What a day!

We were ready early and I laughed that something was really wrong if we were actually going to be early for a flight….

The traffic to Newark was relatively smooth….

We sailed through a very short TSA line and I commented that I’d never even seen a line that short.

We got to the gate and I presented our tickets, our passports, and our negative COVID tests. And everything came to a screeching halt….

When we took the tests two days ago, I had been given the choice of a PCR or a Rapid Antigen. The PCR cost 3 times as much and was not guaranteed to result in 48 hours. I verified on the UK government website that either was acceptable. I did not verify, however, that the Rapid Antigen was acceptable in Portugal. Where we were supposed to spend only 1.5 hours and change planes. We were turned away at the gate.

We were told that it would likely be 48-72 hours before we could reschedule for another Air Portugal flight and directed to their recommended lab 3 towns away. We would’ve needed another hotel in NJ, plus would have to reschedule our great deal in London… which was unlikely to be a great deal if I rescheduled. Plus, the additional tests, multiple Ubers, and increased flight costs.

In an effort to save $300, I put us in a position to have to spend ten times that to fix the mess. We ended up on a direct British Airways flight that left from the other side of NYC. (FTR, they were the most expensive tickets I have ever purchased as I usually take pride in finding great flight prices.) And, of course, we were late… there was horrific traffic, delays at security, and delays at the gate.

I cannot possibly extol the virtues of the British Airways staff loudly enough. The agent on the phone was able to find last year’s credits which helped offset a bit of the costs. The gate agents at JFK rallied around us and helped us handle fixing the Traveler Locator online forms that wouldn’t work, and made sure we got on the plane. According to one gate agent, even the Captain was cheering us on.

As I sit on a half-full jumbo jet midway across the Atlantic, I truly don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was an emotional day- and a very expensive one- but it reminded me that there are wonderful people willing to help strangers in distress and do more than just the minimum required… which is definitely not a bad thing to be reminded of right now.

(This was written on the flight on June 5th, we are currently in quarantine in London, more on that later.)