Flight Plan: Relying on the 3Rs of Bulldog Behavior

Everyone knows that traveling by plane includes the risk of flight cancellations. Those risks have increased in the past year. So, we were slightly disappointed, but not concerned when we received this email from Delta on Friday afternoon:

Our new flight - “automatically rebooked” and requiring “no further action” from us - was taking us through Frankfurt instead of Boston and shaving 3 hours off our stay in Edinburgh, but we were still on track. No big deal.

So, imagine our dismay when we were half way through the ticketing process at the Huntsville ticket counter and told, “I can get you to Detroit, but you are on standby for Frankfurt and we can’t guarantee you can get to your final destination.”

Bulldogs, you would be proud of us! We did not despair. We reached into our character education and relied on the three Rs: respect, resilience, and responsibility. First, we remained respectful as we waited patiently for the ticket agent who had to hold with every other international caller for over 45 minutes. We continued to be respectful as other passengers filed past us and last call for checked luggage made it clear we would not be making our flight no matter what the outcome of the call - whenever someone was able to pick up and help us.

The ticket agent offered a flight the next day, but we were resilient and (we’ll add an honorary R here) resourceful as we asked, respectfully, if they could get us anywhere in the vicinity of Edinburgh. Glasgow? No. Heathrow? Yes! We did a quick check of the train schedules and found several good options that worked. It wasn’t perfect as it has us arriving late and losing most of that day in Edinburgh.

Then, came more bad news as our returning flights were also no longer available. More heartbreak as our 15 hour layover in Paris fell victim to airline pilot shortages and a hot travel season. We kept practicing a respectful demeanor though, and an alternate flight arrangement was soon secured.

Victory! Yay for the three Rs! But wait, one of those was an honorary R. What about the R for responsibility.

Well… we may have to take a refresher course on that one. We were so giddy and grateful to be on our way, that we didn’t pay attention to the details of that return flight. Our initial flight was leaving later in the day on Saturday, had a 15 hour layover, and was arriving back in Huntsville around 5pm. So, why was this new flight leaving much earlier in the day, no announced layover, and arriving much later in the evening.

After 3 hours in Atlanta, that incongruity finally dawned on one of us. A quick check of the return itinerary revealed the crucial missed detail. We were originally scheduled to leave on Saturday and arrive on Sunday. Our new itinerary has us doing all the traveling on Sunday.

Friends, when you are responsible, you make sure that you know what you are doing and when and how you should do it. We take full responsibility for this oversight and are happy to report that our accommodations for the last part of our stay has already confirmed that we can stay one more night. So, we are all good and happy to have that day in Edinburgh back.