Experience Unexperienced, Always..!!

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” 

 ― Aldous Huxley

Experiences, especially the not so good ones, builds your 'Pandora', of

a. Memories: memories, your life would be colorless blank canvas without; and

b. Stories: stories, that let you get familiar with, and touch your inner reflections, as you live them.

Besides, stories(non-fiction) and memories that you will cherish and treasure for a lifetime.

It's about little over a year ago, I was waiting at the airport to catch the flight back home(yeah, the place that had been home for over 6 months), from Vegas to Philadelphia. I had spoken to one of the flight attendants(that worked for that airlines then) in shuttle, on the way from hotel to the airport. I don't remember the exact words but she spoke about how happy she was working for that company(Spirit) and she hoped that the flight she's gonna attend(from Vegas to Denver as far as I remember) doesn't get cancelled. No, she never spoke of the route, from Vegas to Philadelphia. But something about that conversation told me that, may be the flight that I was supposed to board that day, wouldn't take off.

I had never traveled with Spirit, before that instance, in fact as yet ;-). And I am sure I will never ever take that chance again. Spirit airlines was/is not well known, and was/is supposedly a low cost carrier(not so much in my case because the fare was a little over 120$, for which you might get a ticket of United or American Airlines flight, considering that I booked it almost 3 weeks in advance. If I have a choice to pick between an option I have had a taste of, versus the one I did not ever try, at approximately the same opportunity cost, I tend to pick the latter. 

“Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” 

― Paulo Coelho, Brida

Well, flight delays don't seem to be an exception, in any case here. During every roundtrip of mine, there have always been delays, considerable delays, in at least one leg of the journey. So, was this time, I passed the security screening, almost 40 mins prior to departure, and was at the boarding gate, waiting, like all other passengers. I spoke to my mom for a couple of minutes, while I said, I don't think this flight is gonna take off tonight, for unknown reasons. Very soon, we noticed that some other airline representatives called up the passengers to board from that gate.  We didn't see even a single representative from Spirit there, then. We asked around, only to find out that they delayed LAS-PHL flight by an hour. Again, for an hour after an hour, and then an hour.... Finally, we were supposed to board the flight at 11:20 pm but there hadn't been any announcement of any sort till 11:45 pm.

Most passengers were quite upset and angry by then. There was not any flight for that route after that ,for 7/8 hours. I walked up to one of the representatives and said, "I have a feeling that this flight is not gonna take off, can you please confirm?, so that we can look for alternatives". She said there isn't enough information to confirm anything as of now. She got on to the phone. I stood there waiting. Then there she goes "The crew did not show up and we will have to cancel the flight". I was like '" Are you kidding me, the whole crew did not show up. I have never heard of that as an excuse?", especially after the conversation I had, with that cent percent satisfied employee of yours. I saw the pilot walking out from the boarding gate, a few seconds later, all  by himself and no other crew member. She then asked me to check with  the reservation guys, if they can put me on an alternate flight.  So, that was confirmed.

I was almost the first passenger to find out about this, so I thought I will wind up the post cancellation part asap. I rushed to the airline booth at the ticketing area, and there was no other passenger. So, I asked them to find me an alternate. They did not even know about the flight cancellation till then. That was ridiculous. By the time, I convinced them of that fact, there was a long queue of passengers on the other 2 booths, booths which were supposed to handle cancellations. That really seemed like a joke to me. There seemed to be far more people than the capacity of one flight, in that queue.  I was now supposed to join the end of that queue. On my way to the queue, I found out that the airlines cancelled  around 7 flights from Vegas.

I had never seen something like that before, a totally new experience. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I could hear frustrated people, families and couples talking to each other. I probably thought I will experience this for a while and then leave, if it takes a lot of time. I joined the queue of over 1000 people too( I was smiling or rather laughing for reasons I don't know, maybe because the situation was too new and thrilling for me) and standing there in that queue, waiting, people started talking to others, strangers, blabbering about their frustration. I talked to a lot of interesting people in that queue, especially to those 4/5 ahead and behind me. I checked for the alternate options online and the cheapest flight to PHL then was around 250$, the evening next day and the earliest one for around $700, 7:30 in the morning. One of the guys said that he had hardly gathered enough money to materialize this trip and he wouldn't be able to go home if they don't buy him a ticket. And I heard so many more stories of that sort. I could afford to buy another ticket but that just did not feel right or may be thrilling then, for whatever reasons.

