Last week Bibi and I traveled to Florida for a 3-day seminar put on by Suzanne Evans.
We started the morning at 5am and arrived at the airport to see about 100 people standing in the doorway of the airline we were taking. An airline employee noticed our bewildered looks and came over to us and explained that our 7am flight was postponed until 12:30 and instructed us to stand in line so that we could get re-routed.
This process took almost 2 hours and we ended up with a later connection getting us in about 3 hours later than we were originally supposed to arrive.
At this point, several people were beside themselves. Their stress was getting the best of them even though there was nothing they could do about it. I have never understood why people yell at the employees trying to help them. I mean do they really believe the employees are not telling them about a flight available just to piss them off? I realize not everyone is as fortunate as I am in regards to still being able to work/get paid during this waiting time. Regardless why do people stress about things beyond their control? Does it make them feel better? Does it get them any special treatment? Do the airport employees really have extra seats on other flights they only give to irate people?
Since Bibi and I had already prepared our staff and informed our one-on-one clients that we would not be available the entire day, we made the best of it! I was delighted to find a Best Buy kiosk in our terminal where I was able to buy some Easter gifts and some other things for myself that I hadn’t had time to get. Feeling very satisfied with my purchases, I turned around and to my delight there was a Gladstone’s restaurant right in front of me! Seriously, when did Gladstone’s go into airport terminals? I really need to start flying more often!
This mini vacation just kept getting better and better. A Gladstone’s Bloody Mary and a delicious omelette were a filling alternative to the huge bowl of nothing that I had originally planned for breakfast.
Our flight ended up being delayed for an additional 2 hours, by this time the people were going berserk, and for what? What good did it do them the last time?
During lunch the airline employee I mentioned earlier found us in the restaurant and told us not to worry about checking on our flight status because he would notify us personally when our flight was boarding, so we were able to enjoy our lunch without worrying about missing our flight!
Hmmmm…seems like we got better treatment than the irate people.
Stress is something none of us will avoid for a lifetime but why stress when things are beyond your control? You need to deal with the situation, not stress about it. When you can control the things stressing you out is when you should think why does this happen and what can I do to resolve it?