Friday and Saturday, 23-24 April 2010


I begin my adventure home, requiring four flights and an overnight stay in New York. My original plan for taking the QM2 home was designed to avoid the long flights and difficulties I had last year when I flew home from Copenhagen (via Dusseldorf and Los Angeles). But the Icelandic Fates would have it otherwise.


Friday: Arrivederci, Roma

The car to the airport picks me up promptly at 8:30 for what is supposed to be a 40-minute trip. But this is Rome and it is rush hour. With all the difficulties of traffic, accidents (one truly horrendous truck crash whose aftermath we pass), and a temperamental driver who speaks little English, we reach the airport in just over an hour—not bad. I avoid a direct case of déjà vu, since flights to the US depart from a different terminal than the one I visited on Monday when I first arrived in Rome and was still trying to find a way to London on British Airways.

US Airways to Philadelphia

Because I had no other choice but to purchase a very expensive one-way ticket from Rome to Newark, I am able to use USAir’s special “envoy” check-in line, I don’t have to pay the regular luggage fee, and I get an aisle seat (with one of the few empty seats right next to it). But it’s still a two- hour wait until we take off and I will still be squeezed into coach for the long nine-hour flight.

The flight takes off on time at 11:50 am and has a thankfully-uneventful crossing, with lunch and a snack served, landing in Philadelphia a few minutes early, shortly before 4 pm. Although most of the employees who have assisted me at airports over the past several years have been helpful and efficient and well worth the cost of tipping (usually $20 for each wheelchair ride), I have the misfortune of meeting the worst in Philadelphia. Martin is a young man who works for USAir (or so his badge says), dresses neatly in shirt and tie and carries a fashionable leather shoulder bag, but is more interested in reading his book than helping me maneuver through the airport.

I pick up my luggage, get through immigration and customs and, fortunately, do not have to go to another terminal building for my Continental Airlines connecting flight to Newark (it is too late in the day to get a flight to Tucson)—although I do have to go through security again and a long wheelchair ride (thankfully with a different attendant) to the gate.

Continental Airways to Newark

The time and distance of transferring really doesn’t matter, actually, since the Continental flight is delayed about 90 minutes. I know Newark is only a short flight away, but this is the first propeller flight I’ve been on in a long time, and a very small plane indeed. But there is still no charge for luggage (I emphasize this point because of what transpires tomorrow with Delta at LaGuardia). I have arranged to be picked up by Carmel Car Service for the ride from Newark Airport into Manhattan, where I will be spending the night at the condo of a friend (near Union Square). Thankfully, Will has made the arrangements by telephone with my cousin Helen and friend Josephine, who are both in Florida, and the keys to the apartment are waiting for me at the doorman’s desk when I arrive at 10 pm. In my younger, sturdier days I am sure I would have been out the apartment door in a flash to enjoy the temptations of New York, even for one brief night. But taking off my shoes and socks and getting a good night’s sleep is my only temptation right now.

Saturday: New York to Atlanta

Last night I unpacked only what was absolutely necessary, so I don’t have much else to do in the
morning. I do go out early to the Garden of Eden, a gourmet supermarket down the block on 14th Street, for breakfast coffee and croissants. Back upstairs I visit with Winnie, who is house- and cat-sitting for my cousin Helen. And, of course, I get to visit with Willy the cat as well.

I call my driver from last night, who gave me his private number (I guess I was a good tipper), and he picks me up at 11:15 am for the short ride to LaGuardia for my 2 pm departure.

