Murphy's Law Trip

I am calling this trip the Murphy's Law Trip, because if something could go wrong, IT DID!

So, let me take you on the journey. A journey that I can't believe we survived. 😂 This post is going to be very long, but you'll have to read it to believe what actually happened. Buckle up. Here we go.

The start of the trip:

When we booked our trip, we booked the cheapest flights which means more stops and longer layovers (we learned our lesson. Next time we will not be so cheap and buy the more expensive tickets with less stops/layovers haha!) The trip was SLC > Los Angeles (10 hour layover) > London (7 hour layover) > Rome. 

We got to Los Angeles and made our way to our terminal and I scanned my passport to check in. It said "passport does not match" INSTANT DREAD FLOODED MY BODY! I realized I hadn't changed my last name on my passport yet! It still said Gardner and my ticket said Donaldson. I thought, don't panic. This will be easy. I'll just log onto the website and edit my name on my ticket. Not that easy we learned. Our trip was booked through expedia, so I called them and asked how to change it, they said I needed to ask the airline we were flying, which was Air New Zealand (WORST AIRLINE EVERRRR. NEVER FLY WITH THEM, you will learn why). Well, Air New Zealand's ticket booth didn't open until 12pm, it was now 7am. So I called around to Expedia and Air New Zealand and didn't accomplish much. The ticket counter finally opened and we ended up spending 3 hours there trying to get it fixed. (Keep in mind, my sister Baily works for reservations for Delta and she said all they had to do was change my name on the reservation for a fee.) They told me I'd need to cancel my reservation and book a whole new ticket, which at this point would cost $5,000. Uh, nope! So we persisted and just asked them to change it. Meanwhile, they said they couldn't do anything and that we had to call their reservations department. They would not pick up the phone! We were on hold for 45 minutes until somebody finally picked up and said they couldn't help us. We just kept getting passed around. Finally one guy finally called a supervisor and they told me I no longer needed to cancel my flight, they could just change my name for a fee (hmmmm, why couldn't they have said this 3 hours ago?) So we did that and were now down to 30 minutes before the plane started boarding. They changed my name and I jumped up and down and was so happy and thought all the issues were behind us. How very wrong I was. We ran to our plane and got on and were so excited. Then we got to London.

In London we tried to check in and it was saying the passport still did not match. We panicked. They said they fixed my name and that everything would be fine. After being passed around to about 5 different people again, we finally were sent to Grant. Grant is legendary. You'll learn why. Anyway, Grant pulled up our reservation and said "Your reservation has been canceled". WHAT???? They told us we didn't have to cancel. They changed the name and said everything would be fine?!! Nope. They canceled our flight so now we had no way to get to Rome unless we wanted to purchase another ticket. Again, about $5,000 at this point. And not only did they cancel mine, they also canceled RJ's trip when it should've just been mine if anything. We were livid! There was nothing wrong with his info, they never told us they were canceling our trip, and this was just not the agreement!  I called New Zealand Air and was fuming. I asked why they canceled our flight when they said we no longer needed to? The issue was that the ticket agent in L.A. was able to fix the solution somehow but he did not document it in the notes, so the last thing that was in our trip notes was that we agreed to cancel our flight from London to Rome, which we DID agree to, but that was before they told us we no longer needed to do that. So now there was no proof that this agent in L.A. told us we no longer had to cancel our trip and that he could just change the name for a fee. Yet somehow our trip still got cancelled? The lady on the phone was so rude to me and said there was nothing she could do to help. I asked to speak to a supervisor and even the supervisor was so rude. They were so unhelpful! Grant finally took the phone over and explained to the ladies what had happened and he was able to get them to re-issue our reservation to Rome. Praise Jesus! He was sure to update the notes on our reservation detailing exactly what he did in case we ran into issues on the way home. We were so happy. He was so helpful!! After another 2 hours at the ticket counter, we now only had 10 minutes to get through security and to our gate. Grant was worried we wouldn't make it and there were no other flights out to Rome that night. But we ran through the airport, and by God's grace we made it in time to get on our flight! Yay. We thought our troubles were over. We were finally headed to Rome. Ha! The troubles had just begun.

