For all of our travelers this season who are battling some nasty weather, I thought we all might enjoy sharing some of our unexpected bright moments that occurred due to an unexpected layover, cancelled flight, train strike, etc. I’ll share some of mine in the comments.
What were yours?
Wishing all of you a very nice holiday season and a wonderful 2023!
We had planned to take a train from Verona to Trento and a bus to Moena in the Italian Dolomites. As we arrived at the Trento bus station, we saw that there was a bus strike. This was during our first independent trip to Europe, so I only knew the basic Italian words, and my husband just knew the greetings, etc.
After trying to understand our options for awhile, a college student showed up. She knew English and had planned to take the bus to the town near Moena. We were so thankful for her, and we all ended up at our destinations.
As we walked into the village later than we planned and out to our quaint lodging, the skies had been covering the mountains. But, as we finally walked out onto our pretty balcony, the sky became clear and blue, and the mountains were gorgeous! I still remember what a special moment that was! Beauty & thankfulness together!
The GPS was giving us wonky directions to return the rental car. We ended up seeing one of the most spectacular sunsets ever over Dubrovnik due to the delay.
(October 2014)
'Welcome to Athens Airport for those about to fly to Santorini on flight #126. Olympus Airlines is now currently overbooked, I repeat overbooked.....and we offer a free bonus flight, meal coupons, a free overnight hotel plus 500 Euros cash to any passengers who are willing to fly on a subsequ....."
We made like Usain Bolt to the desk before the airline rep had finished the sentence.
The bonus flight was a mere 2 1/2 hours later. The pinch marks are still there.
Be decisive, my fellow travelers.
I am done. The lucky day.
Jean, thank you for a brilliant topic
Another one directly related to this forum. Last June I heard an announcement on the train to Pisa that there were be a train strike across Italy the next day. I was only supposed to be in Pisa one night to attend a festival. I had tickets to go from Pisa to Florence and Florence to Spello the next day.
Instead of three days in Spello, I suddenly had a day in Rome (took an early train while they were running) to have a carefree day before taking the train the next morning to Spello. The part directly related to the forum was that I sent Roberto on our forum a private message to see what he recommended for transportation options. I really appreciated that he responded so quickly! It’s nice that we have forum participants who care about each other when we’re traveling - a great group of people!
Gregglamarsh, those unexpected monetary rewards for being flexible on flights sure are great! We had a cancelled flight one year when we arrived at the Rome airport to fly home to Seattle. We were put on a different plane - lost our Comfort Plus seat locations but were just happy to be on a plane! At JFK, they needed some people to stay overnight (hotel paid) and take the morning flight for the last leg of the trip because the plane was overbooked. Since they had given us the last row of the plane, we became very interested when they offered $1000 each on AMEX cards for travelers who hadn’t checked any luggage. That was a sweet deal!
In short: I made a new friend after being stuck in a village for a full week due to rain and road washouts.
10 years ago, I travelled solo around Chile and Argentina.
I was on the bus in the Atacama Desert, going to San Pedro de Atacama, when it started to rain. Pouring rain. In the Atacama Desert. Hmmm...
Soon, water was covering the road... The rainstorm eventually stopped but the bus soon came to a halt, with emergency services people climbing aboard and telling us that the road ahead was washed out, but that we could step out of the bus and walk the remaining 3 km to San Pedro de Atacama on foot if we wanted.
So, off I went. A deep gully ran across where the road once was, but the staff kindly helped us lower luggage down as we clambered. Up on the other side, drivers coming the other way had no choice but to turn back, so getting a lift to San Pedro only took a few minutes.
That was not quite the end of the adventure, though: there was no power in the village and thus no streetlights of any kind, and since I did not arrive at the bus station and did not have a smartphone back then, I had to rely on the very vague cached copy of Google Maps on my tablet to find my hostel.
