Yikes - one year ago today, I was caught in one of my travel nightmares (a thread): for whatever reason, Uber and Lyft had ZERO drivers available to take me to the airport for a work trip to Hawaii. My work trip was going to dovetail into Star Wars Celebration so I had 2 bags...

Two very full bags for over a week’s worth of travel - work + vacation clothes + costume pieces I still needed to finish.

Because ride shares weren’t responding, I had to bite the bullet and speed to the airport and park knowing I’d have a $120+ fee to pay when I got back...

...from Celebration. My flight was at 8:00 AM so I knew I had to drop my bags by 7:15 AM to get them checked in time to get them on my plane. By the time I decided to drive, it was 6:43 AM and the airport was 30 min away. I parked at 7:08 AM and ran to the kiosk...

... with 2 massive bags, a carry-on, and backpack. Naturally, the kiosks to check bags were malfunctioning so the lines were absurdly long. I’d already paid the money to check the bags the night before, I just needed to print the stickers. Made it to the kiosk at 7:15 AM sharp...

...but of course, they’d already cut off the checked bags for my flight

Ran to the special services desk, and the person in front of me spent 10 minutes arguing with the airline rep. When I finally make it to the desk, she grabs my bags and tells me to run to my gate...

...but she can’t guarantee both bags will make it in time. Also she reminds me to allow extra time in airports when I have to fly and I’m so stressed I just yell “I KNOW, I KNOW” over my shoulder. I fly all the time, for eff’s sake, this never happens.

One of the downsides of having a fragile Fett helmet with metal ears is you can’t trust the baggage handlers to keep it safe. To ensure max safety, I end up taking it on the plane in my small carry-on. Welp, guess what. As soon as I make it to the TSA checkpoint...

...it sets off their alarms and the TSA guards are staring at me panting & sweaty like I’m DEFINITELY trying to pull something on the plane. When the helmet gets pulled out of the bag for inspection, I get to explain to them (still panting) what it is before they let me run off.

I was flying United out of Dulles, which, when you have to rush to make your flight, is the worst airline in one of the worst airports to fly, cause you have to ride a transport to one of the farthest terminals. I made it with 4 minutes to spare before the gate closed.

I’m finally able to catch a breath, and when I land at LAX for my 4-hour layover, I see that only one of my bags made it on the flight. Not sure which bag it was but one bag had work clothes and toiletries and the other didn’t. I had to wait until I got to Hawaii to find out...

Of course, I get to Hawaii, and my vacation clothes bag is the one on my plane. Thankfully the next plane it was on was only 2 hours behind mine, so I decided to stick out the wait so I could have both bags with me at the hotel.

So glad I had Celebration to look forward to at the other end of that work trip, and yes I was in Hawaii, but I spent a total of 30 minutes on the beach for the next 2.5 days. Travel nightmares = my least favorite kind of nightmare I’ve lived.

Hope you enjoyed the read!