You'd been talking about it since your junior year of high school. When you graduate, you
planned to take a once-in-a-lifeti me, week-long trip to Europe. That day fi nally arrived. You
packed, gathered your passports and necessary paperwork, and headed to the airport.
As the new rules state, you need to arrive at the airport a minimum of two hours before
departure. You all arrived early, checked in your luggage, went through security, and sat at
the gate waiti ng for your fl ight.
over the loud speaker saying there would be a short delay. The plane coming in from
another airport had mechanical problems and the departure would be about an hour late.
Well, one hour passed and you were sti ll not in the air. You and your friends heard another
announcement stati ng that the fl ight would now be delayed another four hours due to
scheduling confl icts. So once again you waited.
scheduled ti me. The fl ight was fl awless and you arrived at your desti nati on. Unfortunately,
when you went to retrieve your luggage, you found that it had not arrived. You went
to customer service only to fi nd out that your luggage had been sent to Switzerland. Of
course, they apologized and told you it would be delivered to your hotel as soon as possible,
but that didn't help the situati on. All of your clothes, shoes, and personal items were
packed in your luggage. You all decided to grab a taxi cab and at least get to the hotel to
try to unwind and fi gure out a plan. You arrived at the hotel and found out that your room
had been given to someone else because you were late and, with all the confusion, no one
remembered to call and confi rm. Now, you had to wait unti l another room was cleaned.
You fi nally all got into your room and called the airline and found out that your luggage
would not be delivered unti l the next day. You decided you had no choice but to go out and
purchase clothes and personal items to get you through to the next day.
in-a-lifeti me vacati on fi nally began. Aft er losing a full day of sightseeing due to poor
management on the part of the airline, you and your friends anxiously set about enjoying
the rest of this once-in-a-lifeti me trip.