Never Take NO for an Answer

We found ourselves amid 200 frustrated travelers in the check-in line at Orlando International Airport as the announcement unceremoniously came that our departing flight to Los Angeles LAX was cancelled. The crowd angrily began complaining and speculating about the cause of the delay and subsequent cancellation. How could it be possible that Hurrican Earl who was well offshore of Florida and on its way up the coast to make landfall somewhere north of North Carolina be affecting flights? - heck, there was hardly even a breeze outside in sunny Orlando.

The check-in line came to a screeching halt as airline clerks switched gears from checking luggage to checking alternate flights. The news was grim as this was the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and most other flights were booked. An airline employee made his way through the line and rudely advised people to attempt to call United's reservation department on their own to seek other arrangements. It was interesting to watch the entire line pull out their phones and simultaneously call the reservation line. I pictured the phones in some distant call center come to life. My girlfriend joined in the call fest to United, but I took a different approach. I called the service number for Expedia since that is who we booked through. While the masses held waiting to get a United agent, I was connected almost immediately to a very helpful agent at Expedia; however 45 minutes on the phone with her yielded almost nothing. The Expedia agent was hung up on the fact that she had to switch me to a United Affiliate airline. I repeatedly explained to her that we should explore other options with other airlines. With an apologetic tone and defeat in her voice, she finally informed me that we would not be leaving Orlando that night as all flights to LAX were sold out - even in first class. Her best option for us was to fly out the next morning at 11am, connect thru Washington Dulles and arrive in LAX at 5:50pm on Friday. Well, flying to where the hurricane was headed and losing a day in California were not acceptable options to us. I repeatedly thought "there is no way there are no other options - this is Orlando and we are going to LA - two of the biggest, busiest cities in the country". It's not like we were trying to fly out of the small airport in Daytona. "There MUST be a way" I thought with resolve.

Lea had no luck on the phone with United, nor did many of the people around us in line. I decided to take a walk through the terminal. I paid attention to conversations around me and overheard rumors of a US Air flight leaving in two hours connecting thru Phoenix into Ontario - Ontario, CA - why the heck would we want to go to Canada? Well, much to my delight it turned out that Ontario, CA is a small airport in Orange County, California - only a 45 minute drive from our hotel in Dana Point. I quickly returned to join Lea in line until we finally got our turn with the frazzled clerk who was obviously having a stressful day dealing with a lot of disgruntled passengers. I greeted him with a smile - and a suggestion - within minutes, we had transfers in our hands and were on our way down to the US Air ticket counter with a bigger smile on our faces. The scene at the US Air ticket counter was tranquil and pleasant - quite contraire to the fiasco at United. We literally walked right up to the counter, handed our transfers to a very courteous clerk who checked our bag (and even let the fact it was 7 pounds overweight slide). We swapped smiles and thanked him for his prompt, friendly service - and just like that we were on our way to Cali.

We took the liberty of returning to the United line to direct several other people to follow our lead. We ended up with some grateful travel buddies. The flights were pleasant, comfortable (I even got exit-row seating) and on time. However, there were concerns from some of the passengers that we may not be able to get ground transportation in the small Ontario airport as all of the rental car companies closed at midnight and we didn't even arrive until 11:53. I stayed positive and ignored the naysayers - I pictured us driving through the hills of Orange County with the Santa Anna breeze blowing in the windows.

We got our luggage at baggage claim swiftly, caught a shuttle to the off-site car rental terminal (along with our travel buddies) and found three car companies were still open - Avis, Budget and Hertz. Since we were on a tight budget, "Budget" seemed to be the natural choice, but we were a little taken-aback as the clerk changed the price on us last minute when he finally realized we were returning the car to LAX instead of Ontario. I almost sucked it up and took the deal, happy to just be getting a car after midnight, but Lea decided not to settle this time as she made her way to the Avis counter. We quickly found out that "Budget" was not the best option for our budget as we scored an awesome deal on a car for about 1/3 of the price! She also announced the deal to our travel buddies who were in the process of arguing with the Hertz clerk about transferring their previous reservation from LAX. They quickly pulled the plug on that deal and thanked us for also saving them the hassel at Hertz (as well as a bunch of money)!

We laughed for a few minutes as we parted company with our travel buddies. Six hours prior, all of us had been told multiple times by clerks and phone reservation agents that it would not be possible to get to Los Angeles tonight. For those of us who would not take NO for an answer, we proved that with positive spirit and manifestation, anything could be possible. We smiled, thanked the Universe and drove off toward the PCH.