united but not reunited: traveling home for the holidays
It is currently December 26th, 2022. I am typing this from my hotel bed in Chicago, in the same yoga pants and sweatshirt that I had on yesterday morning. My phone is blasting aggressive hold music while the Chicago weatherman whispers to me from the TV in the other room. On my lap is a box holding only crumbs from the blueberry chia seed jam sandwich that I bought at the Denver airport yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, it had lost all of its freshness, but I still inhaled it because I have had virtually nothing else to eat since I ordered it!
You may have guessed it by now, but I got screwed over big time! May everyone have a great and blessed holiday season except for United Airlines. But how did I end up here, cursing the same airline that I once praised for promising me a one-way ticket to my family? What will I do moving forward–travel back to Colorado with my tail tucked between my legs, or continue persevering through the endless obstacles on the way to Columbus? Well, I’ve got some answers for you!
At around 8am on December 23rd, the day of my originally scheduled direct flight to Columbus, I was showering to prepare for my travels ahead. As I picked up my phone to skip the song playing from my speaker, I saw an email pop up from my bestie, United Airlines. The subject line read, “We’ve canceled your flight to Columbus (CMH).” What? I opened the email to find that it was due to weather conditions. I knew that there was recently a cold front that consumed our nation, but I thought that it already passed Ohio and was pushing into New York. I immediately called customer service to confirm that this was really happening. The hold time was over an hour, but once I got in touch with someone, not only did they confirm my new reality, but they also rebooked my flight for an overnight layover in San Francisco that would depart on Christmas Eve and land on Christmas Day. It was a bummer of a schedule, but I was still grateful for the opportunity to be with my family on Christmas Day.
I went out for breakfast and ran some errands. At this point, I was fairly optimistic. I thought to myself, Now I’ll have more time for chores and double checking everything that I packed. Midway through the day however, I got another email from my best friend, United Airlines. “We’ve canceled your flight to Columbus (CMH).” So now my San Francisco flight was canceled and this time it was “because of an unexpected operational issue.” Now I was really upset. I knew that there was another long time on hold coming for me and that my options for getting home on time were even slimmer.
After getting through to customer service once again, they informed me that my only option for flying to Columbus before January would be for a flight connecting in Chicago on Christmas Day, and that I would arrive at 11:30p, after Christmas was already over! It’s like I could physically hear my heart breaking, but nevertheless I accepted this fate.
Fast forward to Christmas Day, I arrived at DIA. And did I forget to mention that Papillon, my cat, was flying with me?! Yes, let’s add to the chaos why don’t we? I was planning to be out of state for over a week and because I’m still new to the Colorado area, there was no one I felt comfortable asking to catsit her. So I paid a $250 pet fee for her to come home with me (and yes they still charge for ESA).
Once at the airport, this airline was making it really hard to check in for my flight because I had a cat with me. First, they wouldn’t let me check in for my flight in advance or online. When I got to the check-in desk, the United Airlines staff redirected me about five times, and each time someone said to me, “I can't check you in with a pet, you have to go here instead.” This process took me over an hour and I’m really glad that I got there two hours early.
From there, I rushed over to security and Papillon was getting really scared. It was her first time at an airport and all of the noises were overwhelming her. I didn’t let security put her through any x-rays, but they had to run her carrier through. In order to remove her from her carrier, I had security take me to a private room so she would be less stimulated. That went smoothly, but she was literally shivering from fear in my hands, which if the hold music isn’t already the soundtrack to this whole debacle, the sound of my heart breaking should be (I’m such a cancer lol).
We’ve now arrived at the point in the story where I got my sandwich! Afterwards, I headed toward my gate and boarded my flight to Chicago. Everything on the flight went smoothly. I read It Ends with Us and Papillon stayed silent the entire time.
Once in O’Hare I got out of the plane and started walking towards gate B22, which was on the complete other side of Concourse B (I was exiting gate B2). Let me mention that I was carrying a 10 lbs bag of litter on my back and my 15 lbs cat on my arm, along with my purse and sandwich. This was a rough walk, along which Papillon and I heard a big dog barking nearby. Within seconds, I felt something wet on my leg. Papillon peed in her carrier. Heartbreak number 3.
I hurried to the bathroom and wiped everything down and gave her some treats. She was still shivering. I knew that there was nothing I could do but just keep going and get us out of traveling as soon as possible, especially with my flight boarding in less than 30 minutes. When I finally arrived at B22, I got notified that my flight gate changed to B4… which is literally right next to B2, where I arrived! I had to trek all the way back! AAAH!
I sat all of my things down at B4 and sat down. Finally, it was 8:25p, 10 minutes before boarding. I unpacked my sandwich to eat just as an announcer chimed into the speakers, “Merry Christmas, everyone! Thank you for choosing to fly with United Airlines on this holiday”–aww so sweet, some acknowledgement from my BFF–”But yeah, we are making this announcement to inform you that your flight to Columbus has been canceled due to unknown reasons, sorry. Please see customer service or one of our kiosks for further assistance in your travel plans.”
LOL. Why did they start off the announcement so positively?! Anyway, I was hit with a wave of denial and didn’t move or react for a good ten minutes. Then I realized, this was real! I had to notify my family and start making moves. Several people were suggesting that I get a rental car since Columbus is only a five hour drive from Chicago. Others were telling me to reschedule my flight–the soonest flight to Columbus from O’Hare was for December 27th. I would have been stuck in Chicago for two nights!
I spoke to the airline assistant at my gate and he told me that before I do anything, I should claim my baggage downstairs or I would not have it until it gets to Columbus. It was mentioned to me that sometimes it takes days to pull luggages out from their course.
While in line at baggage claim, I called one of my REAL close friends (not United Airlines) and he booked me a hotel room because he refused to let me spend the night at the airport! What?! I say this all of the time, but my friends are literally some of the best, most caring people that you will ever meet. I am so so so thankful for them every day.
I was told at baggage claim that they would not be able to retrieve my bag for 6 hours and that if I did not have it pulled, it would still be shipped to CMH, where I could pick it up later. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to request it because if it took days to do instead of “6 hours,” then I would be stuck waiting for it in Chicago. So I let them send it to CMH.
I took a shuttle to the hotel and finally freed Papillon from her carrier. Since then she’s been so cheerful and calm. I got in touch with my mom and she thought that it would be best to drive to Chicago to pick me up. As I’m writing this, she’s about 30 minutes away. I am so excited to see her and cannot believe that she is driving so far. I think that we’ll probably spend some of the day in Chicago (even though I am literally wearing a day old outfit haha) and then head home tonight.
Although this Christmas was kinda ass and my whole body is sore from lugging around the weight of a small child on my back and arms for hours yesterday, I am tempted to pull a Hallmark type moral from this story. Like wow even though United Airlines is no longer getting the matching friendship bracelet I made for her, I can definitely respect her consistency and persistence. When she wants something–like for me to not be home on Christmas–she really gets it!
But no, seriously. This whole experience has made me reflect on how much my family and friends love me. I have a network of people that will always be there for me and will always be looking out for me. It’s a cruel way to find this out and I definitely already knew this information, but to see their love and support actually in action has really been the highlight of my holiday season.
If you played any role in helping me to get home last night, anywhere from driving me to the airport to sending a text to check in on me, please know that it truly got me through this fiasco and that I am extremely grateful to you. You all deserve the very best of the best and have some seriously good karma coming your way.
Alright, thanks for tuning in to this journey with me and I will see you all next week! Written with so much love and all the holiday wishes<3