When we landed in Rome, my eye was hurting and it was a tiny bit swollen. By the time I woke up the next day it was completely swollen shut! 

I was so scared. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't post about it on social media because it was really hideous and embarrassing, plus, I didn't want my mom to stress out because I knew she would. Luckily in Rome there are pharmacy's on every corner. Also, luckily, RJ brought sun glasses that I was able to wear so that people didn't think I was a monster haha! We got to a pharmacy and I took my glasses off and the pharmacist literally gasped in horror. This was her face:

I asked for eye drops but she gave me eye cream. She's a pharmacist so I trusted her. The next day my eye was worse. I was so scared and it was painful and hideous. We were in Rome for heaven's sake and I only got to see half of Rome (please laugh at this joke). But in all reality we still had the funnest time in Rome and got to see and experience everything!! My aunt Jeannie is a pharmacist and told me exactly what I needed to do- get eyedrops and take Benadryl. We finally got our hands on eye-drops after 3 different pharmacies refused to give them to me, and finally got some benadryl. That dramatically relieved the swelling and the pain. For the rest of the trip my eye still had a lump on my eyelid, so we think it was a stye that got infected or agitated from the planes. I had to watch Syd and Eric's basketball game and meet all their teammates with an eye patch on my eye. 0/10 would not recommend. Haha. 

The trip itself was magical and so memorable. We explored lots, ate lots, laughed lots, etc. Such a blessing. It was just the traveling to and from that was rough. Now here we go to more travel drama:

The trip back home:

The night before we were supposed to fly out, we got an email from our airline saying Storm Ciara in the UK was causing major disruption and lots of flights had been canceled. They told us to prepare for this. By the time it was time to board our flight to London (we were flying the same route home, Rome > London> Los Angeles> SLC) our flight hadn't been canceled so we were happy about that. Well, after 2.5 hours we were right over London when the captain came on and said "Hello, unfortunately we are not able to land in London due to severe weather conditions, so now we are going to Munich, Germany". Suddenly everyone on the flight was moaning and groaning and SO upset! I honestly wasn't really upset, I was just happy to be on a plane because I almost didn't make it due to passport issues again. 

When we got to the airport we were nervous we'd have the same issues with my passport going home, and we did. When we got to the ticket counter the short-tempered lady was like "your reservation has been canceled?" We were like NO IT HASN'T THEY FIXED IT IN LONDON! Ugh! Not again. I was so upset. She told me I had to call their reservations department to get it fixed. I told her I couldn't use my phone because I would have international charges. She didn't care, she wouldn't call them herself. Lovely. So I called the airline, and they didn't pick up for 35 minutes (hello, massive phone bill!). After lots of confusion, the lady found Grant's notes on our reservation and was able to do what he did and fixed the issue. GRANT IS A LEGEND! Again, we had about 30 minutes to get to our gate before boarding started now, so we ran. Fast forward now to the captain saying we were going to Munich. Honestly I didn't care because I was just glad I was on a plane! So many times this trip I thought I wasn't going to be able to get on the flight. Get diverted to Germany? Sure, no big deal. I had no idea what was next in store for us. 

We land in Germany and it is just mayhem. Everyone is yelling at the airline. The airline tells us they did not load our luggage on the plane because they needed to put more fuel on the plane instead in case we didn't make it to London. Everyone was fuming, saying, "Oh really? So you guys knew this would happen and you didn't tell us?! When will we get our luggage?" The airline told us our luggage would just carry on to our final destination. After 2 hours of no information and wondering what they would do for us, they said we would all have to get a hotel on our own dime and they would reimburse us. We told our bank we would be in London and Italy, but not Germany. Would our card even work here? We weren't sure. So I booked a hotel reservation online and we slept there for the night. Imagine if someone had no money in their account, where would they stay? What would they eat? This was such an inconvenience, but luckily we had money in our account and were able to pay for things until they could reimburse us. The airline said they'd email us with updates, but we never received any. We decided to just get to the airport early the next day to figure out what to do. 

