The Flights That Never Were

Before you begin, these posts were all written in real time, but I didn’t have internet access until now to post them.

Greetings from down under!!!

Just kidding… Right now I am actually still in Los Angeles. If you are wondering why it is that I’m still in LA, here’s the story. If you do not care at all whatsoever, skip to paragraph 10.

I began my journey in a flight out of Rochester, through O’Hare, and on to LA. I arrived in LA at 2:00 pm local time only to be told that my flight to Sydney had been cancelled due to a Qantas strike…and so began the ill-fated QF12 of July 17, 2008. But do not worry! I met a number of other Notre Dame kids caught in the same conundrum. They put us up in the Hilton LAX for the night with dinner and breakfast for the now 10:00 am flight.

After dinner, we had a lot of time to kill so we took a shuttle down to Manhattan Beach to walk around. The home of beach volleyball is kind of like heaven. Standing on the pier, I could look both ways down the beach and see volleyball courts as far as I could see three courts wide. The ocean was really nice, but unfortunately I did not pack a swimsuit and towel into my carry-on bag. The water and weather were beautiful, so we waded in a little bit. I was hoping to run into Justin, but maybe he’s not living there anymore. If only I had a cell phone…

Getting back at the hotel, we went to sleep immediately and woke up early to get to the airport. Now I’m sitting here just waiting to board the plane with Breana—hooray!— this time!

Now I know that you are thinking to yourselves, “But Sean, you said the flights that never were! Not the flight that never was. You’re a big fat liar.” Read on, young soldiers, read on.

Well, we boarded the plane… and sat… for a long time… only to be shuttled off the plane and run through security again while every bag on the plane was searched again. I kind of felt like a VIP as we were taken off the plane because we walked though a human tunnel of security people while the rest of the terminal was stopped entirely for us.

Now back at the gate, we waited to board again at the gate only to learn that the security breach had escalated to the point where the FBI was now getting involved. Qantas was told by TSA that this plane would not be allowed to take off. Now the next flight is at 10:00 pm.

And again Qantas treated us like kings by giving us food vouchers for the terminal and yet one more hotel room to stay at in the meantime. It was about 2:00 pm at this point if you were wondering. We ate at the Chili’s in the airport and then left for the hotel.

This just in (I’m actually in this second hotel now watching the news currently.) Apparently there was a bomb threat phoned in just before we were going to take off. So I’m just glad to be safe and sound. (This story followed one about a streaker on an American Airlines flight into LAX that tried to open one of the doors in the middle of the air.)

When we arrived at this hotel—Emabassy Suites—we were greeted by a Qantas rep that assured us we would get a hefty voucher from Qantas. WOO HOO! Hopefully that means free airfare for my spring break to awesome… or a return trip to Australia sometime. Also, I time to celebrate July 18. "What's so great about that?" you might ask. It's my 19 yr and 10 mo birthday, of course! I was worried I was going to miss it…

Anyway, welcome to my blog. Hopefully it will be filled with good news and more exciting adventures… or just filled at all. Now I’m off to my next free meal and back to the airport for the flight that will be.

Off to see the Pope!