How I Coped With Unexpected Travel Delays

I’ve heard many quotes and sayings, placing a greater importance on experiencing the journey rather than enjoying the destination. I’m not sure on which side I lean, but our journey to St. Maarten for a nice extended weekend break from winter proved to be an extraordinary one.

After enduring multiple feet of snow up here in the Greater Boston area over the past few months, the knowledge that I would soon be on the island of St. Maarten for the Heineken Regatta, with other members of a local travel group – The Onyxbirds – was that proverbial next light at the end of tunnel.

While at work during the week of the trip, I received a call on my cell from a 1-800 number that I did not recognize. I assumed that it was a spam telemarketer, but then I saw a curious email from US Airways. I opened up the email, and saw information about my flight from Boston to Philadelphia being cancelled. Cancelled?  It couldn’t be!

So after deep breaths, my girlfriend and I were texting frantically trying to figure out what our next steps would be. Thankfully, she took care of communications with the airline as we tried to get rebooked. The big issue was a snowstorm rolling through Philly when our flight was supposed to arrive there.

We rebooked our flight, but it was cancelled again.  So we rebooked a third time.  But due to waning confidence in the next morning’s flight, we decided to take our chances with going stand-by to make sure we got out of Boston.

Shut down before we could even complete our first sentence…”We’re sorry, but the flight is full.” Well, how about standby? “No, no stand-by. I would advise, you guys check your flight status at 3:30 am tomorrow”. Wow, so we rushed down there for nothing it seemed. We sat on one of the benches to collect our thoughts on what our options were. Then, it hit me.

Let’s not wait to get that cancellation call again from US Airways, at least for the flight out of Boston. Let’s ride the rail to Philly! Initially, my girlfriend wasn’t into the idea, especially due to the 6-7 hour train ride it entailed.  But the more we thought about it, we were losing confidence in our flight out of Boston by the minute.  So we decided to buy our train tickets and head to Philly.

Once we arrived at the airport, it felt like we achieved a milestone. Even though we didn’t do anything superhuman, we felt accomplished. A piece of our journey was now complete.  We weren’t exactly in St. Maarten yet, but we were making slow progress.

I peeked outside the window, and saw that what started as drizzle, turned to rain, and now was full-blown snow. As the snow was really starting to come down, I started to worry. Would we be able to enjoy warm temperature in “The Friendly Island” or would we be stuck in cold, snowy, Philadelphia for a night?

As the potential boarding time came nearer and nearer, we were checking our US Airways flight status pretty much every 5 minutes. It was still showing as “On Time” so we kept feeling relief after that jolt of nervousness when we felt it was time to check again. Oh such a vicious cycle!

Finally, we board!  While on the plane, I look out the window, seeing the snow falling, accumulating on the window feeling less and less secure about our escape from the cold.  I catch a glimpse of the fluid being generously applied to the window and wing, hoping for the best that later that day I’ll be able to take off all these layers I’m wearing and enjoy nice weather sans snow.

The de-icing finally completed, the plane slowly gets set up, moving to the appropriate spot to start it’s takeoff run. Here we go. After a pause I feel the thrust of the jets as the plane is propelled forward. With the needed acceleration and lift the plane gets off the ground, and like a finely sharpened dart, cuts through the snow and the clouds almost like that hot knife through butter.

A boisterous passenger got everyone going, ecstatic over our success in taking off, and yelled out “Yeah! We made it! Woohoo!” And everyone on the plane gave a round of applause for the crew. Definitely one of the things that helped make this a memorable trip.

As we got above the clouds, a feeling of serenity took hold of me and I’m sure others, as we could see the clouds below us, and all the craziness of the storm was no longer a concern. We’re gonna make it to St. Maarten!

Through it all, we kept our cool, thought about various scenarios to successfully complete our travels and made it happen.  What are some of the more “unique” ways you had to use, or circumstances you had to endure, to get to your travel destination?  Please share below!

By: Kenny Hyde

Follow Kenny’s travels on his website, …And Seek and Twitter.

Photo Credit: Kenny Hyde

Dear Travel Industry, Black People Travel Too…

A few weeks ago, I attended my first New York Times Travel Show. While the show lasts all weekend, I attended on Friday which is known as Industry Day.  It’s a chance for Travel Editors, Bloggers, Travel Agents and other travel professionals to meet with tourism representatives about the business side of travel.

Attending the conference was also a great chance to connect with fellow travel bloggers that I only knew through social media, as well as other tourism professionals from around the world.  I enjoyed the creative presentations of each country and hope to one day visit each one (seriously…call me!).  However, one thing that was overwhelmingly obvious was that there were way less people present that looked like me than not.

Of course, some island countries were present at the Travel Show and most were represented by people of color for obvious reasons.  However, many European countries were not (also for obvious reasons) and honestly, I did not receive the warmest of welcomes by some of them when I requested to learn more information about their destination.

I’m not going to name specific countries, but there was definitely more than one that gave me the cold shoulder.  I was a little taken back by how off-putting some representatives were.  But here’s the thing they need to realize: Black people travel to more places than just the Caribbean!  This is no diss against the Caribbean.  Believe me, the islands love me and I love them right back.  But my interests are diverse and my choice in vacation destinations reflect that.   According to research by the Mandala Research Firm:

1. 17% of African Americans take one or more international trips a year;
2. African Americans spend $48 billion on travel in the United States alone.

Did you read the stats above closely?  Black people spent $48 BILLION on travel in the United States alone!  That means that if we’re traveling in United States, we are also willing to travel to other places around the world.  Tourism Boards and traveling professionals should begin marketing to us because it’s far too big a market to neglect.

With @KimberlyNatasha at the New York Times Travel Show

I’m sure I could write an entire dissertation about the Diaspora and the downright disdain for people of color around the world.  It’s clear that not many Blacks travel to far off places often.  In fact, when I was in Istanbul, my friends and I were stared at and secretly photographed by people who had never seen Black people before. I don’t think they meant us any harm but maybe, just maybe, if people of color traveled to countries where we are not native, when natives do see us, it won’t be that big a shock to them.

But that begs me to ask…are people of color not going to these places because they’re not interested, or because we’re not being marketed to? I’d argue the latter.  Over the holidays when travel deals to Iceland and Abu Dhabi popped up, thousands of Black travelers – including tons of my friends – hopped on board.  Why? Because of availability, affordability and most importantly, curiosity and willingness to explore new places.

Whether you like it or not, Black Americans are traveling internationally more than ever.  Next time you meet another Blogger or Travel Agent of color interested in working with you at a travel show, via an email introduction or on the street, be a little more open in sharing information about your destination.  Our audiences are interested in visiting your country too…and let’s face it, the only color that really matters is green.