Last year I suffered a concussion 🤕 from a car accident & had to cancel a tour. I refunded everyone their deposits. In my entire career that’s the only life happens type of issue that made me have to cancel bookings it is what it is.

Today, I arrive at the airport on time & unfortunately was not allowed to board the flight I booked unfortunately the airline cancelled and I am stuck in the airport for almost 4 hours before being rebooked. I will make my overnight, but will be late. I am livid as I pride myself in having excellent work ethic.  

If I would have known this morning when I called the airline to confirm my flight I would have drove 8 hrs at 6 am to make my date on time. I pride myself in being reliable and doing my due diligence, but today was out of my control. It’s not fun.  

Communication is key, so I communicate as much as humanly possible. I feel blessed to have friends who are understanding, but delays with traveling sucks. Just venting. I think I would rather drive if it’s more reliable.

Anyone else have a similar frustrating situation?

especially at this time of year. Everyone needs to be understanding of that.

In instances like this communication is essential. Being who you are am quite sure you contacted client and informed situation and asked what would work to make things acceptable. Too many times a provider has had travel issues and has failed to notify and in some cases has it suggested or agreed to acceptable NEW arrangements.  
On the reverse too many clients end up in the same situation but at that point are hoping provider will be understanding - but may be harder to swallow as she has just rents a room .  
If today the honesty and mutual respect that I think I remember from ten to fifteen years ago most of these would leave both side content or better yet smiling.

After I graduated college, I flew out to Florida with a friend to buy a car and drive cross country to Los Angeles. I had a buddy who owned a car dealership there and offered to give me a banging deal, so it made it worth it. At the time, all that I owned fit into two suitcases, so not much of an inconvenience.  

 
Prior to leaving, my grandfather who lives in Florida was hospitalized. We were told he had a couple of weeks left. He was in a different part of Florida and not one I could drive to easily. I booked an additional flight to see him and one to come back the next day. My flight was delayed, again and again. I stayed in the airport all night, and eventually was told to come back the next morning. I retreated to my hotel.  

 
The next morning, more delays. It got to the point that I would land and literally need to stay in the airport and turn around without seeing my grandfather. Also, overnight he had gotten worse and I was told he probably wouldn't know I was there at that point. There was no point in extending my time in Florida by rebooking both of my flights. So, I cancelled it and never got to see my grandfather in his last days. Had my original flight been on time, I would have been able to catch him while he was still a little alert and talking.

 
This was without a doubt one of the single most frustrating travel experiences I had ever had. Till this day, it haunts me and I question if there is more that I could have done.

END OF MESSAGE

This is why I don’t like booking same day as flight. I hope you finally made it. I think I am about to get stuck in Dallas this weekend on a layover 😑

Yes I made it. Traveling is work. 🥰 I am glad I was prepared to party when I finally made it. Changing into a sexy dress and heels is life changing. I won some $ playing blackjack at the casino & enjoyed flirting with my date shamelessly.  

Attitude of gratitude.

Is truly its own special circle of hell, honestly.

 
I was just reflecting on this before my flight while we were being de-iced (about a 40 minute process from pushback to take off). I’ve historically had very few flight issues, but this winter season has made me a lot more cautious about how I structure travel for work.

 
For example, I had a FMTY to KCMO in December that turned into a full 15 hours of aviation chaos. Left my house around 7am and somehow ended up back in my own bed by 11pm that night. We had a last second go-around which is an aborted landing at MCI so we wouldn’t rear-end another plane. The unanticipated snow amount threw them so they hadn't prepped the runway or plowed it fully. We then got diverted to STL, which made zero sense because weather tends to travel west to east, three separate deplanings in STL, a broken de-icer, a 90-minute wait in the de-icing queue because STL wasn’t prepared, a crew timeout, and then a broken jet bridge for good measure.

 
By about 4pm I called the client and said, “I want to do this and normally I would pull all the stops, but they are looking for a crew and realistically, by the time I would get there, I don't think I'm going to be at my best.” I got on the last flight back to MSP and we rescheduled for the following month. Not ideal, but it was the safest and most sane option left.  

 
Since then, I’ve been much more intentional in winter. Either the very first flight out to avoid cascading delays, or the very last flight so I’m not getting trapped mid-day. Driving can be more reliable in some cases and I've done it depending on the distance (like 5 hours or less), but then you’re trading airline chaos for time, fatigue, and wear and tear on your body (re: fatigue) and vehicle.

 
At the end of the day, stuff like this is part of traveling for work. You can do everything “right” and still get hit by circumstances completely outside your control. All you can really do is communicate early, be transparent, make the best call with the information you have in the moment, and hope the person on the other end is reasonable about it. I've heard the horror stories from colleagues about the people who are not so reasonable. Regardless, travel delays still suck though. Full stop.