Midnight Mayhem

I used to think I was living spontaneously when I booked flights 72 hours before their departure. But last night I took things to a whole new level. And let me tell you, there’s nothing quite as terrifying as booking flights to Tahiti… 6.5 hours before departure time.

Now, let me back up a bit. Because in all fairness, yesterday at 11:30pm wasn’t the first time I decided to book the trip. We’d actually booked our trip to the French Polynesia back in mid-December and had been long-anticipating a 6:00am departure this morning. So, like usual, it was a mad dash to finish packing, clean the house, and get everything in order the night before. But by 11:00pm yesterday we were finally packed, our travel clothes laid out, the house was more or less tidy, I’d run out at 9:00pm in nightmare-ish weather in a panic to pick up travel meds from the pharmacy I’d forgotten to pick up earlier, we’d checked in for our on-time flight, and had come to terms with the fact that we were only going to get 3.5 hours of sleep before our 2:30am wake up call.

We’d just put our phones away and on their chargers when we heard the simultaneous chime of an incoming text. I casually glanced at the notification as it popped up and saw the word “delayed” splayed across the screen. “Oh great,” I remember thinking. “I hope it’s not too long. But at least maybe we can sleep in a bit.” Well, sleep-in we could… it was delayed 7 hours. 7 whole hours. And that was just the initial delay. We all know those delays are extended time and time again. This left us missing all of our connections and hence our Friday departure altogether since options to rebook the whole trip weren’t available for at least 3 days. So, we were left to either severely delay our trip or cancel outright for a full refund. Unless…

There had to be another option. So, as one of us read through the options United was providing us with, the other jumped on Expedia to look for another flight with another airline. And wouldn’t you know – the stars aligned and the light shone down on us. For exactly the same price, at nearly the exact same time, was an Air Canada flight bound for Tahiti, leaving at 6:10am the next morning. A 10 minute time difference from our original one, and connecting through Vancouver rather than Denver.

We looked at each other. Was the refund for sure? Would we end up double-paying on flights? Should we just wait? Should we cancel altogether and just say screw it?

But we had to do it. We had to go. So, in a heart-racing moment, we clicked the button and cancelled our United flights for a full refund. And moments later, clicked book on a brand new flight itinerary with a new airline. The wheel spun as the third-party booking site took its time processing… spinning around and around as I held my breath in fear. What did we do? What if it didn’t work? We now had no flights and what was sure to be a devasted 5yo if she woke up the next morning to go to school rather than the airport.

Spinning around and around…

Until finally it came through. “Confirmed!” the screen shone back at us.

We were back in the game, and had just booked a whole new trip 6.5 hours before departure. 

And after 2.5 hours of sleep, a relatively smooth arrival to the YEG airport and nearly on-time departure, we are officially in the air and en route towards our island paradise. (Or at least, pending any other last minute disasters).