Oh the Joys of Traveling! – 1/04/18 & 1/05/18 early morning

….perhaps I spoke too soon about how this year is starting off……

If you watch the news you are probably aware of the major snowstorm that hit NYC and possibly even the chaos that ensued at JFK airport. I was supposed to fly back to Moscow on January 5th at 12:50am (in most people’s minds the night of the 4th). Due to the huge weather disaster I wasn’t sure if my flight would go. Throughout the day I kept checking and it consistently said it was on-time and scheduled. While many of you news watchers might have known or at least been more skeptical than me, I figured that the snow had stopped by the afternoon and with the size of JFK, it was possible. So off I went to the airport feeling proud of myself of the awesome bag transferring and packing maneuvers I had just completed before leaving.  

My only concern was the possibility of missing the time frame to pick up my luggage I stored at the airport. The A train wasn’t running all the way and I had to get out and look for a taxi. At the time I was happy when a taxi happened to drive by on the small street in Brooklyn that I ended up getting out of the subway on. Looking back I wish I wouldn’t have found a taxi and just found a hotel instead. Paying an extra day or two for luggage would have been a lot cheaper than what ended up happening.

So I arrived at the airport, picked up my luggage, changed into my travel outfit and did my final luggage arrangements completely convinced my flight was leaving.  After a fairly short time waiting in the check in line I found out we weren’t waiting to board, but were waiting for hotel vouchers instead. Before it was even close to my turn they were all gone. This put me in a bit of a predicament: no wifi, no phone access, no place to stay. They say you really learn how capable you are when you travel alone. Boy did I feel it in that moment. I really spent a lot of time assessing my options. I tried a track phone I had, but that was dead. I attempted buying a SIM card from an airport vending machine. Not only did I not receive it, but I later found out it alerted my credit card company to fraud and they declined any future purchases. Pay phones in the airport were dead and everyone I talked to were mostly foreigners that were having the same problems with their phones as I was. Airport staff were few and far between. 

After much deliberation and the extreme dislike of sleeping overnight in airports (been there, done that), I got in a taxi and told the driver to take me to the nearest hotel. Thankfully I was in NYC where taxis are safe.

I knew the hotels in the area were booked, but my plan was to use the wifi. I booked a different hotel in the lobby of the JFK Crown Plaza and tried to have the front desk book me a taxi to the hotel I would be staying at. They called and no taxis were willing to come.

Next I spent about an hour or two in the lobby of the hotel using the wifi, guest computer, reception phone, water and bathroom. Each piece, well the technological ones, played an intricate piece in ultimately downloading a taxi app that would pick me up. I was almost to the point of asking the hotel if I could just sleep in the lobby and pondering what they would do if I couldn’t leave. It took me about five taxi apps until I found an app that functioned on my phone. It took me three times ordering a taxi because on the app I could see the drivers coming and then driving off in the opposite direction. 

Finally I got a car that took about an hour to take me to my downtown Brooklyn hotel, only a few blocks away from where I got in a taxi earlier that night. Once there I found out my room was cancelled because my credit card I mentioned earlier was declined. Did you see that one coming? So I had the pleasure of waiting for another 20 minutes when the guy tried to figure out if they had another room available. This was quite a process that involved tasks such as, getting a napkin and washing his hands half-way through the course of the transaction. Finally after calling for a assistance he figured out they had one more room and could re-book me with another card.

But hey at 3am I finally got a room, a nice one too! Wish I could have had a full night a sleep, but at least the airline claimed they would reimburse me. We will see about that!