The Trouble with Delta: I try to use curbside checking at Delta, but they tell me that my suitcase is seven pounds overweight and I have to check in at the ticket counter. The wheelchair attendant helps me to the counter, where the Delta agent tells me there is a $90 overweight charge (I have already paid the regular $15 baggage charge in advance). I try to explain that no one at USAir or Continental said anything yesterday about the suitcase being too heavy (and I know it was weighed in at both check-in counters). I added absolutely nothing in New York. If I had known the suitcase was too heavy I could have lightened the load this morning when I was putting things together. The agent suggested I could take things out of the suitcase, but I would have to discard whatever items I removed. I said that surely there must be an exception for a person in a wheelchair, travelling alone, for whom repacking now at the airport was physically impossible—and that $90 seemed really outrageous for seven pounds. Not to mention that I had been stranded in Rome for four days when I should have been on the Queen Mary 2 and that all European airlines were more than generous about cancelling fees and refunding money. [I didn’t mention that Delta had already charged me an additional $200 to change my flights from New York to Tucson because I was not coming home by ship and therefore needed to fly several days earlier than my original reservation, which itself was pretty mean-spirited given all the chaos with European travel].

She suggested that I could discard one pair of shoes and that would probably do it. However, besides the above-mentioned physical difficulty, one pair of shoes or sneakers costs about $150 for the shoes themselves and then an additional $85 to have orthopedic rocker panels put in the soles—and that’s $85 per shoe, not per pair! And since there were several empty seats on both flights today (reducing the potential total weight of the flight), blaming the fee on the cost of extra fuel seemed specious at best.

I understand the difficulties that airlines are facing, but the only words for Delta’s behavior are heartless and callous. And I will do my best to avoid flying Delta whenever possible.

The Trouble with Weather: There is more bad news, this time concerning the weather. Although it is a beautiful day in New York City, Atlanta and the Deep South are having terrible rains and even a series of tornadoes (in Mississippi). The Atlanta airport is actually shut down for an hour so my flight from NY cannot even leave the gate. Departure time for my 2:00 pm flight keeps getting pushed back and when a 3:50 departure is posted, it looks like I will miss my connection in Atlanta, which, of course, is the last flight of the day to Tucson. Luckily, I’m waiting right at the desk when this later time is announced and the attendant can put me on a 1:00 pm departure which has now been rescheduled to 3:00 pm and is, therefore, still at its gate.

After boarding this flight around 2:15, we are told that we won’t be taking off for awhile and that passengers with connections to South America (about half of the plane) need to get off to be rebooked on other airlines. The flight attendant assures me that this flight will eventually take off, so I decide just to sit tight. About 30 minutes later all the South America passengers who marched off are re-boarded and we finally taxi out to the runway shortly after 3:00 pm. Somehow, we are actually number one for take-off and on our way. Since everything going into Atlanta is being delayed, I’m not too concerned about the 90 minute delay and I’m hopeful I will make the connection to Tucson.

Saturday: Atlanta to Tucson

Things do get better. When I arrive in Atlanta, not only will the flight to Tucson be leaving from the same gate where I have just arrived (so no wheelchair maneuvering through the airport), but Delta is substituting planes and will be using an incoming plane from Jacksonville (not delayed by weather) rather than waiting for the plane from Boston, which as of now hasn’t even left for Atlanta. The end of the story is that I arrive home in Tucson only one hour later than originally planned, along with my now very expensive suitcase.

The Lesson I Learned

Now as I sit calmly at home with Will and the cats I’m thankful that I was able to get home after only four days. Compared to families stranded in Europe and sleeping in airports, I was lucky to have a comfortable hotel and the city of Rome to keep me occupied. Of course, the cost of the rearranged travel plans was more than the planned one-week cruise on the QM2. But my travel agent is working hard to see what kind of money insurance will reimburse. Which makes me really glad that contrary to my usual do-it-yourself planning, for this trip I used the services of Elaine, my experienced travel agent in Virginia. She was working on alternative plans for me as soon as the crisis started and kept me continually updated by email and phone. She was still trying to get me to London in time for the QM2 sailing at the last minute on Wednesday, but there was just nothing available. And I express my gratitude to her.

So if you have any travel plans, complicated or otherwise, you can contact Elaine at elaine_vanhonk@mindspring.com.