The Airport Story to Beat ALL Airport Stories

A few of the girls on my team with
kids from the island we visited.

Last summer I helped lead a mission trip to Panama. Then I went back to the ministry's headquarters in Texas, picked up another group of students, and went back to Panama. From the time I left home on this adventure at the beginning of June to the time I returned, I tallied up a total of TWELVE flights. That's a whole lot of navigating airports, turbulance, security check points, baggage fees (blech), safety demonstrations as the plane starts to back up, and overly expensive snack purchases.

I have all kinds of airport stories from last summer. Most of them revolve around the fact that I was traveling with 60 teenagers. Do you know how hard it is to get so many fifteen-ish year olds from point A to point B and then try to explain to a flight attendant that, "No, I will NOT let anybody get on the plane until ALL 60 are here... yes, I'm serious."

My last two flights of the summer - by myself - were incredible. I volunteered to get bumped from an overbooked flight. (I figured I had been gone for two months, what was a few more hours?!) This meant I was given a $400 ticket voucher (that I am still itching to use!), food vouchers, and "I'm sorry, but we're going to have to move you to first class." Okay. I will sacrifice. I flew from Dallas to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to Boise. And I slept the whole way. Walking through the airport I could go wherever I wanted and didn't have to count heads every 30 seconds. Such freedom.

Last weekend I attended a conference in Portland for new interns/part-time staff for the ministry of Cru. My plan was to fly there on Friday afternoon and then drive back on Sunday with a few friends. My flight was at 3:00 and I got dropped off at the airport around 1:30. I had a few moments of nervousness that morning because I realized that I never got an email to check in 24 hours in advance, and I usually do.

That should have set me off PRIOR to heading to the airport, but I didn't do anything about it. I was too busy making sure my linguistics test and a half million other things were finished before I left town.

So I arrived at the airport and kind of chuckled to myself as I realized that I couldn't even remember what airlines I was flying! How silly of me.

My solution to this dilemma was to simply try every airline's kiosk. :)

[The Boise airport is very small and rarely crowded, so I wasn't too worried.]

After checking multiple airlines and seeing "we have no record of your reservation" on the screen at every single one, my heart SANK.

Ok, time to problem solve. How do I just not have a reservation?!

I went up to the counter and explained that I had a ticket for the 3:00 flight to Portland, but I wasn't able to find the reservation at the computer. She stared at her computer for a minute and announced that I did not have a seat on any flight leaving Boise that day. Awesome. My response? "Well, I need to get to Portland today... How can you help me with that?" She explained that it would be cheaper for me to get online and purchase the ticket there. Then I realized that probably a better question would be: "are there any SEATS on a flight to Portland this afternoon?" There was ONE seat open on the 3:00 flight and we had 20 minutes to book it.

Challenge accepted.

I moved away from the counter to buy the ticket online, and while I looked it up, I called my mom to ask about the charge on her credit card. Who goes to an airport without a ticket expecting to fly out?! Of course I thought I had a ticket... I remembered finding a great deal for $70 and telling my mom about it. What in the world happened?! Did I really just think I bought a ticket and not actually get it?!

WHO DOES THAT?

Then I started to cry. And couldn't stop. Purely out of frustration. It probably didn't hurt my case in getting sympathy from the Alaska Airline representatives, though.

My mom didn't answer, so I texted her and said, "call me asap."
That's a sure-fire way to get a response from your mother. :)

I went back to the counter with questions a few times and they were incredibly calm and helpful. Travelocity was not showing the 3:00 flight, so the airline's rep just told me to purchase a ticket for the 6:30 one and he would move me up because he could see that there was still that one seat. I proceeded to buy the ticket and kept messing up the billing address -- increasing my frustration level. By the time it was purchased and they were working to print my boarding pass, I had FOUR minutes to get everything finalized or I was not getting on the flight. Nevermind the fact that it cost more than twice the amount of the ticket that I thought I purchased weeks earlier.

She handed me the boarding pass, called out, "Gate C2, good luck!!" and I raced through security. I am still in awe that I would go to the airport thinking I had a ticket and find out I had NOTHING. Seriously?!

That was insane. So much for enjoying traveling by myself and avoiding the chaos of getting 60 teenagers through the ticketing counter, security, and onto the plane.



Jessica & me in Portland. So excited that I get to work with
this incredible woman!

My first realization was that Satan clearly is not happy about me joining staff with Cru to minister to college students on campus as there have been many points of opposition in the process, despite my complete confidence that this is where God is calling me next year.

Also, when life is crazy and overwhelming, it's easy to "drop the ball" with important tasks. Whether I just never went back online to purchase the ticket after finding it, or I didn't complete the process of buying it online, this is likely a result of being tired and not thinking clearly.
(Currently working on an ad: "Needed: Personal Assistant" to ensure that I always arrive at the airport WITH confirmation number in hand...)

Another thing is that I can look back on that situation and see how I handled "thinking on my feet" and coming up with a plan quickly. Besides crying, of course. ;-) My first response when I realized I didn't have a ticket like I thought, was to problem solve and ask, "What are my options and which one is the best?" Nothing like a little decision making to stretch my leadership skills.