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Day 36. We were SO excited to have a mid-morning departure to Paris. We were all packed. Picked up an extra bottle of Irish Whiskey in the airport (post security) and found our way to the lounge. We had some coffee and headed to the gate with about 45 minutes to boarding.

The inbound flight was delayed but no big deal. Even though the plane was an Airbus 321-neo (one of the newest in the fleet) we had to walk down the ramp and climb up mobile stairs. No big deal, we used to do that all the time in the middle east—for a Boeing 777.

After seating we waited. And waited. And waited. The captain announced that there was a small mechanical issue they were looking at. That’s not good. If you go back to Day 1, you’ll see our air travel experience has not been the best.

After 2 hours, the captain announced that the aircraft was being taken out of service. Being the seasoned air traveler that I am, I immediately called Air Lingus to rebook on the next flight. At first they said I couldn’t book a new flight until the one I was on landed. I’m looking around and saying “we never took off!” After a while, we were put on the 3:30PM departure. Great.

Back to the lounge we go and as we checked in we find that our departure was changed to “systematically” 1:30 on the next day. To make a very long day and many lengthy discussions shorter, I found a nice person who bumped us up to business class and confirmed us for the Sunday 9:50 AM departure.

All in all, it was just a delay. The passengers on the plane blew us away. Everyone sat quietly chatting through the whole process. No shouting. No hysterics. Just pleasant humanity.

Air Lingus did everything they could for us; we have no status with them so expected nothing. They provided a hotel (see photo below), 3 meals, and transportation to and from the hotel. We were wiped out so when we asked for our dinner to be “take away,” they put everything on a tray and off we went to our room.

We’re supposed to be on the Sunday 9:50AM departure. Fingers crossed because the online booking system is showing something different.

Hopefully, tomorrow’s post will include some iconic Paris photos. If not, it’ll be another hotel room shot.