A couple of days before Jessica White was due to take a trip to New York with her mother in February, the city was hit with the worst blizzard it had seen in years. Unsurprisingly, their flight was cancelled. Their travel agent managed to reschedule the holiday for later in the week, with their journey out now connecting in Reykjavík, Iceland. The holiday was rescued … or so they thought.
Flight to Iceland and unexpected diversion
The flight to Iceland went without a hitch until the final moments, when the pilot informed passengers that a mini-blizzard was passing over Keflavík international airport and they would have to redirect to a domestic airport 15 minutes away. They still had hope that they could make their connection, but after several hours on the tarmac that hope died.
Instead, they flew back to the international airport, and after waiting for an hour in arrivals, they were shepherded on to a coach and told they would be taken to a hotel for the night – the driver had yet to be informed which one. Another hour passed. Then, an airline representative darted on to the bus and told the driver the name of the hotel. “But that’s two hours away!” replied the driver.
Bus breakdown and overnight ordeal
Once they set off, White used the last of her phone battery to look for an email about a rescheduled flight that had been promised by ground staff. No such email came. An hour into the journey, they stopped at a petrol station, where the driver made a call, then announced that the bus had broken down. The replacement was an hour away.
The replacement eventually came and they set off once more. White continued refreshing her emails, downloading the airline’s app to see if there was any update. There was! They would fly the following day. They could sleep soundly that evening – when they finally got to their hotel.
Black ice fall and hotel chaos
Their troubles were far from over. After arriving at the hotel, White stepped on to black ice and fell over, hard. Feeling deliriously tired and confused about why she was on the floor, she stayed down. The people around her screamed, thinking she had passed out. She was hoisted back to her feet by a kind woman who could see that she was not unconscious, just a woman who had given up. She was escorted by her worried mother to the check-in queue at the hotel, where it was evident that something was amiss. The receptionist had not known they were coming and didn’t think he had enough room for them.
A well-organised woman from Boston took control. She passed out paper and instructed everybody to write down the number of people in their party and negotiated with the receptionist, who worked out that they could, in fact, all stay.
Final leg and airline complaint
Their bus arrived promptly the next morning, and they made it to New York that day. A fitting end to the saga would come after the holiday, when White attempted to complain to the airline about its lack of communication throughout the ordeal. She was informed that it had sent her several emails. When she asked for evidence of this, it sent correspondence with somebody else regarding their flight from Paris to Boston. When she pointed this out, she was told it considered the case closed.
