The Most Stressful Travel Kickoff I’ve Ever Experienced

Wondering why I haven’t posted to my blog yet this year? Mainly because we experienced the most stressful travel kickoff in my entire life. And yes, I did say We because this year I have my son Ethan travelling with me.

It all began at check-in at the United counter in Austin. I started the process but ran into a little snag with putting in my initial information. The agent quickly stepped in and bypassed just about every screen of information to print out our tickets and check out bags. She was incredibly fast and glossed over everything. As I would later learn… this was a bad thing.

During that check-in I realized that I didn’t have a printed copy of our Cambodian Visa. No problem, I had it on my phone. So after breakfast we went to the United Lounge to use their printer. When checking in there, the United agent was not really interested in anything other than mechanically waving the boarding pass over the scanner to verify we could enter. Printing done, we headed to the gate.

The plane was gone.

Panic set in quickly as the gate agent said it left a while ago. Every piece of itinerary documentation said 7:30am. It was 6:50. Looking at the boarding pass (which they quickly printed at check-in and neglected to even look at when going to the lounge) it did indeed say an earlier time.

Missing the first flight of a 27 hour trip is catastrophic. When I asked the United agent for help, her only response was:

“I can’t help you”

She proceeded to walk away after that cold and emotionless statement. It would be a recurring theme every time I tried talking to United.

After a phone call to my wife and a few deep breaths, we started to take control of the situation. There’s an American flight to SFO that arrives just 40 minutes before the departure of our next leg. It’s a long shot but worth the try. We run to the AA ticket counter and say “We need two tickets to San Francisco… right now.”

We made that one fine and the connection in LA was rather easy. Turns out it was the exact same plane so we got off, went to the bathroom, and made a few more phone calls while waiting at the same gate.

For the flight from LAX to SFO we were in the last row. That’s a problem when you have no time to spare. Ethan and I made a plan. As soon as that seatbelt sign turned off we were going to throw elbows and get to the front. The flight attendant was apologetic that she couldn’t make an announcement to help us through so we knew it was up to us.

When that ding went off we bolted. Yes there was shoving, apologies, and a 12 year old boy clearing a path in front of me like a wedge! When we got to first class there was a lady staring incredulously at us. I stared back with the look of “I don’t care what you think and I’m sort of happy that I’m making you mad”.

“Ok son, welcome to San Francisco. We’re in Terminal 2 and we need to get to International Terminal A. Get ready to run. Our first task is to find the train.”

As soon as the door opened we ran.

Sprinting as fast as we could we found the train. When going up what felt like an infinite number of escalators there was one part where sliding doors were a little too slow for me. I gave it a power shoulder move and knocked it off the hinge. Ethan looked back with wide eyes. “Too bad for the door, keep going!” I said.

At the train entrance somehow both trains were there. We lucked out and took the faster one. They both work, but the red line was better.

When we got to International Terminal A I could see our plane. It was still there. That was the first ray of hope and gave me a directional sense of where to go. “See that Ethan, go that way!”

Running to security I waved the boarding passes and said “I have 10 minutes to get to A1”. They took us to the TSA check-in ahead of everyone else.

From here, it’s obvious TSA has their own rules. I asked if we could then jump ahead of others and got an agent with a halfway bored / halfway annoyed look on his face. “You know you need to be here at least 1 hour ahead of time…” Arguing would get me nowhere with him. I gave a quick “Yes sir I understand that” and before he could say another word I was asking people in the line for their help.

Through the kindness of strangers they saw our panic and let us ahead. At the scanner, another line. This time a different TSA agent asked how we were doing. It felt like the kind of question prompted more by TSA rules looking for suspicious people, and I knew I could exploit it!

“We’ll be a lot better when I get right there” I said pointing at gate A1… within sight of the scanner. He looked at us and saw the fear. “Ok, you can go through here” and we made it quickly through.

Running now down to A1 we see an empty gate with agents at the counter. The look on their face was surprise and amazement. “You… You made it?!? I need your passports, right now!”

Passports were somewhere in my bag. Things were jumbled in the panic. I unloaded handfuls of receipts, boarding passes, and paperwork like a shovel pulling dirt from the earth. Sifting through I found them.

When I saw the boarding passes print out… a sense of “we might actually do this” hit me. She even had the foresight to check for our bags in the 60 additional seconds we had before the plane was going to leave. Unlike United which could not help me at every turn, Asiana staff were tremendously helpful and caring even when their options were limited.

Shaking from fear turned into shaking from accomplishment and amazement. After we settled into our seats on the flight from San Francisco to Korea, I asked Ethan what he learned from this crazy experience.

“Never give up?”

With that I just about broke down but kept it together. “Yes, Ethan you’re exactly right. Never give up.”

Looks like the first lesson this trip is mine.