Longest single travel day in my life.

[BIGUN 1,453]

Now, I've had travel days where I got bounced for mechanical or weather reasons, but yesterday was the all time kick my ass travel day.
Arrived at the Cleveland airport at 2:00PM for a flight CLE-CHI-TUL
Desk agent stands on the scles and hollers to everyone if you're on a flight to Chicago after 6:00Pm - they've all been cancelled.
Whew - I'm on the 4:00PM
4:00PM - flight is delayed until 9:30 cause there's only two active runways in Chicago due to winds and the sysem is backing up. (OK I can still make my connection).
Sorry. It's changed to a 10:30 PM departure. - go see ticket agent cause now I miss my connection.
Hang on sir, I'm transferring you to Delta-CLE-CIN-TUL - go see the Delta agent and I'll get your bag transferred.
Go see Delta agent - sorry, we thought we had a seat for you, but I've got to transfer you to the CLE-DUL- ATL-TUL flight which leaves 8:30.
Get on the flight (little 2 seat on either side mini jet).
Fly to DUL sitting next to similair sized guy - we're fucked on any level of confort or movement.
Head to ATL
Arrive at ATL at 10:00 PM - have ten minutes to make connection - display says "Boarding now."
RUN from Concourse C-D - fuck the tram I ain't got time.
Get there as they're boarding - sweating profusely from a dead run.
They stand up and say, flight's delayed an hour for "mechanical problems" - gotta love that announcement.
OK - 11;30 PM - we're boarding.
Backing from the gate, Pilot says, we're going to be in-flight 2 1/2 hours (150 MPH head wind and it's going to be really bumpy).
Same kinda plane and sit next to a woman about my size - bonus.
Manage to curl up in the window and nod for a bit - then the bumps the pilot promised became a roller coaster ride for about an hour.
Girl next to me looks green and I'm waiting of rthe puke fest to begin... cause ya knows - once one starts, it's a chain reaction from the smell - but God bless her, she hangs on until the roller coaster stops and the Flight Attendant brings her some Sprite to calm her stomach.
Land in TUL at 2:00 AM - last flight in.
Am stunned that my checked baggage arrives (after getting bounced threee times thought it was going to be a lost cause).
Get to the house at 2:30 AM + one hour time differential = 13 1/2 hours and half a continent of travel.

Irony: Drive from CLE to TUL is 13 1/2 hours

Go coma on the couch for 6 hours and now I'm gonna go make a jump. Have a good day.

Your worst travel day?

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[Scoop 0]

I spent every last cent of my travel money in Spain and queued for 2 hours at check in at the airport. When I got there I got told I was on the wrong day... my flight was tomorrow

.....

So I slept in the terminal laying on one of the benches and waited a furthur 24 hours with no food or drink

I can laugh about it now

[kelel01 1]

Ok, here goes:

Kho Phangan, Thailand to Bali, Indonesia on a somewhat-freshly-sprained ankle:

7:30 pm - walk 1 mile with my bag on my back to where I am supposed to meet my taxi.

8 pm - get in taxi. 1-hour drive to the ferry.

9 pm - get to the ferry, and they're overbooked - BIG TIME. 280 people on a 200-person capacity boat. They squeeze us all in, and I'm sitting on the steps leaning up against a life jacket on the wall.

2 am - they wake those of us without beds up and tell us to move to another boat - in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. Not scary at all, especially with 50 pounds on your back.

6 am - arrive in Surratthani. Get in the back of a taxi where they take us to a travel agent about 15 minutes from the dock. Sit there for an hour or so.

7:30 am - Get in a another taxi where they take us to another travel agent about 5 minutes away. Sit there for half an hour.

8:30 am - Get in one final taxi to a travel agent's office, where the travel agent proceeds to rip off everyone in the group. She took advantage of the fact that I was sleepy, and ignorant to the exchange rate, and took me for $70. Another guy was told that he couldn't pay his overstay fee in Malaysia, and that he would have to go to Burma instead - at a cost of over $100. Yeah, that was a lie. Fuckin' bitch.

9 am - get in the van that will take me (us) to Hat Yai. That's about a 2-hour drive, IIRC.

11 am - arrive in Hat Yai (at yet another travel agent's office), and find out that our "bus" (which was actually a van) doesn't leave until 4 pm. Luckily, this gives me time to find my friend, who had been in Hat Yai for 3 days. Also gives him time to change from his bus to mine.

4 pm - leave the travel agent's office in another van. Arrive in Penang, Malaysia at about 7 pm. Then we have 2 hours to kill at a bus station. Luckily, I made some friends through all of this, and they were actually Malaysian. They ordered local food for us, so we got to eat like the locals, which was fun (and cheap and tasty!).

9 pm - the bus comes, and we all get on. I think we got to Kuala Lumpur around 1-2 am. We then had to walk to the train station to get to the airport, but the trains didn't start running until 5 am. Played Uno until 5. Finally got on the shuttle at the train station and headed to LCCT airport in Kuala Lumpur.

7 am - arrived at LCCT airport.

Flight to Bali didn't leave until 5 pm. Watched movies on my friend's laptop while sitting at a coffee shop ALL DAY. It was a very small but VERY BUSY airport. There was a coffee shop and a McDonald's. That was IT.

9 pm - flight lands in Bali, and then we spent an hour paying for tourist visas.

FINALLY got to the guesthouse via cab at about 11 pm. Start to finish, the trip took almost 52 hours.

