I love living in Maine, but the problem with relying on a small regional airport for your travel is you are dealing with a small maintenance crew. Unfortunately, a broken plane at a small regional airport means you are stuck until the plane is fixed or the flight is cancelled. There is no rescue plane, or spare part or much of any hope. Fortunately, about 2.5 hours later the issue was fixed and we left and landed in Philadelphia 3 hours late…. or 5 minutes after the last flight to Cincinnati for 9 hours!

Sounds like Hell, right? Truthfully while it was physically exhausting my brain kind of enjoyed it. I had a pleasant day and arrived in Cincinnati a little tired, but in fairly decent shape and not smelling! I also did not spend too much money at the airport. Let me explain how one can turn a 9-hour delay into a decent day!

 

Don’t be in a Rush and Stay Calm

9 hours is a long time, but if a plane is broken…a plane is broken. Would you prefer it to crash? The customer service reps in Portland, ME were genuinely nice and kept us updated which helped. I knew yelling at them would not magically fix the plane or motivate American Airlines to add an additional late morning flight to Cincinnati. It was what it was. What was the worst-case scenario, I miss work? 😊. Being angry wastes a lot of energy and it wasn’t necessary.

Worst Case Scenario: Your Vacation is Ruined!

Fair point! I still prefer a day less wherever I am going than a crashed plane. However, many credit cards provide trip interruption/delay insurance. While that doesn’t give you back your time, I knew anything I purchased at the airport today will likely be reimbursed as my delay was over 6 hours (a common minimum requirement for delay insurance). While time might be loss, your money can easily be recovered.

59 Dollars for All You Can Eat (Shitty) Food and Drinks

This might shock you, but I don’t always have lounge access. Currently I only have a Priority Pass Lounge membership which is a network of private lounges. They do not have a location in Philadelphia. American Airlines has several and while I do not have a membership or the right credit card for the AA Admirals Lounge, I did have 59 dollars for a one-day pass. Fifty-nine dollars sounds like a lot, but 9 hours of comfort, food, coffee and a place to work sounded nice. That works out to 12(ish) dollars an hour for all of that, which was a worthwhile investment as I got work done and was very comfortable for a good part of the day.

Shower

Do your research in these situations. One of the worst parts of a long travel day is the body can only handle so much before it develops an abhorrent odor. This would cause anxiety, particularly to us gay men as what if a flight attendant is cute or we have a handsome seatmate? No one wants a stinker! Sometimes lounges have showers. Unfortunately, mine did not. However, Philadelphia Airport has a thing called Minute Suites. It is a lounge of sorts, but instead of your standard shared open space with food and drinks it is a series of private rooms with couches to relax in. They also have shower suites. It cost 10 dollars for a shower. It was lovely and easily worth it. (If you are counting, I have spent 69 dollars so far)

Dinner

After my shower I decided to walk to the other side of the airport as my (eventual) flight to Cincinnati would be leaving from the far terminal F. The airport provides a shuttle between terminals, but what was my rush? American Airlines has a lounge in F as well and I was hoping the food options would be superior to that of the Terminal C lounge. Unfortunately, that was not the case as lounges in the United States offer food that only survivors of a zombie apocalypse would call tasty or nourishing. However, at that point I realized I had not received any meal vouchers despite being delayed all day over a mechanical issue. Another benefit of the lounge is there is easier access to airline customer service representatives, and I asked them about a voucher. She smiled and printed out a 12-dollar meal voucher I could use at the airport…. imagine if I wasn’t in the lounge all day, 12-dollars would not get me very far and I easily would have spent more money purchasing coffee, water and meals. I used the 12 bucks to get a pizza and a drink before my flight.

Lessons Learned

Airline delays happen and while I know it is stressful, there are ways to mitigate the negative experience while waiting for your flight to depart. I spent a grand total of 69 dollars for 9 hours of lounge access and a shower. Imagine how much I would have spent if I just sat in the terminal all day ordering Starbucks coffee and having lunch and dinner at the restaurants. Lunch was free in the lounge and because I snacked all day, the 12-dollar voucher was enough for a small diner. I finally arrived in Cincinnati 15 hours after I left my house in the morning feeling fairly decent due to my shower. I am also weird and actually enjoyed my day, I love the airport! An entire day where there were no expectations from me, no chores to be completed and everyone left me alone.

How would you spend 9 hours at the airport?

Bon Voyage,

Andrew