I went to the UK this week to train with my pole idol, Sarah Scott.
The journey to get there was literally a vivid nightmare that I lived and it's too ridiculous not to share.
I first flew out to Phoenix for my best friend’s bachelorette party and her wedding.
Both were awesome and fun. I was honored to be the maid of honor ;)
The week was busy though, I hadn’t slept more than 6 hours in over a week and I usually need 9+ hours of sleep.
My boyfriend and I bought a hotel in Phoenix to spend some time together while in Phoenix, but the only time we got alone was us just sleeping since were were so busy and tired.
We got a ride to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport where we intended to spend some time together for a few hours before our flights.
Someone at the airport told us that we could go through our separate securities and meet back up afterwards. So we went to our separate securities without saying goodbye and then discovered that we could actually NOT meet back up.
We said goodbye on the phone and we flew our separate ways.
On my flight I got stuck next to a woman who was sick and coughing the whole 2 hours and I was terrified that she was going to get me sick days before my intensive training.
After I landed in Newark New Jersey the fun really began.
My phone was dead and I walked a mile around the airport looking for an outlet.
What kind of hell of an airport doesn’t have outlets?!
I finally found a woman in the middle of a busy hallway holding her phone into one in the middle of the airport. I called Logan holding the cord up and sitting on the ground trying to not get stepped on.
It was eventually time to get to my gate which had a flight to London set for 9:00PM and boarding was meant to be at 8:15.
At 8:15 there was an entire flight of people sitting at my gate on their way to Dublin - their flight hadn’t even arrived yet.
At 8:30 their plane wasn’t close.
At 9:00 my flight was pushed back to 9:30.
At 10:00 the Dublin plane still wasn’t there.
My flight was pushed to 10:15.
10:30.
The Dublin group’s plane finally arrived and they moved to another gate.
11:00 PM a United crew member announced that they were looking for our plane and they were looking for a pilot to fly us out but we would be getting our plane soon.
11:30 they told us if we don’t get a out of there by 11:45 we would be cancelled.
12:00 they said they found our plane and we would be leaving.
12:15 they moved us to another gate.
12:30 still nothing.
1:30 they said we were getting on board in a few minutes.
2:00am - the flight was cancelled.
They told us that we could not get our bags until after 6:00am in the morning.
They gave us a number to call for a new flight.
I called it and I was on hold for an hour.
A rude woman answered and told me the next available flight would be me leaving on the 8th. The day was the 5th. Uh. Fuck you.
I told her I was going to cancel my flight and find another with a different airline.
Logan stayed up past 2:00am in Colorado trying to help me find a hotel, a way to get there, and a new fight.
At 2:15am I was in the airport and I found a flight for $1,000 for the 6th that would put me in London on the 7th.
I’m missing a whole day for nothing.
Logan called a hotel and told me to get a free shuttle to the hotel and they would put me up.
I walked outside to find the shuttle at the lower level of the airport where a security woman told me I would be picked up.
After waiting in the cold at 2:45am I asked a man where to go. He told me to go back upstairs and wait.
I walked upstairs and asked a mean large security guard where to go. He told me simply ‘stand outside and wait for the bus.’
Not knowing what to do or what bus to look for, I stood outside.
A bus came and I asked the driver if it was the correct one for me.
He told me yes and I got on a bus that was creepily empty.
I was taken to some random ass building where the man told me to wait outside for a shuttle.
I called the hotel Logan had called earlier that told him there were vacancies and to arrive and just ask for a room.
To be sure I called beforehand and they told me there were none.
I called another hotel - they had vacancies and would send a shuttle. The first good news all day.
I paid $200 for one night in a hotel. I had no luggage, face wash, toothbrush or anything.
The next day I checked out and got back to the airport.
The man driving the shuttle from the hotel dropped me off at the terminal building where I had my new flight.
Then I realized my luggage was in an entirely different terminal of the airport and I needed to go there first, then come all the way back and check into the new terminal of the airport.