But I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
Now I want to cry. I wanna go back!

[airtwardo 7]

I spent every last cent of my travel money...

Quote

I'll never do THAT again!

Got to airport in Bali once in the same predicament only to find out I needed 20 bucks to leave the country and they DON'T take credit cards!

I wonder if that guy still has the 300.00 watch I sold for 20.00?!?!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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[kelel01 1]

I had the same problem! I just HAPPENED to have 1500 Yen in my bag from when I was at the Tokyo airport. My travel buddy had $15 AUS, which was enough . . . but it was all in coins, and they don't take coins. The whole situation was quite comical.

[dbattman 0]

Heh-heh. When I went to Guyana the first thing I did on arrival was tape 4000 Guyanese dollars inside my passport. That way I knew I could at least get out cuz if I lost my passport I was pretty well screwed anyways.

What fun, what fun.

[dbattman 0]

I took one too many trips like that and finally broke down and ponied up for the Crown Room. Best 50k Skymiles I ever spent. Paid for itself in free coffee and booze pretty quick.

Time to spare, go by air!

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[ntrprnr 0]

My worst travel day:

3rd for takeoff on a United Airlines flight to the West Coast from Newark Airport, watching smoke rise from one World Trade Center Tower. By the time we got back to the gate (we never took off) the other tower had been hit.

I felt worst for my parents. All they knew was that their son was on a United Flight heading to the west coast. I couldn't get through to them. Was finally able to send a text message to my father's phone: NOT MY PLANE.

Yeah, that day kinda sucked. Not so much for being delayed or cancelled or whatever, but for being stuck across the river from my city, not being able to get back, and not being able to fucking do ANYTHING to help.

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

[JerryBaumchen 1,452]

My second worst travel day:

11:30 PM 9/10/01 departure out of Sao Paulo to LAX.
All goes well until we are about 2 hrs hours out of LAX (it is now 9/11) when they announce we are being diverted due to security at LAX; so I'm thinking maybe a crash there and runways closed.

We land in Tijauna and there it turns into the proverbial Chinese fire drill. After about 6 hrs sitting (with them twice telling us that they are going to take us back to Brazil) they say that anyone with papers to enter US can depart. Then they decide that since we are on Mexican soil, we must go through Mexican immigration (another Chinese fire drill). Then they announce that buses will pick us up for transport to LAX. Get to the border and see A LOT OF GUNS. This is not normal!!!!

Finally get to LAX and into a hotel, flip on the tv and find out that the world has changed.

Next morning I call my travel agent to get a rental car (the US air transport system is still down), get the rental car and drive 20+ hrs straight to PDX.

An interesting event in my life,

Jerry

[popsjumper 2]

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed, eh?


Worst travel day 1973...
Frankfort, Germany to NY La Gaurdia.
Free ride back to the US compliments of the German government (immigration violation).

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Squeak 17]

Mine was like 96 hours Perth, Western Australia to Miami Florida, 3 plane rides and a 3 day bus trip Wont do that twice

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[BDashe 0]

My longest travel day(s) was while going to africa. was actually suprisingly flawless, all bags got there with me despite some delays.

san francisco- DC on a red eye
DC - addis ababa, ethiopia via Rome, itlay for fuel.
Addis to Kigali rwanda. 36 hours of travel

coming back from dar es salaam tanzania

zanzibar- dar (25 minutes)

dar to addis via arusha tanzania
this was the fun part: 3 hour lay over in addis before a 17 hour flight back to DC, we load on the plane, take our seats, and are waiting for one passengers papers to clear for 2.5 hours on the plane on the tarmac at the gate waiting to take off and sit for 17 more hours. fun.

so yeah, addis to DC via rome again,

DC to san fran.

good trip though :-)

pics at bdashe.shutterfly.com

So there I was...

Making friends and playing nice since 1983

[dbattman 0]

Quote

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed, eh?


Worst travel day 1973...
Frankfort, Germany to NY La Gaurdia.
Free ride back to the US compliments of the German government (immigration violation).

You'll have to tell me that story sometime. I had another acquaintance tell me how accomodating the Saudi officials are when they deport you- help you pack, take you to the airport, walk you to the gate.

[Icon134 0]

my longest "travel" day was the day I returned to the states from japan.

it started when I woke up at 0730 to take the train to the Narita airport. The Japanese that were assisting me in my travel didn't want me to be late for my 1600 flight.

I got to the airport about 3.5-4 hrs early then at 1600 or so everyone boarded the plane... only to get back off 20 minutes later because of problems with the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems of the Aircraft.

if they hadn't have found and corrected the problem we might have been stuck in tokyo overnight. but 2 hours later we got back on the plan and took off for Seattle-Tacoma Airport. This flight could be described as a "red-eye" as we were originally scheduled to land in WA at around 1000 Pacific time after about an 8 or so hour flight (which included a meal and drinks) but we didn't arrive until closer to 1200-1300 hrs and I didn't make it to the hotel until close to 1400 hrs. My connecting to Chicago then finishing at Cincinnati flights weren't until the next day.

after not really sleeping at all on the plane (I was stuck in a center row, center seat... on the overnight flight) I didn't want to crash too early and decided to take the bus into downtown Seattle... which was interesting considering I hadn't slept for something like 25 hrs....

it wasn't all bad since I was traveling as a co-op student and getting paid hourly (at I think around $13/hr) during actual travel times... and I think I netted about 25-30 hrs of travel time that weekend...

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...