56 Hours Later!

We finally arrived in Australia and what was supposed to be a very good set of connections turned into a disaster!

We left our home in Calgary at 3pm for a 6pm flight departure. The drive to the airport was smooth, and we had no traffic problems. Our flight from Calgary to San Frnasisco left on time and all was well. We arrived in San Francisco on time and it was all looking good. We transfered to the international terminal and waited patiently at Gate G94.

Flight UA863 was ready to leave on time at 10:53pm and we boarded. Up up and away. We're on our way to Sydney, a 14 hour non-stop flight.

Everything was running perfectly... or so we thought.

After about 90 minutes of flying the Captain comes makes an announcement. "We are having mechanical problems and we will have to turn back to San Francisco. We can't get fuel from one of our tanks and won't have enough to make it through to Sydney."

That was it, we were turning back. It felt like we never even gave it a s second chance. At least if he had spoken to us 15 minutes earlier and said thye were having difficulties, stay tuned, and then broken the news to us it might have felt like we at least everything.

So we arrive back in San Fransisco, just long enough after departure to see the conclusion of one of the worst movies ever financed "Poseidon" about a sinking cruise ship.

We were told to wait for a Ground Service Supervisor to board t5he plane and tell us what was happening. We were thinking we'd have an hour or so delay, fix the valve problem, re-fuel and take off. Err... No.

"Your flight has been rescheduled for 11pm tomorrow night."

I'm sorry, could you repeat that please?

"Unfortunately there is a big conference here in San Fransicsco and all the hotel rooms are booked, but we will do the best we can for you."

Great. so now I have to think about sleeping in an airport all night with a one year old! This is not what I signed up for.

"You will not have access to your bags. They will be held secure in the plabne, and put on your next flight tomorrow."

Even better!

We found ourselves a quiet corner of the airport and snuggled with our daughter Vienna between us. We were most worried that she would wake up in the middle of the night and go crawling in the biggest "living room" she'd ever seen.

Lucky for us she didn't and at around 4am we were asked if we wanted to go to the United Airways guest lounge Red Carpet to sleep where it would be more comfortable. We pulled out some seat cushion and made a bed and fell asleep.

At 5am we were told we weren't allowed to be lying down on the floor as the lounge was opening to members who didn't want the place to look like the Houston Astrodome the day after Katrina hit.

So we sat in the chairs and fell asleep again.

At around 8am we decided to return to the airport and get our food vouchers we were promised. Nearly an hour in the line and we received our $70 food vouchers redeemable at any vendor in the airport.

We decided against leaving the airport to walk around downtown San Fransisco because with Vienna it would have been difficult to organize her naps and playtime outside of the stroller. We thought it might be easier for us to nap at the airport and for her to play on the vast carpet living room that presented her.

So we napped and walked and read and played and napped and wandered around and at and napped. You get the idea it was a great way to start our trip! As time wore on I was smelling more and more like old hockey equipment.

As the brutally long day at the airport was coming to a clsoe we reconvened with our fellow travellers to take flight again at 10:50pm, exactly one day after we were supposed to. Our Qantas connecting flight to Adelaide had also been rescheduled to the corresponding flight the following day, so all was in order.

We all boarded, happy to know that it was a different plane. We were starting afresh, with renewed hope and were prepared to forget the bad day we had had, because we were on our way to Australia.

We all boarded on time and the plane gently pulled out of the gate. Slowly, slowly we reverse out and then start moving towards the runway.

We stop and wait our turn to take off. We wait, and wait. We keep waiting. Hmmm. Why aren't we moving?

It's now 12:35am. "This is your Captain speaking." I can hear by his tone that he's not about to tell us we've reached ourt cruising altitude and we'll be arriving in Sydney as expected. I also know he's not going to tell us that because we're still on the ground. "I have bad news. We're having mechanical problems with this plane. We can't get engine number four started. But we'll taxi back to the gate and have an engineer look at at, and we'll be on our way."

Engine four doesn't start!? Geez I hope they don't just "get it going". It'd better work for 14 hours until we arrive!

"This is your captain again. There's another plane here in the airport. We'll get that fuelled and switch over to the new plane and depart from Gate 96. We'll be departing at 1:35am"

So we all get out and walk over to the neighbouring gate ready to board. It's just after 1am and they start to call pasengers in seating row order on to the plane. Some time passes and they're still doing first and business classes.

Then a voice comes over the PA system, "If the plane isn't boarded and the doors are closed by 1:35 the flight is cancelled."

Suddenly we had Pamplona and the running of the bulls at Gate 96, with everyone charging onto the plane. And everyone was in crisis mode. There was no food or supplies, and they were all getting loaded on at the same time as the cranky passengers.

1:37am and the doors close. We made it!

Some time after 2am and the plane flies into the night sky. Would this be the one? Could we really make it to Australia this time?

Australia felt like such a long way away, that it could take two aborted missions and a 24 hour delay to get us there, but all the signs were now good.

We landed in Sydney 14 hours later to rapturous applause, 27 hours after we were supposed to... and 25 minutes after our Adelaide flight had departed.

Eventually we boarded our Qantas flight that had also been delayed by twenty minutes and landed in Adelaide almost exactly 56 hours after we left our home in Calgary, of which I slept about four hours.

Our daughter, who turned one year old today was a little trooper the whole time. She barely made a peep and was generally in good spirits laughing and joking with other passengers. She was also very tired and napped for an hour every three or four hours. she had one long stretch of four hours sleep on the 14 hour flight. All in all Vienna amazed us with her patience and good nature... but we hope she doesn't have to go through that again for a very long time.