J.C.

As Christmas approaches, I'm sure we all have memories (good and bad) of traveling to our destination of choice.

Ever been stuck in an airport on Christmas eve? Or snowed in somewhere? How did you cope? Did it turn out okay? Any fun memories?

Share!

Joanne

My ex used to insist on visiting his relatives in Ohio at Christmas and was too cheap to fly, so we drove there from Boston, regardless of the weather.

I recall spending much of Christmas 1971 (or perhaps the day after) stuck in a snowbank somewhere halfway in between because he wouldn't wait til the storm ended and we slid right off the road with our 9-month-old in the back in a very primitive car seat.

The silver lining here is that it meant less time spent with the in-laws.

grinch

This happened to a friend of mine (and his wife and five kids).

After years of trudging from PA to his in-laws in CT at Xmas, and stuffing all the family's gifts into the car, he got smart. He UPS'ed all the gifts several days before they trip so they'd be there when his family arrived on Xmas Eve.

Great idea. Except his wife and three of the kids got deathly ill with the flu (vomiting was a big part of their Xmas) and they had to stay home in PA -- and explain to the kids how Santa had gotten lost and dropped all their gifts at Grandma's in CT.

Eva

My husband and I fly to Chicago from Maryland every other year for Christmas. A few years ago, I made some brilliant blonde moves when making the arrangements. First of all, I goofed up on the dates on the plane tickets, and had us departing BWI a day earlier than planned. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem -- we'd have just left early -- but in this case hubby had a court date that he couldn't postpone. The only way to rectify this was to purchase an entirely new plane ticket ... at the two-days-before-departure price. I never told hubby how much that cost!

For the same trip, I had made my own rental car reservations online (my very first try). When we got to O'Hare, we marched up to the Hertz counter to get our car, only to find they had no record of our reservation. Being the consummate planner, I pulled our my confirmation sheet. As the agent and I tried to figure out what the problem was, walk-up customers were being turned away by other agents, being told there were no cars available. We finally figured out that while I had the dates right, I wasn't attentive enough to put in the right YEAR on my reservation. Somehow, they managed to find a car for us ... for which I'm very grateful given the circumstances. And I learned a very important lesson: make sure you get the YEAR right!!

C

I have a memory of New Years -not Christmas, does that count? :0)
I flew from NC to SF one year, leaving NC at 11:00pm, we had New Years on the plane,free (at that time you paid) champagne, then crossing the Rockies, it was New Years again! more free champagne! When I got to San Francisco, it was about 9-10:00 pm and we raced down to the North Beach district in time to usher in the third New Year of the night~Happy New Years everyone

jeff

Wow! That was quite the rapid flight, C.
If you left North Carolina at 11pm (8pm in California) and arrived at 10pm Pacific time -- that's an amazing 2 hours to cross the continent! Was it the Concorde?

c

jeff-Thank you for pointing out the discrepancies in my memory~I took this trip many years ago-probably the time I left was earlier,maybe when I arrived it was later, the memory is there,the exact times aren't..and no,there was no Concorde then..but I DO remember it was Delta.

john

C,
I think the prior post called it right. Not to sound like a skeptic, but I find your story a bit hard to believe, as well.

If you were over the midwest time zone at midnight, it isn't physically possible for you to have been in Mountain Time and in Pacific Coast time for midnight. There is simply no way to get from say, Kansas, to Colorado and then San Francisco wll within in 2 hours. (The flight from Denver to SFO is about 2 hours)

Maybe, the flight attendants didn't really look at the clock but just decided to let the champagne flow anyway.

phillip

I worked for People Express airlines, in Newark, during college. On Christmas Eve 1986, the company was in deep financial trouble, morale was bad and numerous employees left the company.

Consequently, staffing levels were not maintained. When I left work at 6 p.m. (after staying 2 extra hours) only two employees were left at the main ticket counter.

Flights were so overbooked, that hundreds were left behind. (My friend was working the Pittsburgh gate and over 500 people wee overbooked by 4 p.m.!)

