It Took You How Long to Get Home From Nashville…?!

My girlfriends and I had the BEST time in Nashville. I had high expectations and Nashville by far exceeded anything I had hoped for… Until we came home. It’s not easy to get from Western Canada to Nashville, but it should not take 30 hours to get from Nashville to Edmonton… You read that right! 30 Hours!

The series of events was so comical it was almost unbelievable so I had to share!

Our flight leaving Nashville was set to depart at 6 AM. This was our first mistake… Who books a flight out of NashVegas at 6 AM?! Somehow we drag our butts out of bed at 3:45 AM and make it to the airport (puke bag in hand!) to be told our flight was delayed by 5 hours for mechanical issues!!! (I feel like it’s important to note here we were told that we would miss our connection but once we departed they would find another flight to book us on and we weren’t going to be rebooked while we were still in Nashville. Yes this was a mistake, but it was 4 AM for crying out loud?!). We were in desperate need of some sleep so we found some couches tucked around a corner before security sleeping last nights ciders off.

We wake up around 10 AM and I checked the latest departure estimation and we were delayed by 7 hours!! We were so ready to get out of the airport because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Before we left we wanted to check in with the front desk so we wander along and ask the gentleman at the front desk to double check the time and he said “THE FLIGHT IS LEAVING… YOU BETTER GO!!”. So we book it the other way, through security, running down the hallway, and get to our gate…. And they aren’t even close to boarding.

Eventually we get on our flight from Nashville to Toronto, 5 hours and 3 minutes later. We get to Toronto, go through customs, and try to find our next flight but we got stuck from not having a boarding pass given to us in Nashville! The airport security finally let us through after we could prove we were flying out of Toronto and we head to the customer service desk. She said it was going to be a tight squeeze but was going to get us on the next flight from Toronto to Edmonton.

We take some time to finally go get some lunch, grab a coffee, and then head to the gate. We get called over the speaker so we go up to the desk… There was a weight bearing issue causing weight balance issue on the plane so they have to carry extra fuel meaning they can’t get us on the flight. We are delayed… Again.

The only other flight out of Toronto to Edmonton that day was massively overbooked so they gave us a new option. We were flying from Toronto to Ottawa to Edmonton getting in around midnight (about 9 hours later then original).

Luckily the flight to Ottawa was leaving right away so we go to the next gate, board the plane, and things are looking great! We pull away from the gate in the airplane… Aaaaaaand there was an issue with the engine. We had to turn around. This was the third plane in one day that we were supposed to be on with mechanical issues!!

We go back to the gate, get maintenance to check the plane, but the crew gate had left so we had to wait for them to come back. By the time it was all said and done we were delayed an hour and a half from Toronto to Ottawa. We knew we would be cutting it close but were hoping they would hold the plane as there was almost a dozen of us being routed to Edmonton. But with our luck when we got to Ottawa the plane had left… And it was the last plane out for the night.

So we’re stuck in Ottawa for the night. They originally had us booked to leave Ottawa the next night but we just wanted to get home (not to mention I was supposed to be working the next day!!). It took some time but we worked with the airline and they could route us through Montreal and then finally back to Edmonton the following morning.

The airline hooked us up with a hotel for the night nearby, but it had no restaurant in it or nearby. So we eat some airport food before going to the hotel to crash for the night. We get up the following morning at 4 AM (2 AM Edmonton time!), catch our flight from Ottawa to Montreal before finally catching our final (delayed – by 40 minutes) flight from Montreal to Edmonton. We got in at almost Noon… Thats 21 hours later than we were supposed to!

So… 30 hours of travel (21 hours later than planned), 5 airports, and 3 mechanical failures later we were home. Isn’t that wild?! I have had some bad travel experiences but nothing like this.

What was your craziest travel story?! I’d love to hear about it!

Thanks for joining. Until next time..