‘Tis the season for summer travels with friends, family, or even on your own. I’m not sure about you, but I know so many road warrior economic developers who have their travel systems organized to a “T” and even more who take the trials of travel as they’re dealt with a come-what-may attitude. We all have work trip horror stories, and this blog will be dedicated to just one. Enjoy!
In the not-so-distant past, I was wrapping up a week of travel in Manhattan with my team. The skies were blue, and the weather was hot. Two of us would catch flights in the early evening on different airlines to travel south. Around 11 am, my colleague returned from a break to report that his flight had been canceled hours before its scheduled departure. Still, since there was time, he expressed no real concern about the changes and instead went to secure an alternative ticket. Even though we were traveling on different airlines, I checked my phone, prepared to see similar news, but was pleased that for several more hours, I was pushed no such news via my airline app notification systems. My colleague had successfully been transferred to another airline, and all was well for an on-time departure.
My phone vibrated in my pocket as we closed our week’s meetings with a quick happy hour. As I reached for it, I had that sinking feeling in my stomach. I knew that I was about to get horrible news for a hot summer Friday night in New York when I was hours from home, exhausted from thinking, and ready for the quickest path back to my family, my bed, my shower, and my own, personal, well-deserved weekend. Sure enough, my flight had been canceled, and we were off to the races. My colleague and I said goodbye to the others and hopped in an Uber to race to the airport. The sky was blue, and the sun was hot. I keep mentioning the weather because it was the supposed culprit – another frustrating thing to understand when your travel plans are foiled, but you look outside, and “everything is fine.”
On the way to the airport, I executed every means of finding another way home that I could think of. Since cancellations had started earlier in the day in the area, not a single rental company had any cars available. A train was leaving Union Station around 1 am, but the thought of waiting there alone for seven hours wasn’t sitting well with anyone I mentioned it to. Booking alternative flights wasn’t possible in my airline app, and hold times on the phone were lengthy. Upon arrival at the airport, I threw myself into a snake of a line and waited with the other passengers thrust into the weekend's travel wars.
After 45 minutes of waiting on the phone and in line, I got a sweet deal. I could take two one-way flights, the first bypassing home to deliver me to Raleigh around midnight and the second around 7 am the following morning to get me back north to my home in Richmond. I passed through the security gate, found a comfortable seat, and eventually boarded my flight.
Given my many years of domestic and international travel before that point, I had never had to sleep in an airport. Several years prior, while stuck in Toronto, I booked a room at an airport hotel to make an early morning flight after cancellations, but I knew this would be different because of the tight turn. While I successfully prepared my mind for trying to sleep in public, I can’t say as much for my back. Ultimately, I made it home on my new travel arrangements without further incident, and for that, I’m thankful.
This is an inconvenient story, but maybe not a complete horror. I blew a tire on I-10 after landing in California on a Sunday evening for a work trip and approached a minor meltdown before finding a new rental. During 911, I know colleagues from Virginia who were stranded in California and had to drive home because all air traffic was stopped for several days. Car burglaries, lost passports, stolen breastmilk, shattered glass, snow-covered, dark, two-lane mountain roads in foreign countries, the list of scary misfortunes while traveling for economic development goes on. I know I haven’t even scratched the surface.
While thinking about all the ways our work travel has gone wrong can be entertaining after the fact, it’s not funny while it’s happening. We wanted to take a break this summer to let you know you’re not alone! Hickey Global is a company of hardened globe trotters that understands your plight. We’re thankful for you and the risks you take to make your communities better places to do business and enjoy life. The next time you hit the road and things start to get a little unpredictable, think back on all the trials and tribulations you’ve survived on the road in the past and find the confidence to keep going. Safe travels this summer, and always!
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