A Travel Crisis in North Carolina that Somehow Ended Very Well for Me
When I first set up Scientist World Traveller on Substack a few months ago to showcase the details of my international travel while in pursuit of my academic research interests, I did so with the hope to encourage other people to see for themselves the fascinating places worldwide that I’ve been privileged to visit over the years. Besides that, another major goal of mine is to promote the importance of achieving a state of “stress-free travel” no matter where I go to ensure that I have the best possible travel experiences throughout my entire journey.
While it’s true that the idea of having an “absolutely stress-free” travel experience from a medical standpoint is a practical impossibility under any circumstance, what I do know from my many years of international travel is that it’s certainly possible to minimize the stress level substantially through thoughtful advanced planning about every major aspect of my travel itinerary, even where it concerns places that I’ve never been before. In so doing, I’ve gained invaluable insights on how to avoid potentially stressful situations in my travel, which make for an overall enjoyable experience that’s effectively “stress-free” compared to what other people might bear under similar external conditions.
Nonetheless, there’s always the possibility of facing an unforeseen situation to arise in the midst of a travel itinerary that you have no choice but to deal with in the moment. This is particularly true when visiting a place that’s completely unknown to you. How that undeniably stressful encounter is best handled can make all the difference in your well-being for the remainder of your travel.
I literally just returned from a three-week international trip that took me first to the United Kingdom, followed by the Netherlands, and then the United States before I finally returned home to Canada. In the months ahead, I look forward to sharing with you all aspects of my visit to these countries in Scientist World Traveller, for which I have many fascinating details to share.
Even when factoring that I was sick with a head cold while in the Netherlands that interfered with some of my travel objectives during that time, for the most part the entire trip from start to finish went as smoothly as I could have expected—but with one important exception that I want to write about now. This occurred just a week ago when I was taking a late flight from Virginia to North Carolina, in which I was to encounter a potential travel nightmare along the way.
What Happens When a Late Flight is Delayed into the Early Morning and You Have No Idea What’s Going On?
On April 11, 2025, I was scheduled to fly from Charlottesville, Virginia on American Airlines flight 5940 to Charlotte, North Carolina departing at 8:14 pm with a connection to the capital city of Raleigh departing at 10:58 pm on American Airlines flight 494. According to the itinerary, I was scheduled to arrive at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) at just before midnight before taking a taxi to my airport hotel for the night.
While there was a roughly half-hour weather delay in the departure to Charlotte, I didn’t suspect that it would result in my missing my connection to Raleigh, given a flight time of just under 90 minutes and ample time to spare. Although I haven’t been to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) before, my natural assumption was that the airport isn’t much different than RDU—an airport that I frequented multiple times—in terms of navigating around easily. If anything, I thought that American Airlines would delay the connecting flight just long enough for my incoming flight to arrive and allow passengers to meet their connection. Nonetheless, the flight attendant gave us an announcement to proceed to the American Airlines Customer Service desk in the event that our scheduled flights were cancelled or delayed.
When my flight finally landed in Charlotte at just past 10:30 pm with most of the passengers rushing out fast in the hopes of making their connecting flights, I was to soon discover on the electronic signboard that my connecting flight to Raleigh was delayed to the next morning at 5:00 am. While it was good news that the delay was not very long, it was still long enough to make life uncomfortable enough for me to justify the use of an airport hotel for the night. With that in mind, I proceeded to the Customer Service desk to seek assistance and receive a hotel voucher in preparation for my connecting flight.
When I eventually saw this already huge line of tired and weary passengers coming from multiple American Airlines flights seeking out services from a desk with only two employees present to handle this huge volume of people, I realized immediately that a travel nightmare was about to begin for me. Furthermore, there were no other American Airlines employees stationed anywhere else in the airport to handle pertinent questions from passengers about this delay. All that aside, I saw no choice but to proceeded towards the back of the line in the unrealistic hope that it would move quickly.
However, once I finally arrived a new horrifying thought entered my head: “What’s going to happen to my checked luggage if I’m stuck in this line and they’ve been taken to baggage claim where they risk getting stolen?” My rationale for this worry came from past experience with the Canadian airline WestJet, in which I learned that it’s the policy in Canada to have passengers pick up their checked luggage beforehand if there’s a scheduled stopover that carries over into the next day. While my current situation with American Airlines is different in that this delay was unscheduled, I made the assumption that a similar luggage policy was in effect. Therefore, I made the fateful decision to leave the secure section of the airport, escape the nightmarishly long passenger line for Customer Service, and head immediately towards baggage claim to look for my two pieces of checked luggage.