I took an air train all the way to the other terminal.
I didn’t see my luggage so I got in line to ask about it.
After an hour of standing in my only shoes I have had, 6 inch boots, I finally spoke with a woman.
At first she told me that the airline lied when they said I could get my bag at 6:00am. She said that since there were already hundreds of random bags they weren’t even going to get around to the newest ones for days.
Then she scanned my baggage tickets and told me that “oh wait,” my baggage was probably already in London. WTF?
Thinking I had one good thing happen, with a little hope I took an air train all the way back to the terminal where my new flight would be.
I walked back and fourth, up and down an entire airport terminal twice looking for the counter for my airline and finally went up to a woman asking where it was.
She said something weird, like “it wasn’t there yet”? And didn’t tell me anything else.
I went to an airport bar to hang out for awhile until I could get checked in and what I assumed was I was waiting for my airline to set up their counter.
After waiting two hours I got an e-mail from Expedia telling me my itinerary for my flight leaving on the 10th had changed and I needed to call them.
Trying to stay calm I called the number and a man who kept saying my name wrong checked my flight and told me it was exactly how it should be. Just praying he was right, I hung up the phone.
Two hours later I went up a level to find my carrier and there was a line out of the door.
I waited in line for 40 minutes to get to the counter and when I did the man asked if I had bags.
I told him that “no, they apparently left without me”.
The worker next to him stopped and told me that baggage is never supposed to leave without a person and that it’s doubtful that my baggage was in London.
Devastated once again I shuffled off all across the airport to my security line.
After I passed through security where they practically made me take off everything I was wearing and take out almost everything in my bag and put it in a separate bin, I waited another 3 hours in a waiting area because my flight was delayed 45 minutes to get onto the new flight.
After getting on the plane I knew I had to train the next day, so for five and a half hours I tried to sleep to no avail.
We landed in Iceland where it was 6:00am, I was exhausted, and I tried to not fall asleep until my next flight.
I then got on my flight to London and it was an hour late taking off.
We sat on the plane for unknown reasons for such a long time.
Then we flew out and I finally passed out for about two hours. At least around the times that I wasn’t being woken up because of a crying child.
I finally landed an hour late and when I got off the plane I had to walk a mile through the airport to find that I needed to stand in a HUGE line just to get into the UK.
I waited in line an hour to get through the border process and by then Sarah had already been waiting by then 2 hours for me to get out of the airport.
When I got downstairs finally I looked for my bag and found none.
I went to the United Baggage Claim to ask them and a man tried calling over to the other terminal with United Bags for half an hour and no one picked up.
He told me to go to the other Baggage Support for the Iceland Air carrier because I was on their airline last, it was their responsibility. WTF?!
I waited in line for 40 minutes with Sarah waiting outside for me, parked in an expensive parking garage, to talk to someone.
A man with an accent I could barely understand asked me some questions and told me it could be days.
He then told me I should expect my bag the next day about mid-dayish.
I left, having made Sarah wait 3 hours by that time, after being bothered by some man when I was leaving about why I had no bags.
We had to drive 2 hours back after I already made her wait, and since I had no baggage we had to run to the store so I could buy all of my toiletries that I didn’t have.
By that time it was really late and we had no time to do pole at all so a whole second day was entirely wasted.
It has been a whole other day and no bags have arrived and we have gotten no calls or e-mails.
We checked online and it turns out that my purple bag has been found but it won’t be here until the day I leave, and my other bag has not been found.
I had to buy all new clothes today and only get one more day to pole with Sarah Scott.
5 days turned into 2 and I want to burn every single airline and airport to the ground.
I’m super grateful that I am finally in the UK and looking on the bright side. I got new clothes, I’m with my idol training privately, I’m safe, etc etc. But MOTHER FUCKER! How I didn’t LOSE MY SHIT I will never know. I think if it wasn’t for Logan looking after me and knowing where I was going, heads would have rolled.
Sigh.
A more positive post after I return from the Magic trip to the UK! <3
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