Bella's Daily Bonjour: The day we were supposed to depart for France

Welcome back,

This is not a daily bonjour from Bella, because I in fact- am not in France nor am I on the way to France (yet). Let’s not waste time here, I’ll get straight to the rundown. 

The initial travel day plan: Out of our 28 team members, including our program directors, 15 of us were to fly out of New Orleans this morning on various flights. The other half of the group booked flights out of multiple different home states. No matter where our flights were booked out of, they were all scheduled to depart today. If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, that didn’t exactly go according to plan.

Today at approximately 4:30 a.m., the series of unfortunate events kicked off. Beginning with Noah Martin, the first to drop in the GroupMe to inform the rest of us that his flight out of MSY was canceled.

Frantically I logged onto my Delta account and sure enough, my eyes fell on the notification: “Your flight was canceled and rebooked”. Within 30 minutes, GroupMe was blowing up with everyone confirming their own flight cancellations.

For those of us with cancellations out of MSY, the overwhelming majority were automatically rebooked for tomorrow. Many spent hours on the phone with Delta to resolve flight changes, while others remained on the customer service hold line. Olivia Johnson waited for three hours to speak with a representative, while a symphonic version of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” played in the background. Sorry Ms. Carpenter, we know you “can’t relate to desperation,” but we’re pretty desperate to get on our flights. Anticipation for tomorrow’s travelers awaits. That update will come soon enough, but let me update you on the adventures faced by those who actually made it to the airport. 

As of right now, Emily Boudreaux is the one lucky individual to make it out of MSY on her original scheduled flight with United Airlines. She informed me that she made it onto her flight seamlessly. Sitting on the plane she snapped a photo of the dark sky from her window seat and sent it to me with an accompanying text:

“If weather delay is a thing,” she began, “that’s where I’m stuck, lol.”

Within ten minutes, Emily confirmed that her flight was grounded, delaying her departure by a full hour as they waited for lightning to clear the tarmac. Safe to say that weather delays are a thing, you can check that one off the list.

To lighten the mood slightly, Ben Hagen, who is still stuck at the MSY airport awaiting his flight delay, at least had the opportunity to bump into one of our own Tigers, Taryn Kloth. The beach volleyball Olympian will meet us again on the sand in Paris as she and Kristen Nuss compete for gold. They snapped a picture, smiling through the pain of it all!

Currently, one group member has officially touched down in Marseille. But don't be mistaken, she’s facing a mishap of her own and possibly one of the worst things to deal with. It wouldn't be a complete series of unfortunate travel events without someone losing their luggage. Unfortunately, Camilla Clifford checked that one off the list as well. She was left staring at an empty conveyor belt at baggage claim. Her suitcase didn't make the connection and is nowhere to be found. On the bright side, she confirms that the hotel has functioning air conditioning. We’re counting our blessings right now and that- is music to everyone's ears.

As we approach 3 p.m. there are a handful of others who anticipate on-time arrivals according to their original bookings. We eagerly await updates from them as they embark on their own navigation through today's airport havoc.

If one thing is certain, we will make it to France. The 2024 Olympics will have LSU representation, and we are ready to make up for lost time. Now, it’s a race to see who can get on the next flight the fastest. The first one to touchdown won gold — Camilla, that’s you girl, even if you don't have a suitcase to show for it. 

With hope for being in the air tomorrow,

Bella