Seattle to London, June 29, 2005
I was so elated to be on my way to one of my favorite cities (London) to cover the Live 8 concert for @U2.
My colleagues at Nordy’s thought I was insane to be going to Europe “for the weekend” but I didn’t have much vacation time (or money), so even just a few days would make it worth it.
I had been a volunteer for the ONE campaign as long as it had existed, and my two favorite bands, The Beatles (well, Macca at least) and U2 were going to open the concert that would ignite the Make Poverty History movement on a global scale. We were all on a mission to finish what was started by Live Aid in 1985.
I changed into my @U2 staff shirt at work that morning in Seattle—I went in for half a day with my Joshua Tree backpack at my side, determined to stay focused for at least a few hours. I’m not sure I was too successful.
Everyone stopped by my desk to wish me a safe trip and share how jealous they were that I was going to have that experience. I was beaming with pride and excitement.
I took the bus to the airport that afternoon and settled in to read my magazine and nibble on pizza as I awaited my flight to JFK.
About half an hour before my flight was scheduled to board, I made my way into the terminal and learned we were delayed an hour. One of our flight attendants had called in sick and they were tracking down her replacement.
No worries – my layover for catching the Heathrow flight was about 2.5 hours, so I would still safely make it.
Or so I thought.
After two hours and a fair dose of panic from several of us passengers with connecting flights, we were told they could not locate a replacement crew member and our flight would be cancelled. Needless to say, I was very unhappy with American Airlines that night.
We were sent down to the ticketing counter for re-booking as it was certain all of the international connections would be lost. We were, in fact, the last red eye leaving the city.
After a frustrating 90 minutes in line and then at the desk, a very sweet agent (if only I had gotten her name) re-booked me for a flight via Vancouver, BC that left at 6:00 a.m. I wanted to hug her.
I took my food voucher, my hotel voucher for a shady hotel across the street from the airport and I was on my way.
I thought I’d seen the worst of it.