Miracle of Flight Delay

Elisa is asleep in the back seat as Yang is driving me to the airport to catch my 3:35pm flight to Singapore. I’m running a bit late but not too late until we hit a traffic jam at the airport expressway. Traffic jams on the airport expressway are not too uncommon as police often escort third level diplomats from third world countries. The delays tend to be brief and traffic picks back up as soon as the diplomat passes by. In this case, however, cars were not moving. 10 minutes passed. Then 20. Yang calls he friend who works for the airline and he asked them extend the last check-in time to 2:40pm. But at 2:40pm we were still 5K away from the terminal with traffic at a stand still. Some people in the cars behind us got out and started jogging or walking along the expressway. I would not have been able to make it by 2:40pm if I ran so I stayed put.

2:40pm came and went and we started checking for alternative flight times. The next likely flight I would be able to take would be at 11:30pm which would not be the end of the world but approaching it. We finally saw the cause of the delay, a nasty accident between a taxi and a car right at the off ramp to the terminal. Elisa was now sitting up in the back seat, sans seat belt. Once we passed the accident it was smooth sailing to the terminal. The downside was it was 3:30pm with no way to catch my 3:35pm flight.

I had been checking the flight status since we got caught in traffic and the flight always showed “on time”. As Yang pulled up to the terminal I checked one more time and saw, “delayed until 4:45pm”. Woo hoo. Life is good. I raced into the terminal, found the counter, and checked in.

The transformation in mood was amazing. Nothing could bother me at that point. Not the fact that I had to share the airport terminal train with 100 Korean school children, not the middle age woman who walked right by the me in line for security check, not even that the flight was further delayed by two hours.