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What ELSE could go wrong?

A chain of unfortunate events indeed.

By Merritt XavierPublished about a year ago Updated about a year ago 3 min read
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Image credit: ismail mohamed -  SoviLe

Going to reunite with extended family can be an interesting decision and the winter 2017 trip, was no different. Using[redacted] airlines was a hit or miss, and this time a family of six got a miss. We planned on travelling during the holidays for a family gathering as everyone was coming together. Destination- London, UK from Toronto, Canada. We would be spending Christmas and New years' there. The itinerary for the first part of the journey included a 6-hour plus direct flight to London Heathrow airport. We planned everything and remained on schedule so far. We had the Canadian exclusive candies and things, we had some snacks for ourselves and some extra socks. The airline we were going to use was known to be extremely cold from my parents' experience and we were ready for it. 

The flight was for 10:00 pm and we left 3 hours before as usual, to ensure everything would go well. Smooth sailing so far, nothing was left, we had eaten and my parents as well as my three siblings were ready. We arrived at the airport to a rather scanty line and were able to check-in early. After sitting around for some time, we were able to get through to the boarding gate for our upcoming flight. We spent time staring, playing games, walking around or on the phone-everyone did their thing. Five minutes before boarding time at the gate, it was announced that the plane was not here yet and therefore, boarding will be delayed for an hour. We accepted that and waited. As the hour was ending, we got another announcement that the plane's pathway was not ready yet and therefore, boarding would be delayed for another hour. Some of us had eaten out of the snacks already and our parents decided, like the other passengers, to get some food. We had some drinks and sandwiches from one of the restaurants on the floor.

Eventually, we were called to board and join the line with others. With reignited excitement, we found our seats, arranged the bags above and sat down for everyone else to get on board. We waited thirty minutes for anyone that had not boarded as some people wandered away after the second delay. Everyone got on board but we still were not moving. It was announced that the pipe that brought water into the plane was frozen and needed to defrost before we take off. There were no time constraints or estimations as we had to bear with them due to the weather changes. During this, my siblings and I tried putting the TV's on to at least enjoy some form of entertainment but to our deflated surprise, it was not working. Everything started becoming comical at this point because it was unbelievable, so all we could do was laugh. However, to our dismay, someone vomited trying to get to the restroom and ended up vomiting near the food. We had to wait again for the vomit the be cleaned, area disinfected and the food to be replaced. After some time, new trolleys of food came into the plane. And just like that, with a flicker of hope and a tense atmosphere of anger, we took off. The TV's still didn't come on for some time but like the other passengers, we were just happy to get moving.

We lost track of time in the midst of anger and conversations flying but kept updating our relatives in London. We slept, watched movies, played games and ate the rather debatable food with the lovely dessert. "Welcome to London, the time is…thank you for flying [redacted] airlines…", or whatever was said. This statement was one of the best things I had woken up hearing in a long time and just like that, we landed sometime in the afternoon. I don't recall a general apology or compensation after everything, they did apologize after each announcement but that's all I remember. We got our luggage, reunited with our relatives as someone picked us up and told them the story before we headed to sleep. Believe it or not, this was one of the most memorable holidays for this reason and no, we have not used [redacted] airlines since.

Image from Unsplash

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About the Creator

Merritt Xavier

"A little space to be creative"-from Unsplash picture by Toa Heftiba

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