I solemnly swear to eat and drink nothing on the plane

My flight to DBX was supposed to leave at 11:00 PM. We were delayed which gave me the chance to spend my last few seychelle rupees. I bought earrings and 3 airplane bottles of Seychellian rum for Christmas presents.  

We boarded about 45 min late and then proceeded to sit on the runway for over 2 hours. First for a mechanical issue. Then for fog delay in Dubai. The captain eventually came on to tell us that we were cancelled, kind of. 

We filed off the plane only to find out that there were only hotels for the people in business class.  It was Christmas. The entire island was booked. 

The airport was closed so they brought the plane food into the airport while telling us that we would not leave until the earliest 2 pm the next day, on the same flight, so JAZZ HANDS we weren't really cancelled (so we couldn't be rebooked on any other flight), and by the way we were expected to stay in the airport for the next 11 hours. 

This as you can imagine was not received well by the masses. People were angry for several reasons but because the story kept changing it was intensified. Travel disruptions reveal a lot about humanity. People want to be told the truth and have transparency. They want to feel in the know and respected. Also times of duress are often the beginning of some pretty solid bonds. This happened almost immediately in this case. It was us against Emirates (who was represented by a young new hire who was out of his league when it came to customer service and negotiations). The cast of characters included a Navy Captain, a CEO, a lawyer, myself, and a mom who wanted to get her family home for Christmas and wasn't going to take no for an answer. 

Instead of yelling we stood at the desk, unmoving and using my iPad to ask about the morning flight and the actual reasons for delay.  Jo, Jerry, Jovani and I did not waver for the next 6 hours. Between the 5 of us we discovered the morning flight was almost empty and we could all fit on it ( all 60 passengers on our flight. There were 72 open seats).  

Meanwhile  adding to the chaos, Jake, Jerry’s 2 year old who was the size of a 5 year old terrorized the airport.  It was 4 am and way past his bedtime. Godzilla was likely based on a two year old trapped in an airport without food, his sleep schedule disrupted. After watching him run, destroy and rage, I wish he had just taken control of the negotiations with the airline. We might have had a private plane and a butler. 

We were told that we couldn’t get on the morning flight because it wasn’t prepared to feed or hydrate us. We all promised up and down that we didn’t need to eat or drink. Finally after pushing and pushing on the poor desk guy (who was new to the job), we were on the morning flight. It had taken 6 hours and was now 8 am. The flight was supposed to leave in 30 min. In an amazing moment the guy had asked us if any of us could uncheck our bags.  I had gone and gotten mine bag which I had been made to check against my will (because after food poisoning I didn't have the strength to wear all of my clothes). We got our boarding passes one by one and boarded and were off. 

The flight was 4 hours and we were not allowed to participate in the food or drinks. The guy beside me threw a fit that he couldn't eat (face palm. where had he been?). They did offer us some small finger sandwiches, but I didn’t eat these. There would be food in Dubai. 

We were two hours late and then ended up circling for 2 hours because over 55 planes were trying to land and lots were on the ground and needed gates. The fog had really done a number on DBX. Right before we touched down we were informed that we hadn’t been rebooked in the air as they had promised. We would have to do that ourselves when we disembarked. 

Row 40 was probably not the place to be.