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FROM THE WINGS
Business travelers love to swap horror stories downhill in Seattle and never came back up!
about trips gone bad. In some circles, it’s almost The airline’s computer was down, so
a competitive sport: “Oh that’s nothing. Wait they used paper charts with peel-off labels
until you hear about my trip to. . .” For my to manually assign seats. We were a couple
closing article of the 2021-2022 Toastmasters of hours late departing from Seattle by the
year, I thought I would share such a story. time they boarded the hundreds of people.
I planned to spend two weeks in South We landed in Vancouver to pick up more
Africa, one week in Israel, then one week of passengers, but the crew discovered a problem
vacation in the lake country of northern Italy. with the plane. This flight was supposed to
Normally, I flew on United and Lufthansa depart in the early evening, so dinner was
when going to Israel and South Africa, but scheduled for right after take-off. We were
a co-worker convinced me to try British already hours late, and everyone started
Airways. He insisted that they are the best complaining about the further delays. The
airline in the world. I regretted taking his crew patiently explained that they couldn’t
advice almost immediately. break out the food cart. . . or even beverages
Trips to Johannesburg from Portland . . . because we should be ready to go at any
usually took about 30 hours, with connections minute.
through Chicago, and then London or At 2:00 AM, the pilot finally gave us the
Frankfurt. good news that the plane was repaired, BUT,
This time, my trip started with an they must cancel the flight. The crew had
uneventful, afternoon flight to Seattle where already been awake too long, so they could
I was to board a British Airways 747. We were not legally fly to London. Do you know how
supposed to make a short stop in Vancouver, long it takes to fill out vouchers for meals, taxis
BC, then over the pole to London, and on to and hotels for the hundreds of people on a 747?
Johannesburg. Sounds easy, except it went Oh, by the way, the Vancouver airport was
22 ONE COMMUNITY
