tierneytravels

A Christmas and a New Years Miracle? (Part II)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Picking up where I left off on the Part I post of my holiday travel saga – A Christmas and A New Years Miracle? (Part I).

Before we boarded the plane to Richmond, Virginia, we suddenly had so many logistics to handle like cancelling our Amtrak train tickets from Washington, DC to Richmond for the next day and cancelling the hotel for that evening in D.C. We also needed to rearrange our hotel accommodations in Richmond at the Linden Row Inn to start a day earlier. It was a made rush on the phone and online before getting on the plane but we were so happy to be going directly to Richmond, VA to start our Christmas holiday with my family!

While in Richmond we had fun exploring downtown Richmond and Carytown with my sister and then a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my brother, his wife, their son and of course my sister and her husband and son.

Christmas Eve we stopped by my sister’s favorite distillery Trial & Error and did some whiskey and infused vodka tasting which was fun!

My brother’s son, my 10 year old nephew, brought some of his stuffed animals for me to repair (I had my trusty traveling needle and thread) while we were together, so I did a couple “surgical” procedures on his “well loved” stuffed friends while we visited:

On the 26th of December it was time for John and I to say goodbye and take Amtrak train to Washington D.C. to catch our flight back to Denver on Wednesday the 27th. We were staying overnight in D.C. and in the morning going to sightsee a tiny bit before heading to the airport.

We were feeling so grateful that Christmas with my family was a success as we sat on the train headed to D.C. when a couple things suddenly happened…

First the train ahead of us hit a parked car on the track (luckily no one was inside the car) and our train was stopped for a hour or so while the crash was resolved.

Then we got a message from Southwest Airlines that our flight to Denver from D.C. on December 27th was CANCELED. Just cancelled with no rescheduling. We had a message to see an airline agent to re-book.

So once we got into D.C. instead of heading to our hotel, we took an Uber to Ronald Reagan Airport to see what was up. Boy were we in for a surprise! We didn’t have all the details at the time but SW Airlines had completed melted down. They cancelled all flights across the country for Wednesday to Friday, halting their operations until they regrouped. It made the national news and the U.S. Department of Transportation said they were going to put the airlines under investigation as they stranded thousands of people after the Christmas holiday.

We got to the SW Airlines ticket counter and we were told there were no flights until Saturday December 31st! So we were stranded in D.C. from Tuesday Dec 27 until Saturday Dec 31!!!!!

Here are links to a couple of the news stories that summarizes what happened with SW Airlines:

Why Southwest is melting down (CNN)

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball

A wonderful summary on Wikipedia:

2022 Southwest Airlines flight delays

And one of the many videos of news stories of the travel nightmare that hit the U.S. courtesy of SW Airlines:

There are numerous sad stories of families missing major holiday vacations and missing luggage. The airport was filled with people who had been basically camping at the airport and long lines of people trying to find their luggage or speak with a gate agent.

John and I were upset as we were missing our dog Mike and looking forward to returning home to him, we had parked our car the airport and had to incur 4 – 5 more days of daily charges; and we now had to incur the cost of a hotel for 4 additional nights as well as food. Plus we had packed light and our clothes really needed a laundering (and we had run out of clean underwear!). Also we had planned to be home way before New Years Eve and enjoy a couple days at home, and New Years Eve, etc. before the New Year began.

So now you might be wondering – why didn’t we just book a flight home on another airline as the other airlines had not melted down and were operating as normal? Well we checked every airline that could get us to Denver and flights up through Friday ranged for a one way flight from $2100 to $4300 per person (only last minute first class flights were available on other airlines). It was much less expensive to stay in the D.C. area until Saturday and fly home at no additional cost via SW Airlines.

But we decided to make the best of it and see it as a forced vacation in Washington D.C.

We decided to only stay one night at the hotel we booked near the White House area in D.C. and move to stay in Alexandria, Virginia, which is sort of suburb of D.C. for the rest of our stay. It is a safer area, has the wonderful Old Town Alexandria to wander about, is right on the Metro line (DC area transit system), and is only two stops from Ronald Reagan Airport which we would eventually fly home from.

Wednesday the 28th we wandered around Old Town Alexandria and had a fun time despite our situation. I’ll do a separate blog post on that as this wandering involved an absolutely awesome yarn shop as well as fabric shop!

Thursday we decided to spend 1 – 2 days in Washington D.C. playing tourist. We both wanted to see the Library of Congress and although I’ve been to D.C. many times since I grew up on the East Coast, I’d never been to the Supreme Court and wanted to see that. We figured we could also fit in some Smithsonian Museums too!

Here we are at the King Street Metro Station in Alexandria about to head back into Washington D.C. for our first day of sightseeing at our nation’s capital on Thursday December 29th:

In addition to that separate post on our adventures in Old Town Alexandria, I’ll have a separate post on our adventures in D.C.

But we only spent one day in D.C….why? Because another miracle happened, one I like to call THE NEW YEARS MIRACLE.

The afternoon of Thursday December 29th, we had just finished visiting the Supreme Court building and went to wait on line at the Library of Congress for a tour. While on line we discovered we could only get into the building with “timed entry tickets” which we had to buy online, and they were sold out for the day. John got online and got us timed entry tickets for Friday so we could try again during are planned day 2 of touring D.C.

As we were exiting the line, a large family group was confused as to where they needed to wait on line to get into the Library of Congress. We stopped to help them and pointed them to the line. They asked us how was the Library of Congress and we explained we couldn’t get in because the timed entry tickets were sold out. Well they said they had TWO EXTRA tickets and we could join their group and get in!