How the Kindness of Strangers Transformed My Travel Nightmare into a Comfortable Experience Overall
Once I arrived at baggage claim only to discover that my two pieces of luggage were nowhere to be seen, I was definitely becoming more agitated with the lack of any sense of knowing what’s going on. By this time, I was definitely in a stressful state compared to when I just arrived in Charlotte. Nonetheless, the first thing I did was to approach a baggage handler working the carousel. He told me that my luggage would not be released to baggage claim if they’re tagged to my final destination and suggested that I go to the American Airlines baggage claim office nearby to inquire further. While there was also a line of passengers waiting when I arrived there, it was an extremely short one compared to the nightmare line I saw waiting for hotel vouchers.
Once my turn came to inquire about my situation, I encountered a very friendly and helpful American Airlines employee who verified that my luggage was safely secured within their tracking system. I then asked him about getting a hotel voucher or compensation for a delay that was caused by American Airlines, given that I already stepped out of the secure section of the airport and that I saw no way to re-enter. Since it was well past 11:00 pm by this time, the American Airlines Customer Service desk in the departure section was already closed. What was I to do?
At this point, the baggage claim employee I dealt with suggested that I contact the American Airlines phone support and even kindly let me use their office phone to make the call, since I was having problems connecting to U.S. phone numbers with my current smart phone. When I finally was able to speak with an agent on the line, she was very helpful to navigate me to make an online complaint with American Airlines using my smart phone with a request for compensation. This is in lieu of the pre-arranged hotel voucher that I was no longer able to access in the way that American Airlines had organized for its passengers. However, she did indicate that the airline cannot guarantee that it would honour the total expenses incurred by me after all receipts are finally submitted to complete the claim form. From my perspective, though, I had no time to worry about this issue compared to just simply figuring out how to get through this travel crisis with everything intact.
Once this phone call was concluded and I knew that my belongings were secure with American Airlines, the next step was to find an airport hotel as quickly as posssible to get myself settled. By this time, it was getting well past 11:30 pm and I was definitely getting more fatigued with the stress of figuring out what to do next. However, I saw a path forward and decided to go to the arrivals section and simply wait for the next available shuttle bus to take me to any suitable airport hotel nearby.
I was probably waiting for about five minutes when this white van from Embassy Suites by Hilton Charlotte, 4800 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28217 pulled up to drop off its passengers and receive its scheduled guests from the airport. Since I was obviously not among the people expected to be picked up, I approached the driver named Rodney to ask if I may still join them given the circumstances I faced. He told me that the hotels he serviced on his route were all booked up, but also added that: “I will help you out.” With this promise in hand, I was invited to enter the front passenger seat of the van. While driving to his first drop-off destination, he proceeded to call the desk staff of the Embassy Suites with a request to give me a reduced rate for my hotel stay, and then reassured me afterwards not to worry anymore.
By the time I arrived at the front desk, it was about 12:10 am on April 12. The woman I spoke with was also very helpful and she proceeded to check me in for one of the available suites. She also very kindly gave me a gift bag with bottled water and some snack food to utilize between my arrival and when I would need to meet with Rodney at 2:55 am for the shuttle ride back to the airport.
Given that I had only roughly 2-1/2 hours of down time in the hotel suite, there was no way that I could afford to get any sleep and run the risk of missing my window to return to the airport on time for my 5:00 am flight to Raleigh. However, with the gift bag I was able to make some coffee and have something to eat.
Most importantly for me, though, was that I was finally able to have a long hot shower to relax my muscles and refresh myself for the rest of the morning. As well, I was able to make a long distance phone call to my intended airport hotel in Raleigh to notify the staff of my situation and that I planned to eventually show up for the remainder of my time, since I had already prepaid for the room. The man I spoke with also assured me not to worry, and so I knew that once I would finally arrive in Raleigh I would have some time left before checkout at 11:00 am to get some sleep and refresh myself for the rest of my day.
Once I had gotten myself refreshed in my suite, I decided to spend some time taking photos of the hotel space and happened to speak with a security guard on duty who inquired about what I was doing. After explaining myself and that I was planning to put together this article about my travel crisis now averted, we struck up a conversation about his experience of constantly seeing passengers like myself forced into this type of disruption.
His thought was that American Airlines would do itself a lot of good by having its employees already waiting by each of the gates with hotel vouchers in hand to give to its passengers, so as to substantially reduce the congestion that bottlenecks the whole process, especially when faced with processing so many people with only two employees stationed in Customer Service. I completely agree with his assessment.
