On the anniversary of September 11, there were countless stories of luck, good and bad. Random chance, as far as choosing or changing habitual routines, getting stuck in traffic or missing flights, meant the difference between life and death.
Of course, these events can be disaster or good luck.
Fortunately, most choices and chance in travel result in relatively minor rewards and far less dramatic problems as a client discovered this week. While she is a frequent traveler, a combination of an extended meeting and an over-optimistic view of traffic meant she arrived at Washington-Dulles 45 minutes before her 12:25 p.m. flight time.
At this point, she was told at check-in that she was too late and would have to standby on the next flight about two hours later. While not blaming United, she was not particularly happy until her original flight returned to Dulles airport after engine problems and was evacuated. (This was the plane where as it was widely reported, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg had to slide down an emergency chute.)
As it turned out, she got the last standby seat on the 2:40 p.m. plane — Her original flight took off again, in a new plane, four-and-a-half hours after its scheduled departure.
This sort of happenstance can occur with hotels and destinations too. Another client couldn’t find the room type they wanted available in Turks and Caicos, so they decided to go to Jamaica instead. Luckily for them, they watched Hurricane Irene on their television instead of living through it.
Sometimes this sort of lucky mischance happens and the passenger never knows about it. Ditto when a traveler decides to give up a good confirmed seat for a lousy seat on an earlier flight. One of my favorite clients loves to monitor such “would-have-been scenarios,” enjoying the thought of time he has “won.”
But no doubt many readers of this column have their own “better to be lucky than good” stories about travel. So, please share them in comments. We’ve all had enough travel horror stories, sometimes it’s fun to read about the “one where we got away.”
Photo: Matthew at www.upgrd.com/matthew/ Pictures from UA Open House
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
