The flight arrived in Newark around 4 a.m. Customs was much smoother and more polite than in India, even at that dark hour of the morning. I had to retrieve and re-check my non-carry-on, and of course my flight to KC was scheduled to depart from the farthest possible spot on the concourse. But I had some time, so no big deal.
Except it turned out I had a lot more time than I counted on. Bad weather back home delayed the flight. And then the KC-bound plane was up in the air and halfway home before they announced that KCI was closed, the flight was canceled, and we were going back to Newark. Plus we had to fly around aimlessly for another two hours to burn enough fuel to make the plane light enough to land.
After a long wait back in the airport, I finally got to talk to a United Airlines customer service clerk. She started by telling me, “You have a few options. First, we can fly you to Omaha today ...” and at that point I replied “Done. Omaha it is.”
So Omaha it was. One positive side effect of all this taking off and landing is that air travel now seems positively old hat and more than a little boring. So I’m hoping I won’t have any trouble with it in the future.
The flight arrived in the early evening. Of course my checked bag was still in Newark, so I filed the paperwork and got a taxi to the hotel I reserved online while still in New Jersey.
By the time I checked in, got China Express from Door Dash and finally settled in for the night, I’d been awake (other than dozing on the plane) for nearly 50 hours straight.
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