Space A Home

Our flight out of Alaska did not go very well.  We had an early flight so we dropped off the rental car the night before and walked to the base airport (it was probably a 20 minute walk).  Actually we started walking but people kept stopping and asking to give us a ride that we gave in and let them drive us.

Unfortunately they only had six seats open on the plane, or at least that is what they said.  We tried to convince them to let Calista and Beatrix be lap children and not have seats, but they said no.  So Bob took the kids and Beatrix and I stayed behind.  I waited in the terminal for over an hour hoping something would happen and then I talked to the desk clerk to see if there was a chance a seat would open up.  He said no so I started walking to the hotel.  They said they didn't have any rooms available, but I was hopeful that if I just waited in their lobby something would open up.  

After Bob boarded the plane he saw that there were extra seats and asked if I could come on the flight.  They said yes and called the terminal looking for me.  I must have just left :(  When I found out about that I was pretty upset.  So Bob got to hang out with the kids and deal with jet leg without me.

 They even went to a cool space art party.

Beatrix and I sat in the lobby and eventually a room did open up!  I was grateful and we hung out in the room, where we both almost instantly fell asleep.  A friend who lives in Anchorage came and picked us up and took us to dinner.  It was really nice of her and I had fun!  Then back to HGTV.

I really should have enjoyed my almost kid free time, but I felt pretty upset the whole time about missing the flight and I was also stressed about getting on the next flight.  I didn't have a car and just walked a little bit around base, but mostly hung out in the hotel.  It was two days before the next flight to Japan, so not too long.  I'm glad it wasn't an indefinite amount of time.  I actually looked into just buying a commercial ticket, but there was nothing direct form Alaska.  Everything had one or more layovers and took 22-27 hours.  I didn't want to go through all that and decided to wait for the Space A flight.

Of course I slept horribly before the flight.  I had to be up at 4 am to pack up and walk to the airport and I was terrified of missing my alarm. 

 Beatrix and I made and and there was plenty of room on the plane. 

But too bad for us because after a couple hours of flying, they announced that the plane was turning back around and heading to anchorage!  I've never had that happen before.  But I guess when there is a mechanical issue and you are over the ocean you just go back.

After landing we were told we were going to switch planes in a couple hours.  Ok, that was a bummer, but not too bad.  But it got worse.  After switching planes we were all set to go.  We were just about to take off when another announcement came that there was an issue with the fuel line and we were going back.  I was so disappointed.  By that time it was 2:30 and too late in the day for them to try to fix it and still leave.  We were told to come back at 11 the next day.

Of course the hotel did not have room, so now there were about 15 of us on the flight all without a place to stay (the airport closes).  So I walked to the hotel lobby and waited again.  Rooms opened up!  Just before going to bed that night I saw on facebook that the flight time changed to 6am.  I called the terminal to confirm that was correct.  I was surprised that they weren't going to notify the passengers other then by posting the new flight time on facebook.  It wasn't even clear if the 6am flight was the same flight that was previously planned for 11.  I let the two people from my flight that I could message know (both of which didn't know) and had another sleepless flight.

One family didn't get the message and never showed up the morning, and two people gave up and bought commercial tickets.  One was the wife of a man who stayed on the Space A plan.

Too bad for them because the next flight worked out and we landed before the commercial ticket people did.

Here is Beatrix sleeping during the flight.

I was so happy that we finally made it home.  Although the weather was so much nicer in Alaska.

Wow, this was a long post.  Flying Space A is stressful!  But really, it would have cost us thousands so I regret nothing... ok, I do regret not staying at the airport for ten more minutes, but that is it.