I hope that none of you were travelling that day with us.

c

You are right John, if I left North Carolina before midnight, I could not have midnight on the plane and get to San Francisco around 10-11 pm, I think.I do know that I took that flight,I do know that it was New Years, and we did celebrate on the plane.Sorry this has become a conundrum for some who hope to prove me wrong ? Another reason I think why people use false names, you join in one of these threads and are singled out and called a liar.Thanks guys.C

CA

Last Christmas between a possible pilot strike, the weather and a plane that "broke" it took us 14 hours to complete a 2 hour flight. WAAAAY too many hours in airports waiting for completion of our trip! This year was perfect though, and we can look back and laugh - NOW.

carol

Sorry
Mr or Mrs fashion police xyz or which ever letters you have chosen. My dress was a cream colored satin. Very much Christmas and holiday looking, by the way, it was not velvet. Anyway - are you reading the posts or are you here to criticize. If want the full decription of the dress, panty hose etc. I am sure I can do that for you. Where is your holiday spirit?

spirit

Couldn't have said it better myself. You go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

c

Thank you for the kind words ,spirit. "ciao", you are as always a gentle person. And I guess if I have to have company in being singled out so rudely, Carol is fine company, I have read her other posts through these weeks, and she always has something nice to say...unlike too many people here these days,I may not use my own name, but I will hang around...there are enough really great people here to null and void the creeps C

curious

Carol, I guess some people have never heard of "winter white". The dress sounds lovely.

I had the same thing happen to me while wearing a suit at a client meeting at Texaco many years ago. I nearly died of embarassment. They ended up going with our proposal though, and the Account Exec asked if I could repeat the performance at future presentations. Those guys will do anything for a deal!

Lisa

It was Christmas 1985. I was flying New York to Johannesburg and got a good deal on Alitalia to fly via Rome. They changed the first leg of the flight which meant that I had a day and a night in Rome before continuing on the next flight which left Rome at 12 midnight.I spent a wonderful day in Rome sightseeing.

As I was young, blonde and on my own I did not want to hang around in Rome until close to midnight so I left for the airport before 5 which gave me almost 7 hours to hang out at the airport and kill time. I covered every inch of that airport in those 7 hours.

It was during the time of terrorist threats and I was relieved to see many army personnel and felt safe. Little did I know!

When I got to South Africa the following morning, my father greeted me with a relieved "Boy, are we glad to see you!" Turns out that after my flight left, there was a major terrorist attack at the airport with many casualties ( I don't remember the details, now). When watching television footage of the aftermath of the carnage, I recognised many of the places I had sat, browsed etc while killing time as being right in the middle of all the chaos.

Somebody was watching out for me that day. Had it happened a few hours earlier, I would have been caught up in the middle.

Does anyone have any links to infomation on that attack?

Carol (my real name)

Thank you for your kind words. I am a strong advocate of the Golden Rule. Trust me, at time I can get my DANDER up and can have some good clean fun, with some of the posters (am I blowing my own horn hope not)? I am a people person and after 9/11 I realize how precious life is. Hope Santa is good to all of you and have a healthy, happy, prosperous (so we can travel) New Year. Let's keep this tread going, it is a good one J.c!!!!!!!!

Nigel

If a person left NC at around 8:00-9:00pm -a couple of hours later they would pass through Mt Time, and then land in SF before midnight. Therefore,New Years could be celebrated on that airplane 2 times.I do not see the problem here.
And I think a lady clad in white on a winter night is lovely..Happy New Years.Cheers..Nigel

J.C.

Hmmm, this thread has gotten truly funky. I never imagined when I asked people to recount Christmas travel memories that the validity of wearing winter white would wind up in here.

Still, I'm enjoying the memories. Please keep them coming!

Confidential

This Christmas is going to be full of memories for our family-I know already! Our child who has been living in Japan and we have not seen for over a year, surprised us with a visit home,arriving this Friday.We have been busy arranging for tickets to popular Broadway shows, hockey games,visits to relatives,and lots of time to be together.I will not venture a guess on the time zones being passed on this trip! as it is something like 12-14 hours to our house from Japan, but I do know that one of us might wear winter whiteSo - here's wishing all of you as Happy a Holiday as I am sure we will have...