Last night at 7pm Hawaii time, just minutes before we were supposed to board, our flight was cancelled! Apparently one of the crew members (a flight attendant) didn’t make it to the airport. The announcement said they were rescheduling us for 12 noon today which is 4pm Denver time. Needless to say, 169 passengers were freaking out. They all crowded around the check in counter looking for answers but I sat back and assessed the situation. I began by calling United trying to get on a flight to San Francisco or Los Angeles. Sadly they were all sold out. So without waiting any longer, I hung up, realizing the best I could do flight wise, was taking the rescheduled flight today at noon. I then focused on finding us a place to sleep. I called Marriott right away and found a hotel one mile from the airport. The airlines too were calling and they told the crowd they would give out what hotel rooms they could until they ran out but then the rest of the people would have to stay in the airport overnight. Before they finished with this announcement, I had two room booked waiting for us. Right when I was hanging up, United was calling them. Next up, we all walked to Ticketing and thankfully only had one person ahead of us in the Premier line. I explained to the lady what happened and asked for two hotel vouchers so I didn’t have to pay for our rooms. She gave me two vouchers for $250 each and $80 worth of food vouchers which covered our stay.
30 minutes and a $10 taxi ride later, we were in the Marriott resting comfortably in adjoining rooms. The boys headed down for some food while Lori and I emailed work to handle the delay. Tonight, (if we take-off) we’ll arrive at 10pm due to the time difference. Then it’ll take two hours to drive to Vail putting us home around 12:30. Luckily we didn’t check any bags and just went carry on for our whole trip. It was a great trip and lots of fun. It’ll be good to get home but it is what it is. Here we are in front of the Ritz just before taking off yesterday afternoon. We’re one good looking family if I do say so, ha. (thanks to Lori) Hope everyone is well, take care and GB.