Using Google Flights, we decided to go to Liechtenstein last weekend. It was supposed to be a quick 1:25 direct flight to Zurich, followed by a 1.5—to 2-hour drive. Well, nothing went according to plan. We arrived at the airport at 5:30 a.m. with no bags to check. It should have been plenty of time, but thanks to a long line and only two scanners being open, it was not. Then, add to that the number of people who started losing their minds, leading to supervisors being called and lines being stopped; we got through at 6:55 a.m. After swiftly heading to our gate, we arrived at 7:01 a.m. and saw a closed gate, jetway pulled back, and no gate agent. Ugh! So began our travel odyssey. I have flown a lot; this was only the second flight I missed. The Swiss Airlines online chat was no help. The first phone agent was unsympathetic, letting me know that my entire ticket – there and back had been canceled, with no standby option. If we wanted to go, we had to buy a new ticket. I asked for a supervisor to appeal my case, but she refused, informing me that this issue did not warrant being able to speak to the supervisor. She let me know there was nothing else she could do and hung up on me. Seriously. Swiss phone agent number two was nicer, but also couldn’t provide much help other than to advise applying for a refund for the taxes, which, as we all know, on these cheap European fares can be 50% or more of the ticket price.
As you can imagine, getting a same-day ticket is not cheap, but we couldn’t cancel our hotel and car reservations without losing that money, so we sucked it up and bought new tickets through Lufthansa, connecting through Munich. It would take a bit longer, but we would still arrive Friday, just in the afternoon rather than the morning. Except when we landed in Munich, it was complete chaos. The board was full of canceled flights. The lines at the customer service desks were so long that the airline asked people to stop lining up and just go ahead and get their own food and hotel and submit the expenses to the airline for reimbursement. It was raining in Munich, but not terrible weather. I am not sure really what the cause was, but it was terrible.
I have only had to stay overnight in an airport due to a canceled flight, and it was in Munich. Nope, I’m not doing that again. So when our flight to Zurich was eventually canceled, I immediately worked to get us rebooked. Initially, our only option was through Paris, with a 15-hour layover. Another nope. I found a flight Friday night from Munich to Stuttgart, with a connection to Zurich in the morning. We would have to stay overnight in a hotel, but at least there were still rooms available at the Stuttgart airport, unlike Munich.
We checked into the hotel in Stuttgart after midnight, but the room was comfortable and we slept great. In the morning we headed back to the airport for our final try. Success. We arrived in Zurich around 1:00 p.m. Saturday, more than 28 hours late.
Red, White and Tulips 