Chilean crews soon built an emergency track to bring supplies to the village, but that was only for light vehicles, and I had planned to take the bus to Argentina three days later. After many false starts and rumors, it took 8 days for the bus to show up. Thankfully my schedule was not tight at all...
In the meantime, since everybody was stuck too, I made a very good friend in the hostel. We ended up travelling together in NW Argentina, and we keep in touch to this day - she lives in Italy.
Also, the delay meant that I arrived in NW Argentina just in time for Carnaval, and that was quite the party!
Balso -- what a story !! Wow.
Jean, what a wonderful topic.
What a story and trip Balso! This is why we stick to Europe for our travel adventures.
Yes, thank you Jean for the topic. Even though I don’t have a story to add, it is fun to read other’s glitches and how they coped.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas/Holiday season and to crossing places off their bucket lists in 2023.
I was in Italy in 1997, traveling solo by train from Milan to Lake Como (Varenna). Unfortunately, I missed the train and was a bit upset as I had counted on having a certain amount of time to check in and walk around. Eventually, the next train came and I got on and sat down in an empty seat, across the aisle from a woman. I didn't pay much attention to her until she got out a book and was looking through it - it turned out to be a Rick Steves' travel book! I started laughing and pulled out my guidebook and showed it to her. We started talking, and it turned out she was also traveling solo (she was from the US) and we were both staying at the same hotel.
For the next four days, we hung out together, eating meals together at the hotel (we had half board), taking day trips and enjoying the lovely area. We kept in touch for many years but she eventually moved to Tanzania and we lost contact. However, I will always remember that trip and the enjoyable time I spent in Varenna with her, all due to a missed train.
Sheila, Balso & Mardee, those are wonderful stories! Unexpected beautiful scenes & special connections with strangers you wouldn’t have met. : )
Thanks Jean for this positive thread! I have shared a couple of unexpected bright moments on this forum previously but they bear repeating :). We were asked to give up our Comfort Plus seats for a wheelchair user. We were on a layover at DTW, bound for Athens. The agent said they were moving us to first class. I was “in shock” and speechless. This occurred 5 minutes prior to boarding. The agent had to repeat & asked if it was ok? lol. It was one of those win win situations. The wheel chair user & us were very grateful.
Another unexpected bright moment: Our flight was delayed in Cincinnati. Again was moved to first class. What was unexpected was that Ken Griffey Sr. was sitting across the aisle. Being a huge baseball fan (and from Seattle) it was a memorable experience. He was gracious and gave our daughter his autograph.
Wow, Janis! Thanks for taking one for the team! LOL! We’re also big Ken Griffey, Sr. fans and enjoyed the year both Sr. & Jr. were on the same team for the Mariners.
All these glitches that turned out to be 'blessings in disguise' speak to one of Travel's most essential lessons: the ability to roll with the punches and make lemonade from lemons. Those who learn to be flexible can add that evolution to their work and private lives.
Yo Rick & son Andy,
Je propose that you consider adding the above posts in one of your upcoming books, maybe as a bonus appendix?
I am done. the happier moments
I once got stranded in New York City four four days due to heavy snow at my destination (was intending to travel by train), and had the best time ever - rode the Staten Island Ferry for the view, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Opera (Dvorák’s Rusalka)…
Now recalling an earlier occasion when I got stranded in NYC just for a day - watched them put up all the flags at the United Nations, then took the UN tour… saw a really good exhibit of prints… ice-skated at Rockefeller Center…
Jean, wasn’t that just the best when Sr. & Jr. played with the Mariners at the same time! Nice reminder. Great memories.
Janis, my husband bought a baseball bat momento that they both signed that’s displayed in our home. He’s a huge baseball fan.
Jean, wow! How great is that! Couple of favorite games over the years- 1995 championship. My husband attended that game with coworkers. I was really jealous. LOL. I think we made up for it in 2012 at Hernandez’s perfect pitch game! That was so exciting.
