Okay, so before I began, let’s just point out that this was my 5th international flight and you would think I have never flown before based on my current situation of having made it to France without a single useful item in my carry-on.
So let’s start at the beginning .Yesterday was the first time we actually got snow and of course the one time it actually snows just happens to be the day I booked my flight to go back to France. The snow died down by noon but there was still a chance of my flight being delayed. My carry-on suitcase wasn’t that well prepared but I thought, hey I should be in Lyon by noon so I really don’t need to worry about it.
I get to the gate an hour before boarding. The snow had stopped and the plane was already there. So I thought I had absolutely nothing to worry about for making my connecting flight to Lyon.
Boarding time approaches and they make an announcement that the crew is still cleaning so it will only be about another 20 minutes. 20 minutes goes by. then 30. then 45. Then finally 1 hour later we board the flight.
Bad signs about this flight:
-The captain makes his FIRST announcement introducing himself and FORGETS what city we are going to. He literally said « um, wait where are we going again? oh yeah, Paris »
-He makes multiple announcements saying that we cannot take off until the runway is cleared of ice. The most concerning announcement was « uh just an update here, there is no update. The technicians are not communicating with us so I don’t know if they are still chipping away at ice on the wheels or what is the problem »
Then not even 1 minute later he makes another announcement saying oh I guess everything is fine we can start taxing now.
-And he literally forgot that we were going to Paris in EVERY announcement.
-Then they finally get the runway clear but they had to get to ice off the plane, which added another 20 minutes to our delay.
I’ve never in my life felt so unsure about a plane taking off.
We finally take off an hour and a half later. So our flight was delayed by 2 and a half hours. I knew by this point that there was no way I would be making my connecting flight. But it was fine, I accepted it because the flight attendants reassured us that Delta would be rescheduling those who have connecting flights and that there would be an AirFrance representative right when we got off the flight to help us figure everything out. The flight attendants even specified that we could checked Delta’s website during the flight to see our flight changes which never even posted any information on connecting flights or that our own flight was delayed.
Everything else on the flight went like any other international flight. So over 7 hours after take off, we land in Paris a little after 11. At this point, multiply passagers are flipping out over their connecting flights. We finally get off the plane and we find the AirFrance desk. We talk to them about these flights and it was literally like they had no clue that our flight was coming in. In fact, I am positive that there was ZERO communication between the 2 airlines. A lady tells me and 2 others to go to terminal 2F to go talk to other people about our flight. We walk over 10 minutes to get there just to be told that we need to go back to where we originally were in terminal 2E. So we go back there, and now a huge lined has formed from almost everyone that was on our Detroit flight because nobody made their connecting flights. We waited for an hour and a half in line and literally only moved 5 feet during that process. Someone tells me and this other guy that we can go back to terminal 2F because we were flying within France, and they could easily give us new boarding passes. We head back over there for the second time only to be giving new directions to go a whole new area in the way that we came by terminal E.
We wander around for the next hour or so before someone finally sends us to the AirFrance ticket office to get new boarding passes. We go there only for the guy to tell us that Delta had actually booked us on 2 other flights that we had no clue about and totally missed. He prints our boarding passes even though they don’t normally do that for reconnecting flights and sent us off to our terminal to get our bags straightened out so they would be on our new flights. We wait in line and get that done and the lady didn’t even charge me for my carry-on for putting in under with the rest of the suitcases on the flight.
After going through security again, we finally make it to our gates where I say goodbye to a friend I made through that torture that is the Charles de Gaulle airport. I get on my flight and besides being super hungry and dehydrated, I am actually not too pissed off about everything that just happened because I am just stoked to be back in France again. Plus the person I was with during this who time kept positive and we kept just making jokes about the whole situation. He didn’t speak French so I did all the translating for him so I was feeling pretty good about my French skills as well.
So I get to Lyon and I am pretty pumped about going to my Airbnb, especially after all that was over. I go to baggage claim to get my checked bag and then it turns out it never made it onto the flight to Lyon. It was still sitting there in Paris. Even worse I realized I have NOTHING of use in my carry-on. My suitcase is being sent to Grenoble as so I won’t be able to get it until Thursday anyways. So here’s a current list of what I brought with me.
Current contents of my carry-on:
7 scarves
phone and laptop changer
laptop
shampoo
chocolate
a book
eye make up
toothbrush
Movies
Things that I should have had in my suitcase in case of a situation like this:
CLOTHES
SOCKS
UNDERWEAR
TOOTHPASTE
FACEWASH
FOUNDATION
DEORDORANT
Unfortunately, I spent my first night in Lyon buy all of these things that one would logically have in there suitcase because I literally only had the clothes that I was wearing. So basically after these 24 hours of hell, I learned that one should always pack your carry-on suitcase well or you’ll be like me planning to wear the same jeans for 4 days straight.
alexisczajka 