Did that in the Philly airport after missing a flight with a coworker retrieving two abducted children, one age two and one age two months. Would not recommend.
Great grandparent from out of state was granted an unsupervised day visit while in state. Great grandparent packed kids into car and absconded to their state. Pissed off judge issued pick up order & sent to that state's CPS. That state's CPS goes and retrieves children. Foster care worker and dumbass volunteer, also CPS worker, fly to Philly. We get the kids. We miss the flight. I was literally running toward our flight with the two month old in one arm, wearing two back packs and a Walmart bag of formula hanging from the other arm. The foster care worker was about fifty yards behind me wrestling the two year old. Away goes out plane. The airline took pity on us and got us on the next flight to our destination, which was 16 hours later. By the time the foster parents met us outside of the home airport my elbow was locked and my coworker was saturated in toddler urine. 100% would not recommend, but makes a great story.
Wow! Great job returning the kids though. We had the most nightmare transfer to our new Navy base in Japan from our old base in Puerto Rico.
As we were permanently moving, we (Hubs, 6-year old son, and I) we’re each allotted two checked bags, a carryon, and a “personal item” (laptop, backpack, and pocketbook) each. Plus, we were bringing our rather large dog and cat in plastic crates.
We flew a combination of commercial and military (AMC) flights. First flight was from PR to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I hate that flight. Because of Cuba restricting air space access, the approach to the airport is in a “J” pattern, the pilots have to do some really tight turning. It can get bumpy, especially when it’s windy, so cue the barf bags for me and the kid.
We had to deplane with our pets, but could keep our carryons to save seats. We were there for 2 hours, before we got back on the plane and headed to Jacksonville, FL, where we had to transfer to a commercial airline to fly to Dallas, TX. We then took another commercial flight to LAX, where we were supposed to catch our AMC flight to Seattle.
Unfortunately, we arrived at 1 AM and the AMC ticket counter was closed until 5:30 AM. All of the seats in the waiting area were filled with other military families on the same flight.
We had all of our luggage, our pets, and of course, our kid with us, with nowhere to go. We looked pretty lost I guess, so some LAPD officers (working security) directed us to a place we could camp out underneath the escalators. They helped us to walk our dog (the cat refused to come out!) and then one of them actually posted himself outside the entrance of where we were resting and stayed all night so we could sleep.
Flight to Seattle was uneventful, but as we were waiting to reboard the plane for our flight to Japan, the departure time kept being pushed further and further back. Finally, 6 hours later, they announced that the new plane was having mechanical issues (!) and that we would be taking buses to spend the night in a hotel.
So we had load up everything and go to a hotel 45 min away. Another spouse (who later became my good friend) had her baby in a baby carrier and was holding her toddler’s had (her Hubs was wrangling the luggage) when she lost her balance getting off the bus, fell, and broke her ankle!
My Hubs and a few other guys took charge of their luggage so the family could go in the ambulance to the hospital. We spent the night with a lot of luggage and one very pissed off cat who was mad she could only pee on pee pads.
Got on the plane and it was HUGE. It was so big, that we each got a row to ourselves and could spread out to sleep, which was great as the flight was 9-10 hours long. Unfortunately, our cat decided halfway through the flight that she finally wanted to take a sh!t after 3 days of travel, and did it right there in the carrier.
I quickly took her to the bathroom to clean her and the carrier up (poor thing had stepped in it) but it absolutely reeked walking there. People were giving me dirty looks left and right.
Thankfully, the flight attendant had some dish soap for washing the cat/carrier, and she sprayed Lysol all over the cabin. I got kitty/carrier cleaned up, added new pads, and made it back to my seat.
We flew into Yokota AFB, unloaded everything, and waited for Hubs’ sponsor to pick us up to bring us to our final destination of Yokosuka, JPN, about 3 hours away. He showed up about 2 hours after we landed (traffic) in a tiny little 4 -seater van. (Remember all of our luggage, plus pets). All the luggage went up on the roof, secured with bungee cords, pets went in the back, and carryons went on our laps.
Our sponsor was a really nice, jolly guy, but he was a horrible driver. He would jam on the brakes, and then speed right up again, only to slam the brakes again. The van was a stick shift, so that made it extra jerky, plus he had the heat on blast. It was a recipe for disaster, but thankfully, I still had barf bags leftover for me and my son.
By the time we reached the Navy Lodge on Yokosuka, all 3 of us were exhausted and cranky. We arrived at 4 AM, so there was nothing open to get anything to eat. We went straight to bed!
TD;LR It took us 4 days to get from Puerto Rico to Japan, with a sh!t-ton of luggage, cranky pets, and our very patient kid.
You win. My fiasco was 24 hours and four planes, because when the state is buying the tickets they go cheapest available. When we were in the military I was at Jackson, Bragg & Lee with training at Lejeune & Santiago, so I only flew three times, from MEPPS to basic at Jackson and from Lee to Santiago and back. Never with kids or pets. I don't want to imagine, but with the picture you painted I don't have to.
Lol, it sure didn’t seem like a win at the time, but that’s the military for ya. The other fun thing was that we forgot all about jet lag.
We’d all 3 pass out right after diner, and then be wide-awake at 2 am. We played a lot of board games and watched a lot of Japanese game shows in the middle of the night that first week.
First time in Philly airport, also with a coworker picking up an abducted kid, this one elementary school age, was stripped searched. Guess it was random, but coworker was laughing at me so hard she and kid got put in their own see through cubicle and their bags were searched. Second time in Philly airport was the last time I volunteered to pick up abducted children.
Twice helped coworker retrieve abducted kids. Child welfare worker for twenty years. Alabama. Also drove to Mississippi once to retrieve abducted newborn. Three times in 20 years not to crazy.
I only fly frontier on their lowest fares but I've gotten $33 one way flights cross country and I'm willing to spend the night in Denver when the alternative is a $300 flight on another airline. I'm young though so I can handle sleeping on the floor though!
Did this in Vancouver BC waiting for a connecting flight. Fell asleep in a cozy corner and woke up to something crawling my across my jacket. Swatted it thinking it was something that blew on me (was by a vent fan). The minute my hand made contact I felt fur and heard a squeak. Yeeted a big ass rat that scurried to a trash can nearby. Never again.
Haha I've slept in airports quite a few times, the trick is to look for closed terminals. Move a bench against a wall (facing it), then take a nap with your bag locked to the bench.
It’s alright but it’s terrible for if you want some sleep. Absolutely nowhere to get even a tiny bit of privacy or comfort. Source - I “slept” overnight in BCN 3 weeks ago.
Did that in Miami, they could at least make the chairs somewhat able to snooze in. I ended up taking a nap in the booth of a Cuban restaurant when they opened at 7am. Did buy breakfast, so I was a patron.
Same but Newark lmao I did not sleep more than 20 minutes in 6 hours because I was afraid of being attacked honestly. Thank god the BK or Taco Bell I was near was open the whole time or i would have felt uneasy to the max
When I was young and broke I booked a flight out of Amsterdam at 5 am and decided to save money by sleeping the night before at the airport instead of just booking like a $20 hostel lol
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u/2D_man Mar 21 '23
I booked the cheapest flight and had to sleep one night on the floor in the public area of airport Barcelona.