POV: You spend over 72 hours in an airport

Prepare for a cautionary tale: DO NOT attempt to fly anywhere during a global airline IT outage.

I don't even know where to begin. During the first several days of our trip, the entire group went through a lot. Olympics Project team members rebooked flights, sat in airports through delay upon delay, and experienced much heartache. However, I think Cade and I have had one of the worst travel experiences humanly possible—except for Hayli and Teyannah, but I'll have to let them tell you their story soon.

As I write this, Cade and I are sitting at our hotel in Lyon. So, this story has a good ending. For now, let me tell you how it started.

Saturday, July 20, 2024: Many group members received notification that our flights to France had been canceled. Cade and I were automatically rebooked to a flight set to depart at 7:40 p.m. on Sunday. However, that flight would give us just one hour to make our connecting flight in Atlanta and two hours in Paris.

We were so naïve to think that short connection times would be a problem.

We rebooked a flight leaving Baton Rouge, Louisiana, instead of New Orleans. I drove back to my hometown in Alexandria, Louisiana, feeling optimistic that our new flights would work out.

Sunday, July 21: My mom and I woke up around 7 a.m. to drive to Baton Rouge for our flight. We arrived at the airport at noon and met with team member Ava Hebert. Our 3 p.m. flight seemed to be on time, and FlightAware said our plane was already at the airport.

Ava, Cade, and I sat in a café at the airport and got the news that Biden was dropping out of the presidential race. Although this did not impact our travel experience, it was pretty wild to experience it in the airport.

When we arrived at our gate, the Bayou Buddies therapy dogs supported us through all the travel havoc. This is the most joy we will feel for some time, says Cade.

2:30 p.m.: A representative from Delta Airlines informed us that our flight was delayed until 6:50 p.m. He said he had no information as to when Atlanta would be able to receive us, even though we had an airplane and a crew. Cade and I were immediately worried because this delay would cause us to miss our 8:30 p.m. flight to Paris. Luckily, Ava's connection would not be affected.

We called Delta to see if we could be moved to another flight later that night, but we were told no seats were available. At this point, I'm not sure I was breathing.

With his genius thinking, Cade decided that the best thing for us to do was switch airlines completely. We booked a flight departing from the New Orleans airport at 9:55 p.m. to take us to London, Barcelona, and then Marseille. We did not look too carefully at the layover times because we only had a few moments before the flight was completely booked.

Luckily, my mom was near the Baton Rouge airport when we got the news, picked us up, and brought us to New Orleans.

This is Cade and I completely floored that we're about to change airports and flights. We had no idea what time we would make it to Marseille, but we knew that we had to get there no matter what.

One tense hour later, Cade and I make it to the New Orleans airport. During the drive, we had to call Delta Airlines to get our initial flight canceled and start the refund process. We also received a call from Ava saying that our first flight out of Baton Rouge had been canceled entirely and that she was en route to meet us on our flights.

We went through security a second time and then had about four hours to wait for takeoff to France at 9:55.

Surprise, surprise. Our flight was delayed 45 minutes. However, our wait became all the more interesting when Lily arrived at the airport and said she was on our flight, too! Ava joined us, and we ran into Hayli and Teyannah, who, little did we know, we would not see for another three days.

Cade and I also ran into our mutual friend who was traveling to another study abroad program in Edinburgh with the LSU College of Music and Dramatic Arts.

10:55 p.m.: Luckily, our flight to London had no other delays and boarded without issues. Although Ava and Lily slept well on the flight, Cade and I did not. We attempted to enjoy the airplane food and played Monopoly on the plane's screens. Out of the eight and a half hours in the air, I think I got 30 minutes of sleep.

Monday, July 22, 12:40 p.m.: The next part of this trip mishap is partially my fault and the fault of the poor signage at London Heathrow Airport. While attempting to find our following gates and terminals, as Lily and Ava had different flights from Cade and me, I found a sign that guides you to customs, thinking we needed to get our passports checked to board the next flight. Little did I know that we could have automatically left for our next gate without going through customs at all.

After scanning our passports, we realized that we had exited the airport and had to go through security again to make it to our gate. We frantically asked security guards for instructions, and Lily and Ava went off their separate ways to catch their flights. Cade and I stood in the very long security line for about an hour, and both of us got stopped by two separate security workers along the way.

The next several hours, we found out, would be our Everest.

When Cade and I first saw the screens, the only information next to our flight number was "Please wait." We did not have a gate number then, and Flight Aware did not know where our plane was. Yikes.

Cade and I already planned to switch to Ava's flight, leaving London at 7:00 a.m. the next day. We were hopeful we could stick with her and miss the pre-planned overnight 12-hour layover in Barcelona. This began our search to speak to someone who could help us accomoplish this. We first waited in line at the first British Airways customer service desk and discovered that there were seats available for Ava's flight.

However, the British Airways representative said he could not edit our booking because we initially booked our flight through American Airlines. We sit down to call American Airlines, and this kind woman answers and looks into switching our flights. She said she had to "check us out" of our previous booking to even check the price of this. That meant we would have to get a representative from British Airways to check us in again, or we would not be able to board our flight to Barcelona if we didn't want to pay for the new flight.

The American Airlines woman suggested we get into a customer service line and double-check that British Airways would be willing to help us check back into our flight, just in case—customer service line number two.