When we got to the airport the line to talk to the airline was massive. We waited in line for almost 2 hours. When we got to the front the man pulled up our names and saw someone had booked us a direct flight from Munich to Los Angeles that left at 11:50. It was 12:10. WHAT? Someone booked us a flight and didn't tell us or email us about it? The guy at the desk was so confused. He said "did you talk to anyone or have someone do this for you?" Uhm, nope! Someone did it and didn't tell us, and now the flight is gone. Great. So he just put us on the same flight that we flew yesterday that was supposed to land in London. It was leaving at 2:30. When we got to the gate we heard an announcement that all flights were suspended until 7pm until the weather cleared up. Great. Stuck at the airport with no money because we didn't want to pull money out and have our card blocked. We were starving. We heard rumors that maybe no flights would go out that night because of the weather, so we were prepared to stay in Germany another night. We felt stranded. Finally at 6pm they told us our flight would leave at 6:30. Yay. We boarded the flight and it was all the same people from yesterday's flight even sitting in the same seats. It felt like Deja Vu. I had never been on a plane with happier people haha. Everyone was stoked to be going home. They clapped during take off and on the landing. 

Because our flight was so delayed, we missed all connecting flights to America. They told us to talk to a gate agent to get re-booked on a flight home. We waited in line for 2 hours until they announced that since it was midnight their shifts were over and they were shutting down their booths. How lovely. Now what? They said to come back tomorrow at 4AM when they re-open and to try and get it sorted. They said all hotels were sold out in the area, people were sleeping in the hallways at hotels. We figured we'd just sleep in the airport since we'd just be sleeping in a hotel hallway anyway and since we'd have to be back in 4 hours anyway. We were pretty upset that the airline had closed down, but we just accepted it and went to go find a spot to sleep. That's when RJ saw GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!! Grant was going home, but RJ explained the situation and Grant said "let me find a computer and see what I can do for you". So he spent another hour off the clock booking us a flight home. What a legend! What are the odds we ran into him again? And he saved the day again!!! He got us a flight in the morning from London > Dallas > SLC. He even made sure my ticket said Gardner since we didn't want to make that huge mistake again ;) Yay. 

So RJ and I were just happy to be going home, but we still had a long night in the airport. We walked around looking for chairs but they were all taken. Not only that, there were MICE running around below the chairs that people were sleeping on. Nasty! So we kept walking and finally found a place to sleep, but we didn't really get much sleep. It was freezing cold and just uncomfortable, as some of you that have slept in the airport can relate to. 

10 o' clock rolls around and we go to our gate to get home. Yay! The rest of this should be easy! Nope. They told us the flight would be delayed 1 hour. Then when we finally got on the plane, the captain made an announcement explaining a tug ran into the plane and damaged it which would delay us even further. We knew we'd miss our connecting flight to SLC. But we were just happy to be on this plane knowing we'd be one step closer to going home.

We land in Dallas and are worried about what comes next now that we missed another flight. Luckily, when we got off the plane we had tickets to a new flight to SLC taped to the wall and we were able to go straight there.

We landed in SLC last night and I have never been happier to be home. I still can't believe all the craziness we went through on this trip. Over 70 hours in airports! Insane. If you read through all of this, you are a trooper! Thank you for everyone's prayers and encouragement through all of this mayhem! We love you all.

Our biggest takeaways from this: 

-make sure to change your name on your passport when you get married ;) 

-it's worth it to pay a little more for better flights

-Never fly Air New Zealand lol
-God is good and always provides! He plans our steps and we never have to worry about what will happen.

Thanks for reading!