We were to fly out on Air France this Friday 4/4 to meet our son and daughter in law in Paris and tour for a week. Flight leaving at 5PM. At 7 AM my husband woke up with violent headache and passed out. Needless to say I called 911 and he was admitted to.the hospital. I rushed to the hospital forgetting all our travel information in my haste so I had to visit the ER then return home to start cancelling everything for us once I knew he was stable. Anyway this is a wake up call for travelers to book with the airline and hotels directly!! We did buy travel insurance but we will not need it as everything was cancelled without penalty and we are going to receive full voucher good for a year from Air France. All I have to do is supply a letter from our cardiologists as to why we had to change plans. The positive part is that we talked our kids into going anyway and we are enjoying their trip thru our phone and pictures. I had strong negative feelings about this trip for months that something did not seem right and I thank goodness this episode happened here at home. Hubby is stable and we are going to keep on traveling ! Thanks for all the helpful advice as I had planned it and for listening to our tale.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
6067 posts
I hope your husband will have a rapid and full recovery.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6968 posts
Hope things continue to stabilize and improve, and best wishes for a quick and complete recovery. Hopefully you will be back to trip planning soon enough. It's nice that your kids have been able to forge ahead and do the trip, you can enjoy it from a distance. And hats off to you for having the foresight to book so many things as fully cancel-able...and well done staying ahead of the cancellations even in a time when you had other concerns (not a small accomplishment). The next trip will be all that much more sweeter. Take care of yourself.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
15371 posts
Gail, I'm wishing good health to your husband!
And yes, I agree about booking directly and for hotels, not booking the sometimes less expensive "non-refundable" rate!
Glad your kiddos are having a great time and hope you can soon start rebuilding your trip for another time.
Posted by
Paris
10656 posts
Gail my goodness, I hope your husband has a quick and full recovery. Indeed, if that was going to happen, thank goodness it happened while you were at home.
I'm so sorry for how stressful this has to be. Wishing you and your husband all the best.
Posted by
906 posts
I am so sorry to hear about your cancelled trip. Thank goodness he wasn’t bin an airplane when he got this headache. I hope he makes a speedy recovery and that you both are back to your travels very soon.
Posted by
OP
Downingtown, USA
2575 posts
Thanks for good wishes. He is home and doing well and planning another trip in US perhaps in July to stay fairly close to home to start. Doctors believe it is heart and medication related. I was so stressed on that day with little sleep and no breakfast lunch or dinner I stopped at Dollar Store and spend $19.25 on chocolate since I don't drink or smoke I needed to relax. When I came to my senses after 13 hours of sleep I donated lots of candy to our church Easter baskets. Now we are all mostly recovered.and extremely happy we were still in US.
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
2736 posts
Best wishes to you - a scary story with a good outcome!
Posted by
Central Coast CA, USA
208 posts
Best wishes for a quick and complete recovery!
Posted by
Oregon
64 posts
I am so sorry you had to cancel your trip, but happy to hear your husband is home and doing well. I chuckled over your $19.25 spending spree on chocolate. That is something I would do. Chocolate cures everything!
Posted by
1722 posts
How frightening and stressful! I’m happy to hear you are both home and recovering. And good move with the chocolate! I hope you are both out and on the traveling road again soon.
Posted by
Idaho, USA
8264 posts
This brought back some sad memories of my trip last year when I suddenly needed to fly back to the US for a family emergency. Whew, I am glad your incident didn’t happen away from home. I hope he is recovering fully and you do eventually get to complete a special trip!
”Anyway this is a wake up call for travelers to book with the airline and hotels directly!!”.
I always book my flights directly with Delta. But, I do most of my lodging through Booking.com. For me, receiving the shocking news, I was stunned & very glad I had all of my lodging reservations on just one site - Booking.com. I opened it while waiting to fly home and went down the list of places clicking my refundable lodging “cancel”. That whole task only took about a minute. I don’t know that I could have completed the attention needed at that moment to find and cancel from individual sites - amazing how the brain doesn’t function normally in shock. One of my adult children contacted Delta and rebooked my flight for me.