Back in April I attempted to get away from work for a quick four-day trip to Hawaii to see my family. Given all that I had going on with my company, Ambajam, I could only steal away for a few days, so the trip was going to be a short one.  I just never guessed how short and that one of those precious four days would be spent hanging out at the Los Angeles Airport.

To maximize my time in going, I booked on a 7:00 a.m. flight out of Denver to L.A. connecting with a late morning flight to Kona in Hawaii. This necessitated my getting up at 4:30 a.m., an ungodly hour even for someone who usually rises at 5:30 a.m.  Fueled up on coffee and anticipation (excitement), I arrived at the airport. Check-in was a breeze.  I sailed through security – “Hey, traveling at this hour is great,” I thought, “no lines.”  Settling into a seat at the gate with some “quality” reading, I awaited the announcement to board.  An announcement came but not the one we were waiting for.

Unfortunately, during his pre-flight inspection, the pilot noticed fuel leaking from the plane – never a good sign.  Time went by and finally we were re-routed to another plane. “Not a big deal,” I thought.  “I can still make my connection.”  Yeah, right!  You guessed it.  I missed my connecting flight by half an hour.  “Ok,” I thought, “this is not a big deal,” after I found out there was another flight to Kona leaving late in the afternoon.  “I’ll at least get there for a late dinner with the family.”  Yeah, right again.

Fortunately I had just joined United’s Red Carpet Club so I had a comfy place to hang out in for the next seven hours.  Hooking up my computer, I did make good use of the time finishing up some work, catching up on e-mails, updating my blog and even reconnecting on Face book with an old friend with whom I had been out of touch for fifteen years!

Amazingly, those seven hours sped by. When it got close to boarding time, I began to pack up and shift into excitement mode again. “Hmmmm, “ I wondered, “why doesn’t the board show our flight boarding?”  Turns out there was a mechanical issue, something to do with the toilets this time, not the fuel. “Well, that is more easily resolved,” I thought. “They’ve got to be able to get this fixed relatively quickly.”  Wrong. By the time it was resolved, the pilots and crew had timed out which meant there was no one to fly the plane.  Finally at 8:30 p.m. the flight was cancelled and rescheduled with a new crew for a 7:00 a.m. departure the next morning.

Mild chaos ensued as people clamored to a service desk to pick up hotel vouchers and find out that there was no access to their checked luggage.  Believe me, a computer and some “quality reading” is no substitute for a good toothbrush and clean clothes.  Arriving at my designated hotel, I was fortunate to end up having a very enjoyable and relaxing dinner with some people I had met at the airport that day.  We made a plan to meet at 5:45 a.m. the next morning to catch the shuttle back to the airport.  When I stumbled out of bed at 5:15 a.m., I found a note pushed under the door saying that the plane had been delayed yet again and rescheduled to depart at 10:30 a.m.  The delay this time was due yet again to crew issues. “Oh, this just keeps getting better and better,” I thought as I crawled back into bed.  Too wired to sleep, I pulled out my phone and proceeded to call my friends on the East Coast, one time the time difference definitely worked in my favor..

Back at LAX, I regrouped with the cast of characters I had met the day before.  Finally we heard the announcement that we would loved to have heard many hours earlier, i.e. the flight was ready to board.  As the plane lifted off from LAX, a loud round of cheers erupted. Fortunately, there was a great amount of camaraderie amongst the passengers as people commiserated about their now truncated vacations and traded stories about how long they had been stuck at LAX, what plans in Hawaii they had missed, and whom they had met at the airport.   I was fortunate to sit next to a great guy who, along with his wife, had recently started a dance company in St. Paul, Minnesota. He showed me a promotional DVD of the dance company.  What great talent!  If you’re ever in St. Paul, be sure to check out the Tu Dance Company.

When the plane finally landed in Kona, I was officially twenty-five hours late and minus one of those precious four vacation days.  My parents, full of sympathy for my travails, were a bit surprised when I said I’d actually rather enjoyed my little adventure once I had put everything into the proper perspective. A conversation that helped me do that was with a woman I met at LAX who used to work at United’s Red Carpet Club in Phoenix.  She was helping a guy whose flights had been all messed up, and he was having to spend an extra night in Phoenix.  It was a huge inconvenience for him, and she commented on how well he was handling it.  He then told her about a few years prior he had been rushing out of the house to get to work when the phone rang.  He was angered that the call delayed him, making him late for work.  Incredibly, the call actually saved his life.  Had he left on time, he would have been at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City when it was bombed.

I guess when we get tossed these inconveniences we have to accept that sometimes they may be just what we need.  While I would loved to have arrived as originally scheduled, which would have given me time for a good lunch, a swim and quality play time with my young niece and nephew, the delay really wasn’t that bad.  LAX isn’t the place I would choose to spend one day out of my four-day vacation, but the whole episode made me slow down, remain flexible, make friends and accept that some things are just beyond my control.  Not a bad lesson to learn in just four days!