Why Do I Still Fly?

Warning: Do not read if you already hate flying!!!

Today Matt and I were thinking of all the horrible instances we've had while flying. I thought I'd share them with you:

1. On my way home from India in 2006, I had a layover in Paris, France. After boarding the plane, we sat on the runway for 3 hours because there were problems with the septic system. The plane never did take off, I stood in line for 5 hours to reschedule my flight, and spent the night in the airport hotel (no, I did not see Paris). Moral of the Story: if you have to take a big dump, do it in the airport bathrooms, not the airplane!

2. The day after I spent the night in France, I flew from Atlanta to Halifax. My connection was in Detroit, and the flight attendent told me that I wouldn't make my connecting flight, so I just stood in line to get a new flight. Once I got up to the desk, the exact same woman told me I would have made my flight if I had just ran. My bags made it, and I didn't. I then proceeded to spend the night in Detroit. Man, was I ever glad to get home the next day!

3. During our honeymoon in Colorado, there was a huge snowstorm on the east coast. When we got to the airport only to discover that all the flights had been cancelled. We spent two extra days in Denver, and many many many hours at the airport. They then re-routed us through Toronto and we spent the night there too. It turns out, if it's weather related, the airline doesn't pay for your hotels...kinda crappy since we'd just spent all our money on a wedding!!

4. After leading a team to India in the summer of 2008, we saved a bunch of money to take a week-long trip to Thailand. Apparently the only people who fly from India to Thailand are men, and they all get super drunk on the flight. The only drinks we were offered were whisky and beer...we were offered these three times before they even brought the food. Thank goodness it was only 4 hours long.

5. In May 2009, while I was 6 months preggers, we flew from Scotland to Toronto. When we arrived in the Glasgow airport we were informed that the flight had been over-booked and we were involuntarily chosen to miss the flight. Crappy thing was, Matt's mom was meeting us in Toronto, and had booked a really nice hotel for us to stay at. Instead, we were re-routed through London, stayed the night there, and got a flight to Toronto the next morning. I played the pregnancy card and everything...didn't work!! The positive thing about this flight was that we were compensated quite nicely for the inconvenience!!

6. When Matt flew to Swaziland this past March, he was bumped off a flight to Washington and was re-routed through Toronto...not a big deal, as he still made his international flight. However, for the inconvenience he received a free ticket. The woman at the desk told him it could be used anywhere in Canada and the US. So, when Matt's mom offered to pay for one ticket for us to go to Ohio in June, we jumped at the offer as we had the other ticket free (who doesn't want a free vacation)!! We proceeded to book my ticket and get Matt's free one processed. It turns out they denied Matt's free ticket saying it is only valid within the US...ughhh...why would we want a free ticket within the US when we live in Canada, yes CANADA!!! This just happened recently, so I'm still a little bitter!!

I know, Airlines, don't like us. Maybe it runs in the family...my dad has had two airlines go bankrupt on him while he had tickets booked!!