Travel Day...S?! (5/14-16/25)

the plan 

    Like I mentioned in the last post, the travel plan for everyone was this:

Wednesday – May 14, 2025

4:00 PM – Arrive at Pasco Airport (PSC)

PSC > SEA – Departure 5:56 PM; Arrival 7:02 PM

Thursday – May 15, 2025

SEA > MIA – Departure 12:24 AM; Arrival 9:10 AM

MIA > PTY – Departure 10:14 AM; Arrival 12:29 PM

  

 Pretty simple right? Well, everyone made it to the pasco airport. We checked in, went through TSA, and boarded the plane. Pretty soon we were up in the air and had landed in seattle. We got off the plane, we were excited and even took a selfie, headed into the airport, sat down together and figured out a game plan as well as filled out some paperwork.

    At this point Dr. Black had already mentioned that our next flight had gotten delayed by an hour. “OK, cool. what’s another hour” I thought to myself. We were set free to get some dinner in the airport, walk around, whatever to kill time. We knew which terminal and gate we were supposed to be at and the time we were expected to be there. So, before we separated, Valeria and I decided to use the restroom while people were still able to keep an eye on our stuff.  By the time we returned it was complete chaos…

rerouted

    In the ten minutes that we were gone, everyone’s flights had been changed and we were no longer traveling together. Split into three groups, were all heading to different cities to get to Miami. We no longer had a six-hour layover. We had an hour and a half to figure out and get to our new gates as well as get dinner. Virginia, Sandy and I were the group that was rerouted to Cleveland, Ohio. We struggled to find our plane but thankfully people were nice enough to help point us into the right direction and we figured it out and got ourselves checked in. We went to get dinner nearby our gate and just as the last of us had gotten our food I heard what sounded like a familiar name over the intercom. I turned and asked Virginia confusedly “did I just hear your name??”. She looks at me wide-eyed, “I think they did”. Immediately we grab our stuff and are RUNNING to our gate, yelling at Sandy to run across the airport because he had gone to a different store. we thought that we were late to board our plane and that’s why they were looking for us. Oh, how I wish that would’ve been the case.

stranded

    We get to the gate desk and the worker tells us that our tickets were “broken”. He explained to us that they were unable to check us in. We explained our prior dilemma and that’s when he realizes and tells us that we had no more trips booked on our flight itinerary after Cleveland. When we got rerouted, the airline only booked us a flight to Cleveland. We had no flight to Miami after and no flight to Panama booked after that either. Our flight back from Panama to Miami was also gone. We freaked. We’re trying to reach Dr. Black and let her know the situation, not knowing if she was still in the airport as everyone’s departures times were within the same hour for the most part. We would come to find out she was dealing with her group's own situation and plane tickets as well. Ultimately, the worker, despite his best efforts couldn’t fix our tickets and we were stranded. The three of us, with our now cold food, met up again with Dr. Black and her group to see what was happening next. Jari, Marcos, Kyal, and Robert were the only group who was able to fly out successfully (or so we thought, you can go read their blogs ).

back to square one…kind of

    After hours on the phone with the airline, Dr. Black was able to get the seven of us back on our original flight to Miami. Of course, that flight was delayed again and would be departing at 2:00 AM now and we would be departing to Panama on Friday at 10:00 AM instead of Thursday. A 24-Hour layover. The time comes and we board the plane and head to Miami. after an uncomfortable and restless flight, we finally arrive at 10:20 AM.

there’s hope?!

As I turn off the airplane mode on my phone, I see messages from Jari saying that the flight to Panama (which we were originally supposed to take, and his group was on) had been delayed and deplaned. It was like a miracle, a light at the end of a tunnel. “maybe we can still make it and arrive together!!” I thought. Dr. Black was the first one off the plane and went ahead to get to the gate that the boys were at to try to get us on the flight before they boarded everyone again. But once again, it was no use. The seats that we originally had were already rebooked by other people and our luggage was stored somewhere else because our new flight was scheduled for the next day, we weren’t able to get on this flight. Defeatedly, we said bye to the boys and headed to the service desk where we spent hours waiting to receive a hotel and meal vouchers for dinner and breakfast the following morning.

Miami here we come

    So, there we were, stuck in Miami for 24-hours. Tired, irritated, and sweaty we shuttled over to our hotel. I’ll tell you all about our time in Miami in the next blog, reliving this experience drained me again. But for now, see you next time!

xoxo, sara

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