the best flight – first I got the hiccups on and off for the whole flight – if you know me and hiccups – we do not get along at all.  Second I had the two cutest girls sitting behind me playing horses on the tray table attached to my seat – horses gallop, and kick and cantor and do all sorts of other things that prevent one from trying to sleep.  And one kept asking the other if she was “yelling” and the other one said “no”.  I knew what I really wanted to say but I didn’t and just tried to go to sleep.

At the end i had to figure out how to find my suitcase that I checked.  It doesn’t get on the plane with you when you fly standby.  It took me an hour at the Atlanta airport to find it – luckily they did send it on an earlier flight so it was there before me and all my Memento Mall purchases were safe!  I took the shuttle to my car and drove the hour home.  I got home just before midnight.

I slept like a rock in my own bed last night.  While convention is a blast getting back home is wonderful too!

I’ll be back tomorrow with convention pictures.