We were so happy as this left more time the next day to see other things in D.C. and we were really looking forward to touring the Library of Congress, one of the few venues in D.C. neither of us had seen.

Little did we know this was part one of a two part miracle, as while we were touring the Library of Congress we got a text that SW Airlines was restoring regular operations.

We looked at their flights online and saw there were flights on FRIDAY from D.C. to Denver AND one flight that evening back to Denver!

We quickly ended our day in D.C. and took the Metro to Ronald Reagan Airport to see a SW Airlines ticket agent! We convinced them to put us on the Thursday evening flight and not to charge us the $700+ dollars the flight cost.

The we rushed back to our hotel, which was 2 Metro stops away, packed as fast as we could and headed back to the airport! Amazingly our hotel, Embassy Suites heard our saga and kindly refunded us our hotel room charges for Thursday and Friday night (another part of the miracle, like perhaps a part three)!

And late Thursday December 29th we returned to Denver! Two days earlier than Saturday (huge smile)!

In addition to being able to return home earlier than planned, we were so grateful to the people we randomly met who shared their tickets to the Library of Congress with us as (little did we know at the time) we would not be in town the next day to see it!

So that’s the shorter version of our holiday travel saga, I’d put you to sleep if I provided all the details, ha!

I’ll close out with a couple of humorous airplane travel memes courtesy of demilked.com:

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

34 thoughts on “A Christmas and a New Years Miracle? (Part II)”

  1. Wow!! My hubby would’ve had several meltdowns… he is NOT a good traveler and any sudden change in plans sets him off. I’m glad you guys made the best of a horrible situation and I’m sure your good Karma brought those ‘miracles’ your way. I think SW is in for a major shake up after all this… just disgraceful what they did to so many people đŸ˜¦

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Wow Tierney! What a flight fiasco but glad you made the best of it and Southwest was able to get you on an earlier flight. Glad you hear you had a nice holiday with your brother and sister and that you safely arrived back home!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. You are too kind, thanks for the compliment. John had a tiny meltdown moment but I kept remembering for some reason that book I read after Terry died – Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by S. Sandberg – and in my mind I heard “well Tierney this is your East Coast holiday experience Option B!” John shortly came around and got on the Option B Train also – ha!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Hi Tierney,
    The triple miracle was beautiful to read about – and it sounds like you both made the best of it while also stayed alert to any changes – Whig paid off with getting home two days sooner
    And glad you have embassy suites a shout out!
    We have not stayed there for a while but have always had good service and it is good that they were not taking advantage of the situation but instead showed grace!
    –
    And many of us were watching the SW and other flight stuff going on! Such a weird mix of variables, eh? Like the storms and illness from workers

    Liked by 1 person

  6. You guys should look into getting reimbursed from Southwest. If they don’t satisfy you, you can apparently go to the Dept of transportation website They weren’t really going to charge you a fee for the change were they? I would think after all the issues they were having they wouldn’t even think about doing that

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I love a saga where lemons are turned into lemonade, where a nephew knows his aunt is the best stuffed animal surgeon in the country, and where Mike got to celebrate the New Year with the return off his favorite humans. Happy New Year Tierney!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Lol, I don’t know that I would have stayed that calm but thank goodness the internet allows us to make plans on the go like that. Though it used to be, if the airline messed up the flight they would book and pay your hotel.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Our daughter points out “they’d already sucked all the fun out of flying even before the pandemic” and I have to agree. I’m old enough to remember when people put on their Sunday clothes to get on an airplane and yes, they served real food. Whatever. I’m just glad you made it home earlier than expected. Yikes! What a trip!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. OMG – what an adventure you two had! So glad you were able to get home relatively soon (given the SW airlines situation) and also that you had some fun together while you were in DC/Alexandria! And then still home in time to celebrate the New Year with Mike đŸ™‚

    Liked by 1 person

  11. You survived the great SW debacle. I assume you will not be going on any vacations for a while to recover. The airline really owes all customers financial compensation for that. Also, last year the FAA put out a public request for comment for public to provide feedback regarding the airline seats. Hoping the comments makes a difference and the FAA mandates the airlines increase the size of seats and the space between them.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Good Grief Mother Brown – that’s been one helluva saga from going and returning… and Yes I can well imagine “meltdowns” – but you both survived and you’ll be able to “dine out on that saga for years to come” – the airline needs a severe shakeup for sure!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks so much for your empathy on our crazy experience – I got addicted reading news stories of people who had way worse impacts from their cancelled flights. Beside all those holiday plans ruined I heard there are still people who don’t have their luggage back and SW Airlines can’t even locate their luggage!

      Like

  14. Pingback: Guest Blog Post – Dog Camp Holiday – tierneycreates
  15. Pingback: Another Knitted Hat and “HatMan” – tierneycreates
  16. Pingback: Fibre Space – A Yarn Universe (Yarn Store Tour) – tierneycreates

  17. Thank you and glad you did not encounter any flight drama during your holiday travel! You should have seen DIA before Christmas when we had the storm – it looked like a refugee encampment with people (and a lot of families) sleeping huddled together in the baggage claim area. It was heartbreaking and I know a lot of people had a stressful holiday đŸ˜¦

    Like

  18. Pingback: 2022 in Review: A Year in Travel – tierneycreates

Comments are closed.