Luckily, the price of our new flight was 12 dollars less than our previous booking, so we received our new tickets and a travel credit. Now... how do we leave the airport? Cade and I made at least four laps around the terminal, trying to find an exit, as we wanted to meet Ava at the hotel she had booked. Finally, we walked back to TSA in hopes they would escort us back to the front of the airport.

The TSA representative said someone from British Airways had to escort us out of the airport and through customs, which we had already been through once that day. We walked to the customer service desk with the shorter line and waited there for what seemed like forever. We were beyond tired and hungry, and we smelled awful.

After about 45 minutes of waiting in line, we finally spoke to the worker at the desk. It turns out the other desk had a worker who could escort us back to the front of the airport. Back we go to another line. We were able to walk up to a worker at the desk who directed us to the escort, and we were able to leave quickly.

After speaking to a baggage representative and a grueling wait while watching with our eyes half open as the bags passed on the conveyor belt, I was able to retrieve my checked bag.

We survived. Barely.

Cade and I hopped in a taxi and headed to Ava's hotel, where we finally got to change clothes, shower, and brush our teeth. I swear I needed a hazmat suit to peel my sweaty, two-day-old clothes off my body. My clothes were the worst thing I have ever smelled in my whole life, and that is not an exaggeration.

Then, it was time for the highlight of our travel experience. We walked down to a nearby English pub called the Three Magpies. I have to admit, if you have a few hours away from the London airport, the Three Magpies is an excellent choice if you want a slice of London culture. Ava, Cade and I all got fish and chips and the first taste of water in almost six hours.

Photo Credits: Cade Williams

At 9:00 p.m., we returned to the hotel and set our alarms for 3:45 a.m. to catch our 4:30 a.m. Uber to the airport. We all had stress dreams about the airport and had some trouble sleeping. Regardless, sleeping in a bed instead of a cramped plane was a blessing.

Tuesday, July 23, 4:40 a.m.: Ava, Cade, and I arrived at the airport in our new terminal. We waited in line for check-in for about an hour before we could be seen. Whenever our boarding pass was printed, the representative from British Airways informed us that our seat would be assigned at the gate because the flight had been overbooked. Cade and I were a little bothered by this, but we knew we had to get to our gate and figure it out.

We visited a candy store and a coffee shop in the airport and then sat to wait for our gate to be announced. Our gate was supposed to be announced at 6:15, but as the time for the announcement was pushed back, so was our flight. At 7:30 a.m., we shuffled to our gate and were the first in line. That was great for Ava, as she had a seat assignment and could directly board the plane. However, Cade and I were told to wait until everyone boarded the plane to receive a seat assignment.

Pure dread filled my heart. My stomach twisted in knots, and Cade kept saying, "There better be a seat for us on this flight. Imagine if we went through all of this and there wasn't even a seat on the plane. I'll sit in the jump seat if I have to. We can share seats."

Our worst reality came to fruition just 10 minutes later. If you didn't know, airlines overbook their flights, assuming that everyone will not show up. Well, on Tuesday, everyone did. We were refused seats on the flight.

Our only consolation was a 10 dollar meal voucher and a rebooked flight that departed at 2:!5 p.m.

Five more hours in the London airport. Oh. My. Gosh.

Cade and I reached total delirium. We wandered aimlessly, hoping to find a comfortable seat during our wait at one of the airline's clubs. Of course, we were refused, as we are not members of any airline rewards club. We resorted to using our meal voucher on a rather disgusting lunch (a burger and an okay attempt at steak and ale pie) and sitting in silence for the remainder of our wait.

We were expecting more problems, which is understandable given our experience. But our gate was announced, we got onto the plane, and after a slight delay, we took off.

Even though the flight was slightly turbulent and I felt exhausted and gross, I felt relief to be on that plane, flying over cities and countries I only dreamed of visiting. There was not a cloud in the sky, and as we approached Marseille, I could see the entire Mediterranian Sea and cityscape and tiny people walking down the streets living their lives, knowing that I was about to be one of those people, too.

What is that saying? You never know that you want something until it's gone? Before I left Louisiana, it was hard to fathom that it was real. It was hard to believe that I was going to France.

Especially with all of our delays and mishaps, I wasn't sure that I would ever get to see France and live out all of my hard work and planning leading up to that point.

But I knew that I wanted to be part of this program. I wanted to be here so badly that I waited in an airport for nearly three days! As I sat on the plane, I began to feel intense joy and excitement for the rest of our trip and all of the amazing things we would do. Somehow, experiencing all that travel heartache made me excited for what was to come.

6:00 p.m.: Landing in Marseille was, again, liberating. During our 45-minute taxi ride to the hotel, I stared longingly out the window in complete awe of the beautiful slice of the world I was about to experience, one that was outside of an airport.

I'm soaking it all in, living in the moment as much as I can, and making new friends and professional connections.

Most of all, I am grateful to be here, a part of this study abroad program.

Thank you to all of the airline employees for being patient with us and doing your best to get us where we needed to be.

Thank you to my travel buddies, without whom I would have gone insane in the airport.

Thank you to anyone who supported me and helped me get to this point, especially my parents, who talked on the phone and texted me across time zones to calm my nerves.

What a ride. I can't believe that this is my life for the next week. I'm looking forward to giving you all updates along the way.

But please, do whatever you can to not spend three days in an airport.