The look on my face (the woman on the left) is a concoction of exhaustion, gratitude, and love. This story of gratitude was made possible by a handful of strangers who, I suspect, have no idea what kind of impact they had on my life. Phuket, August 2012: My (now) wife and I were winding down after 6 weeks of trekking through China and Thailand.
We were up late, 4:00am local time, watching the summer Olympics. Our flight back to New Orleans was 24 hours away, so I thought to check us in in advance. Initially, the error message from the airline didn’t concern me. I was tired, it must have been a user error. We finally retired to bed, bags packed and ready to head to the airport the next evening. Hours later, I snapped to awareness. We had missed our flight. Suddenly I knew why we received the error message online – our flight didn’t depart at 1:00am on August 11. It left one hour after midnight on August 10.
It left while we were busy watching the Olympics. “We missed our flight!” I nudged T awake. Still half asleep, she looked at me blankly. “We missed our flight, it left at 1:00am last night.” Suddenly, she was wide awake. Without missing a beat, she was on the phone trying to reach the airline. “There’s no outgoing dial tone. We need to leave today!” T was panicked. At this point, I didn’t understand the worry, we both had another week of vacation before returning to our respective jobs. I was happy to catch the next flight out and enjoy another day at the beach! Tannia was out the room and in the hotel lobby. Moments later, she returned with the hotel receptionist. Thanks to Woman #1: The woman spoke little English but remained patient and persistent to understand our worry. Making the connection, she dialed the airline on the main line and her personal cell. Without her, there was no way to reach our airline. Neither our cellphones nor hotel landline were equipped to dial out without racking up hundreds of dollars in bills. The receptionist waited patiently and dialed other airlines as T went through a rolodex of options. Thai Airways, China Airlines, Korean Air. She continued to connect us each time we heard “no flights available.” Finally, T found a flight that left that afternoon, connecting through Honk Kong, South Korea and New York. From there, we’d need another flight from NYC to New Orleans. We hugged the receptionist as she ushered us into a cab, waiving us off as we rushed to the airport. Thanks to Woman #2: “Flight insurance?” the Korean Air representative asked. “Yes.” “Why did you miss your flight?” “We misread the time and thought that we left at 1:00 the day of, not the night prior.” “Insurance doesn’t cover missed flights if it’s the passengers fault. Tickets to JFK are $2,000 each.” Tannia and I were nearly in tears. An additional $4,000 would have wiped our savings. Seeing this, the woman at the desk leaned forward. “I can put you on the next flight out, it leaves in 2 hours.” She slid two tickets across the table.
We thanked her profusely as we ran through security, afraid that if we turned around, she’d change her mind. Thanks to my wife: On the flight to the US, Tannia casually leaned over. “When we land in New Orleans tonight, will you celebrate this adventure with me over a drink?” I was already exhausted, but thought it was a nice sentiment and agreed. Eventually we landed in New Orleans, only about half a day later than our original time. T suggested I throw on a dress and some makeup (I was ready to collapse and didn’t care what I looked like) and we headed to the venue where we had our first date 2 years prior. Entering the venue, I noticed a table in the back with our names on it.
Then I caught sight of my best friend, a photographer, who no longer lived in Louisiana. “Surprise,” S cheered. Now I was in shock. A glimpse again – of my mother and sister? Friends and family were there waiting, I turned to T in tears. “Now you know why I needed to get us home so badly.” She held out her hand and presented an engagement ring. Gratitude for those often overlooked: My family headed back to Denver the next day. Thanks to these particular women (and my spouse), I received the surprise of a lifetime. To this day I go out of my way to say “thank you” to those employees who help keep us clothed, sheltered, fed, safely transported from one place to the next. Without these people, where would you be?
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