I was in Granada Spain one year when a general strike happened and grounded all the train and later bus reservations I made. leaving me stuck in the city for another day. There was no vacancy in my cute pension for the next day so I googled other hotels and inns and found a decently rated hotel two blocks away. As I was checking out, the owner asked about my stay and I mentioned that I had to stay the another day due to the strike and told him the hotel name. Excitedly, the owner told me that his brother and sister in law owned that hotel and he'd be more than happy to help me carry my luggage to the hotel. Despite my protests, he closed the office and wheeled my suitcase to the hotel, where I was introduced to his sister-in-law and both talked how nice it was that I knew Spanish. Was treated very well in the new hotel and the owner even came by the next morning to wave my off to the train station.
It could have been because I was a solo female but I like to think there are just some good people in this world no matter the country. Now I alway recommend this pension/hostal when people ask about Granada.
This was 25 years ago so I can’t recall figures. Two families, 6 people all together, flying home from Orlando, Florida. The flight was oversold. We were already on the plane. Offers to leave the flight kept rising. When it equaled another roundtrip flight to Disney Land, we all volunteered to deplane. Our replacement flight was in a few hours. They also gave each person a generous airport food allowance. Much to our surprise the only ‘food/restaurant’ open was Macdonalds. Needless to say, we had WAY too much money on our vouchers. We told the cashier to pay for anyone who came in from our voucher. It was so much fun to see the joy on everyone’s face when they heard their meal was free. The Macdonald’s workers were having just as much fun! That was one Mcdonald’s full of joy for an hour or two. So much joy from so little!
Getting ready to board Iceland Air for the 1st flight of 3 on my way to Sacramento, when they announced they had to change the tire. This was going to take at least 2 hours so for anyone with connecting flights, these would not be possible today, but we would all be on these same flights tomorrow. They were going to put us up overnight in Reykyavik. Not a single person complained. We all got vouchers for a coffee and snack, came back 2 hours later and boarded the plane. Once we got to Iceland, they had people waiting on us to give us vouchers for the Hilton, bus vouchers to and from, meal vouchers for dinner that night, breakfast and lunch the next day.
Sitting on the bus, we all were thrilled with this fun change of events. The Hilton was lovely, dinner was great. Next morning, ate their delicious breakfast buffet and then walked down to the beach to catch the sunrise. Later, met up with another woman and we walked around the town, including going up in the steeple of that cool church there. Back at the hotel, we had a great lunch buffet and then caught our bus back to the airport.
Have no idea what the Hilton and 3 meals there would cost, but knowing Iceland is expensive, was so happy it was all free.
Some day, will return and spend more than one night and morning.
Sadly, my trip to Bali was coming to its end, back in the last millennium. I took a taxi from Ubud to the international airport, about a 30-minute ride. The driver offered to help take my bags into the terminal, where we found a very, very long line of about 80+ passengers, with their baggage, waiting to check-in to my flight, from the counter all the way across the terminal right to the far wall. My driver put my bags down very near the end of the line, I bid him farewell and stood next to the bags.
All of a sudden this Texas drawl says to me, somewhat loudly and irately, “you wouldn’t be cutting in line, would you?” “Good grief”, I thought, “looks like being in Bali is over.” But I actually said “no, sorry, I’m just standing where my driver put my bags. Looks like this line is going to take a while.” The flight was delayed so check-in and boarding indeed did take a very long time, like hours, during which I struck up quite a conversation with the woman with the Texas drawl, and we ended up sitting together on the long flight to the States.
To make a very long story short, we spent the next 6 years together as a couple, although living several hundred miles apart. We did travel together quite a bit — Nepal, Morocco, Costa Rica, Thailand, back to Bali, even Texas. Certainly a long-distance relationship. It was quite exciting and happy … until it wasn’t. A whole other story.
I love all of these! I sometimes hope for flight changes at the end of a trip, so I can string it along.
