No one likes the stress, disruption, and utter frustration of travel disasters, but now and again such events present each of us with opportunities to show grace and goodness. On Sunday, I experienced such an event. On my return flights from Beaver Creek, Colorado, back to Columbus, Ohio (CMH), things went sideways on the leg from Eagle County Airport (EGE) to Denver International Airport (DEN). First, the flight was delayed due to air traffic controller limitations. That set us back an hour or so. Then, thunderstorms in Denver caused a ground stop at DEN, which set us back another hour. That put my connection flight back to CMH in serious jeopardy. My hope was that the ground stop would delay the CMH flight, thereby allowing me to make my connection.
Eventually we boarded the airplane and pushed back off the gate, but then they told us we’d be delayed a bit more. After that third delay, we taxied to the runway only to sit for another delay. Eventually, due to the four delays, several members of the flight crew timed out per U.S. Department of Transportation rules, so the flight was done for the night. As the airplane returned to the gate, I saw online that the CMH flight had departed, forcing me to rebook my flight on Monday at 9:40AM and snag a hotel room near DEN. As we exited the airplane, the United Airlines (UA) staff told us the flight would be canceled, with the airplane leaving with the crew because the airplane was needed in DEN. Legally, the timed out crew could fly on the airplane, but not with customers. Awesome.
At that point, the stranger who had sat next to me on the flight said he was going to look at taking an Uber to DEN, as he could still make an 11:30PM flight back to Houston and asked if I wanted to join him. We’d split the cost. Given that I didn’t want to depend on getting out earlier enough on Monday to make the 9:40AM flight back to CMH, I readily agreed. Once we discovered that the rental car companies were still open, he decided to rent a car with us splitting the cost. We then started our journey out of the mountains to DEN.
In our roughly two hours together, we covered every topic you could imagine: work, kids, marriage and divorce, hiking, skiing, and the like. My son couldn’t believe I jumped into a car with a stranger from the airplane, but I could tell he wasn’t a serial killer:-) Greg was a delightful, down-to-Earth guy with a successful career in finance. We gave each other advice on thorny issues we each faced, as he had dealt with things I was going through and vice-versa.
As we got close to DEN, it was clear he would not be able to get gas, return the rental car, catch the rental car bus to the main terminal, get through security, take the train to C Terminal, and get to his gate before the airplane doors would have been shut. So, I offered to drop him off at the Main Terminal, take the car to the hotel I had booked, fill it up with gas, and return it the next morning before the rental period expired. The rental car was in his name. At the point, we only knew each other’s first names. Greg didn’t hesitate. While we had been strangers two hours earlier, now we were friends who could trust each other to do the right thing. I dropped Greg off and wished him the best. A bit later, he texted a picture of his gate noting he had made it just in time.
After a restless few hours of sleep, I got up, gassed up, and dropped the rental car at the return center. Once I got through security, I sent Greg a picture of the gas receipt, as he sent me the rental car receipt. We tallied up our expenses and I venmoed him his share of the rental car. I then had to get on the telephone with UA to ensure my absence on the 8:30AM flight from EGE, which would have caused me to miss the 9:40AM flight to CMH, didn’t get me kicked off the CMH flight. If you miss the first leg of a trip, the system automatically counts you as a “no show” so cancels the rest of your journey. After a brief chat with a VERY helpful UA representative, I was set to go. The CMH flight boarded and departed on time, allowing me to get back home at the same time my son arrived home from school for my next shared parenting time with him.
I can’t tell you how thankful I am that a stranger asked me if I wanted to share a drive back to Denver so we could both make our flights. While I doubt I’ll ever see or talk to Greg again, our temporary friendship forged in the fires of modern air travel was a pleasant surprise in an otherwise dreadful twenty-four hours. In the future, don’t be so quick to dismiss the guy or gal next to you on a flight, he may go from being a stranger to a friend who saves the day.
By the way, UA now has free Starlink for premium customers. It is fantastic!!!! Thank you, Elon Musk.
P.S. In my 2024 book on the dating apps, “The Myth of the Bigger, Better Deal,” I wrote about how I created a spreadsheet back in 2018 with ten key factors ranging from attractiveness to values in which I would give a date I went on a score from one to ten on each of the factors. A total score of 8.0 and above would spur me to proceed to a second date. My friends who knew about the spreadsheet thought I was an oddball for trying to boil down a date to a raw score. My view was the process brought much-needed objectivity to a perilous activity in which emotions or physicality could easily get in the way. Well, once again, I was a trendsetter. Two-and-a-half years since the book came out, it appears my spreadsheet idea has become a popular way to figure out the dating process. Who’d a thought my data junkie ways would become the thing?
That's a nice story Matt. Restores faith in human beings. I flew out and back to Denver the first week of August direct on United with no issues. Others will were attending the same conference from Cincinnati flew Delta which meant a connection. They had delays and huge issues. The lesson for me: fly direct whenever you can.
I bet you might talk with Greg again. Nice story