Plus, I have had enough of Vegas, scorching heat and smoke, a total turn off. It seemed far more exciting to stay there, experience that instance and talk to those people, than going back to a hotel or some lame gambling table. 6( 2 behind and 3 ahead of me) of us shared great conversation, considering we had enough time. I also found out that all other people in that line had already gotten their luggage back. I only had a small carry on sized item, checked-in and I had no damn clue about where it was then. My idea of perfect travel is the one for which you don't have to carry anything with you :D.

I discovered a lot about myself and other people, that night.  I did not know till then that I had the endurance of standing for 7.5 hours in a row(without food/water), plus letting go of my sleep, for something as strange as this. Yeah, other passengers did settle down on the floor after an hour or two. But, the idea of sitting on the airport floor did not appeal to me at all.  

That was slowest moving queue I had ever seen in my life.  Those reservation booth guys took a meal break in between at 1:30, putting all the work on halt, being completely indifferent to passengers. I ain't in any way suggesting that idea of leaving that damn queue away and checking-in into a hotel instead, did not cross my mind at all. But running away from a battle half way, wasn't/isn't me. Either you choose not to fight or you fight till the end, no matter what ;-)(maybe subconsciously I picked this one). Somewhere around 2:30 am was the end of shift for those representatives and then came a new set of reps. People cursed the new set as much as that they did the old bunch. 

I also did realize that it's far more frustrating to wait when you are almost there, a few steps(passengers in this case) away from your destination. Finally, after overcoming all that, 6 of us felt that it could be our chance any minute, after those 7 passengers ahead of us, at around 5:00 am. But, a lady was negotiating so hard, I don't know what, she took more than an hour and wasn't done yet. Few people came out of nowhere and claimed that they were ahead of us. I think we were quite polite, so we let them in. I finally made it to the counter, probably at 6:45 am and was pretty exhausted/sleepy, maybe also too upset by then. 

The lady at the booth offered me an option to fly out, two days from then. That was a joke in itself. That was some sort of a trigger and there was no way on this earth was I going to accept it. I told her that I have a flight back to India in 4 days and I don't trust their airlines anymore. Even, if I did, flying 2 days later is not an option. She said there isn't any other option available. I had already looked for my options before my turn. I told her that there is a US airways flight at 7:30, you may put me on that. She said that option is not being displayed on the list she had. I could see that very well on my phone and it had 2 seats remaining when I made it to the counter. I asked her to try again but all she did was apologise and requested to take the option she offered. I was not going to take no for an answer after all this. I asked her to put me on the next US airways flight, approx at 9:30. She said that option was not showing either.  At that moment, I lost the little patience left and I asked her to show her screen to me. 

She pretended to turn the screen towards me but she did not really do that and I could not see anything. All thanks to her effort and my height. These are the moments when you wish if only you had been taller :D. But, I had no intention to give up and I requested her to check once again. She had the same reply. Something occurred to me and I found myself standing on the weighing scale the very next moment, to be able to see what she claimed. I had never imagined myself doing something as crazy as that. 

I asked her to try again and show the results to me. I asked her to keep scrolling down and there it was, the US airways LAS-PHL flight at 9:30 that day, worth 750$. I asked her to book that one for me and there she goes "That option can't be selected, that's not covered by the airline policy. She offered me another one with 1 stopover at Chicago and then something with 2 stopovers at Denver and NYC". And I was thinking, "I am not going to settle for anything else." I requested her to let me speak to her manager. She mentioned that wouldn't change anything. I said it's ok, would you please call him/her? Turns out she was standing besides her and looking on a case for some other passenger.  This rep I was dealing with interrupted her boss and said that she is asking for $750 alternate which is not covered by airline policy. She looked at me briefly(maybe for a second), standing on that weighing machine and asked her to give me whatever I was asking for ;-). All of that happened in less than 10/12 mins, time I reached the counter to the time I left with a ticket in my hand :D. Few people behind me asked and I told them to stick to the option they want and not settle for anything less than that.

I met a lot of people on my way to/in a restaurant, who were given options for 2/3 days later and/or with several stop-overs. Finally, when we did board the flight at 10:30, we found out that only a handful of us were given that desirable option. Sad, really sad. But in some corner of my mind, I am glad it happened. And if I had an option to start over in this case, I am very likely to be doing the same thing. I enjoyed that tiring experience and now, I have a story to tell :-).