At the beginning of a trip, not so much! We were flying to Madrid from Pdx in June of 2013 at the beginning of a 10 day trip for a wedding in Alicante. We were due to connect in Philadelphia on US Air. That morning, the fuel system at Pdx failed and since US Air didn't have their own ground crew they had to wait for another airline's fuel trucks to help them. Needless to say, we knew we were going to miss our connection. They wanted us to fly out the next day.
Wanting to get as close as we could to our destination, we called the online customer service instead. It was the first day of summer break for the local schools here, and everything was booked up. They wouldn't put us on another airline. We took our delayed flight to PHL, spent the night there. We ended up only missing our connection by a few minutes! There were actually people on our plane who were hustled off first to hopefully make theirs.
So, we ended up with an overnight in Philadelphia. They booked us at the La Quinta at the airport. My husband took one look at my face and booked a room at a hotel in the historic area. We had a lovely meal at an Italian restaurant and woke up the next morning and walked around the beautiful bricked colonial neighborhoods of the city.
Whenever I hear someone reassure people the airline will take care of them on a single ticket when they miss a connection, I think there is a caveat. In this case the flights were all so booked they didn't have any room for us on any flights from Philadelphia to Madrid. They flew us to Newark (now that's a short flight) and then we had a long 8-hour layover before catching a flight to Madrid. My in-laws live in Jersey, so they came and met us and took us to lunch. We knew better than to not tell them we were there, as my mother-in-law still recalls times she felt slighted from the 1960's. (They managed to choose a Spanish restaurant in Newark because they figured we'd want that. Why????)
I ended up in the middle seat in the last row of what had to be United's smallest and oldest transatlantic plane, with no recline and right next to the bathroom. This after spending hours scrutinizing seat maps and comments for the original flight. And I was thrilled to have it by that point!
I treat this as a learning experience. I avoid the East Coast connections, and I try to select connections in cities in which I wouldn't mind an impromptu side trip. And don't plan anything you can't live with missing or reschedule at your destination on that first day!
Great stories! I hope all of your travel plans today either went smoothly or provided some unexpected happy moments!
Just last year we were in London headed on Friday (>) to Strasbourg for Christmas markets. One day before we were to grab the EuroStar & France closes the border!!! We probably could have gone to Brussels & then over to Strasbourg. But we decided to play by the spirit of the closure. We saw on the news that night that St Pancras was jam packed. We extended for a few days in London & spent a few nights figuring out what & where to go. We spent Christmas in Bath. We walked out of the "baths" and the church bells were ringing on Christmas Eve. The cathedral was beutifully lit.It was magical. However our Christmas day dinner was bad Chinese food. LOL. From there we traveled to the Cotswalds & then to Edinburgh. My grandfather came over from Scotland & hearing the pipes by a busker on the Royal mile brought tears to my eyes. From there we beelined back to Heathrow.
It taught me that I don't have to have everything lined up beforehand. Play it a little loose & see what comes. I'm still a work in progress on it though
My sister was in Guadelajara, Mexico and her flight to L.A. was delayed or cancelled. Being an airline employee, she changed her route to Mexico City and then went on to L.A. At Mexco City she stsrted talking to a young man. Long story short; they have been married over 40 years
“All these glitches that turned out to be 'blessings in disguise' speak to one of Travel's most essential lessons: the ability to roll with the punches and make lemonade from lemons.” “Those who learn to be flexible can add that evolution to their work and private lives.” Couldn’t agree more! It was learning to be flexible in my life & work environment that taught me to roll with the punches when traveling! Every day I walked through the door of Urgent Care we never knew what to expect. We learned to “expect the unexpected.”
Our flight home from Edinburgh last June was cancelled on a Saturday, and the soonest we could get a flight back was Tuesday. As we took the bus back to town from the airport, we booked a hotel back in Edinburgh and got 3 extra nights in one of our favorite cities. That Saturday night it felt odd being "back" in Scotland after mentally preparing ourselves to be going home. With our extended stay we managed to fit in a gloriously sunny day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, a day trip to Stirling and some additional pub experiences while wandering the New Town after dark.
