12/14/2022 – 12/16/2022
I’ve had a hell of a time these last couple of days. I am over airports for a while. I was on my way back to Fargo for Christmas and I had to do a multi-city trip to keep costs down. I went from Sacramento, CA to Las Vegas, NV to Denver, CO to Fargo, ND. I had an overnight layover in Vegas and a short two hour layover in Denver. The flight to Vegas was fine, no issues. I wasn’t able to get to sleep in the airport so I stayed up all night playing video games and watching TV. The flight to Denver was fast and easy.
This is where the problems started. The other flights to Fargo were cancelled, but ours was still on time. I fell asleep on the flight to Fargo and woke up still in the air. I looked out the window and there were mountains outside. The captain came over the intercom saying that we were on approach to Denver. I thought to myself what the hell? As we were landing I ask the people around me what was going on. They said we got to the ND/SD boarder and turned around due to weather.
After I got off the plane I went to customer service to see what the deal was now. They told everyone that they automatically rebooked us to tomorrow at 6AM. I got to the front of the line and asked if they were giving any compensation like a hotel or food vouchers. No, they aren’t giving out anything because it was weather related. Everyone was furious that they wasted three and a half hours of our time and giving us nothing in return.
I thankfully purchased trip insurance for just this occurrence though. I looked through the documentation and found that they would cover $150 per day of delay. I booked a room in a cheap hotel so I could get a nice meal. All I’ve eaten in the last two days was fast food. I checked into my hotel, finally got to shower, and then went to find some food. I found a Ted’s Montana Grill, but it was a mile and a half away and it was only nine degrees out. I went for it and walked there. It was cold, but not too bad. I got an awesome bison ribeye and mashed potatoes.
After supper I looked at the map to see if there was anything else within walking distance. I found Dry Dock Brewing Company was only another two miles away. I hoofed it over there and found it was bingo night. I was able to catch the last round and had a couple beers. Around 8:30 I made my way back to the hotel and passed out since I had a 6AM flight.
I booked the shuttle to go to the airport at 4:30. I was up at 4 to get ready. I looked at my phone and saw my flight was delayed until 7:30. I called and rescheduled my shuttle for 5:30 and tried to sleep for another hour, I was not able to. I went to the lobby at 5:15 and waited for the shuttle. We got to the airport around 6. I had to go through customer service since Frontier had booked my flight and I couldn’t check in online. That took 20 minutes and another 20 to go through security.
They boarded us on the flight at 7:30 as expected, but the water tank had frozen overnight. We had to wait for that to thaw and refill before we could take off. We were on the plane until sometime after 9 before they figured it out. After we got in the air everything was smooth to Fargo. My parents picked me up, we went to lunch, then I went home and crashed for a couple hours.
Now I’m home until Jan 7th and I’ll be spending time with family and friends over the holidays. I won’t be posting until some time after I leave. Hopefully my flights on the way back will be better.
Happy holidays and merry Christmas everyone! See you next year.