Travel Entry 3/22/23

I made the executive decision to have NCL book my flights since the airline industry was appearing to be a bit 'rough' at present. My mentality was - if they booked them, then it's their job to get me on the ship. I'm not sure if that holds water or not...but it is what I thought at the time. (I did however purchase the travel insurance.)

As such, I probably wouldn't do that again as my flights are a bit of a jumble and I arrive several hours after my parents. As a pro tip - it is a good practice to go in the day before a sailing (especially international) which we requested so we could overnight in Portugal. 

The goal was to eliminate any extra stress from flight delays. Our friends at NCL missed that, so 'day of arrival' and catching the ship in a 4-5 hour window ads a level of difficulty I'd prefer to avoid. It makes it a bit of a nail biter when you have 3 flights to catch but we're hopeful.

I fly from Tulsa, OK where I'm currently based to my old primary airport I've spent more time in that I care to admit of Chicago O'Hare. Then I whip up to Toronto and then on to Lisbon. Both Chicago and Toronto have snow and rain in the forcast.

My parents start their journey from Nashville. Stay tuned for updates as the adventure begins!

Travel Entry 3/31/23

The problems start early this trip.  My mom went to check in her flights for Nashville to JFK to Lisbon and of course there was a schedule change. Somehow, despite their files being linked, Delta separated their records and changed my dad's flight to be Nashville to Atlanta to JFK to Lisbon. Um...no. Isn't it funny when you pay for a more expensive flight and get stuck on the junky one? Well...we are inching quickly into hour number 2 of trying to simply get them to put my dad back on the flight schedule that mostly resembles the original. 

Just a heads up...if you are traveling at all...flying is a test of your patience right now...and it is happening to everyone. Be as kind as you can be. I'm now on a call with NCL as Delta can't fix it...because NCL still has control of the tickets. They'll let us know. Wow. 

5:57 pm Looks like all is resolved for now. They are on the same flight...spread out all over the plane even though I had set up their seat arrangements next to one another days after booking. Now tomorrow I have flights into some storms. Praying we can make it to Lisbon to catch this boat!!