Ireland Trip Day One

We had an adventure yesterday. The plan was to fly up to Boston and take a connecting flight to Dublin. Well. We made it to Boston. Eventually. The one hour flight out of Philadelphia ended by being delayed five times. When we finally flew out of Philadelphia at 8p, we could only hope the 9p connecting flight to Dublin was also delayed. We missed the Dublin flight by 30 minutes which prompted a rebooking on the next available flight which is tonight at 6p.


After we flew into Boston, the airline "Jet Blue" could not find our bags. Hmmm. Maybe they could not find the bags because they were suppose to be transferred to the "Aer Lingus" flight to Dublin. After some searching, the bags were located out on a transport to "nowhere" because that Dublin flight left without us and the bags. We finally retrieved them, found an information desk who found us a hotel to place our very weary bones for the night. Our day started at 1p and ended at 11p. Ten hours for a one hour flight. Go Figure.


Over rainy weather.


That impacted the entire Northeastern coast.


If we were thirty minutes earlier in our arrival in Boston, we would be in Dublin right now.


We were not alone in the "missed connecting flight and lost baggage department". Folks missed their connecting flights to Berlin, Amsterdam and Finland. The hotels at the airport filled up quickly and some had to resort to sleeping in the airport itself. We got one of two rooms left. It helps to be proactive as that was the first thing I did when I found out we missed the connecting flight. We stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott and the room is large, clean and comfortable. If we do get stuck with the bill, it is a fair price of 149 dollars per night that includes shuttle to and from the terminal. I think 149 dollars is very cheap for a four star hotel.


My grandson told me, "just roll with it". They were the most intelligent words I heard all day. He is also very observant as he watched folks board the flight before our flight and recognized you could use your cell phone to download your boarding pass and have the boarding pass scanned from the phone. Cool.


Next time I travel any length of time abroad, I am going to do my very best in packing a carry on bag as oppose to checking a bag in because had we not checked in our bags, we would have been freer to hop on another flight easily. Lesson Learned.


In a nut shell, we lost an entire day in Ireland. We will cut out a day in Dublin therefore reservations/plans for Donegal and County Mayo will remain the same.


Hope all those other folks who missed connecting flights were able to revise their travel plans. I know we were up at 530a calling the hotel in Dublin and making new arrangements for our rental car.


Everything is a day late. We lost some money. The airlines are telling us the other airline needs to compensate us. This ought to be interesting as "Jet Blue" is blaming "Aer Lingus" and "Aer Lingus is blaming Jet Blue".


Actually, the weather is to blame and we cannot fight Mother Nature.