I also think that—notwithstanding the positive and professional experiences I had with the individual American Airlines employees with whom I interacted—the airline would be wise to thoroughly reassess its entire operational procedures when dealing with a large number of flight delays. In particular, they should determine how to best help their passengers avoid wasting precious time in line when they could focus their attention on moving forward in their specific travel objectives to further minimize their overall stress level.
It was sometime just before 2:00 am when the security guard and I saw a large group of American Airlines passengers arrive from the airport, most likely part of the same line that I avoided when I took my unintentionally different path to figure out how to cope with the delay in my connecting flight. Though the possible price for me to pay is that I may not get full compensation for my out-of-pocket expenses for securing my hotel suite for the 2-1/2 hours I was there, I think that I came out far ahead in terms of the extra time savings, reduced stress, and overall comfort I gained from not having to wait in line for a hotel voucher from American Airlines.
The Ride Back to Charlotte Airport for my Connecting Flight to Raleigh
Finally, after checking out of the hotel I was waiting by myself for Rodney to return from his latest shuttle run to take me back to the Charlotte airport in preparation for my connecting flight to Raleigh. I was the only one who needed the ride, so I had a chance to personally thank him for the extra effort he made on my behalf when he really had no obligation to help me. I greatly appreciated his humanity during a time of need, along with the other employees from Embassy Suites by Hilton Charlotte and American Airlines who helped me when I needed their assistance to navigate through this travel crisis with a minimum of frustration and distress.
Once I arrived at the airport, I proceeded to get myself a new boarding pass from the American Airlines main desk and then waited until 3:30 am for the airport security to open up so that I may pass through the screening and wait by my gate to board the flight to Raleigh at 5:00 am.
Arrival at RDU and My Airport Hotel to Finally Get Some Sleep!
The actual flight took less than an hour to complete. Once I finally arrived at my intended destination at RDU just before 6:00 am, I immediately proceeded to recover my two pieces of luggage and then eventually called up the shuttle bus for my scheduled airport hotel. That would be Quality Inn & Suites Raleigh Durham Airport, 1001 Aerial Center Parkway, Morrisville, NC 27560 to have an early breakfast after checking in, followed by a few hours of much-needed sleep before I checked out at 11:00 am in preparation for the rest of my day in Raleigh as originally intended.
In retrospect, it was fortunate that I was able to finally arrive in Raleigh more or less as I had planned, albeit with a major potential catastrophe averted in the process. This situation could have ended very badly for me if certain factors didn’t work in my favour. Most notably, the final days of my three-week trip now dedicated to North Carolina could have easily been ruined in the process, which thankfully didn’t occur. For myself, one thing that I could anticipate doing for a future situation like this is to have a clean change of clothing in my personal bag to be even more refreshed than I was while in Charlotte. Aside from that, I think the biggest lesson to take with the whole experience is to remain calm and make use of all available tools at my disposal to effect a positive outcome from a potentially very bad situation.
The Story is Still Not Yet Over
While this for me remains a happy memory despite the obvious stress that occurred in the middle of the night in Charlotte, North Carolina, there remains an outstanding issue to address—that being the compensation from American Airlines that I should receive for having to go out-of-pocket for staying at an unscheduled hotel for a grand total of 2-1/2 hours! Therefore, I encourage you to keep watch for this story as it unfolds and I will write an update in the days and weeks ahead once I know the outcome of the complaint process with American Airlines, so stay tuned!
Postscript: An Invitation to Become a Paid Subscriber to Scientist World Traveller
For those of you who became my first free subscribers to Scientist World Traveller when I first launched this Substack page on January 17, 2025, I thank you very much for joining me on this journey to showcase my international travel experiences and promote understanding of other cultures worldwide. I also want to thank every other free subscriber who has agreed to join this page over the course of time.
My mission with Scientist World Traveller is to become a recognized resource for all people, regardless of their social or economic standing, to gain whatever benefits I’m able to offer those who support the concept of “stress-free travel” as a goal to aspire towards.
If you think that you’re in a position to financially support my writing in terms of a month-to-month subscription, an annual subscription with the benefit of getting a two-month discount, or a founders subscription as a preferred supporter of my writing, I hope that you will make that possible for as long as you’re financially able to do so.
This financial support will certainly help me to sustainably produce what I think are thoughtful articles about my travel experiences that are actionable for helping supporters like you to achieve personal fulfillment through international travel. This in turn will also indirectly help people in the travel and tourism sector worldwide who can receive financial support from me as a show of gratitude for the hard work that they do to make my travel experiences as enjoyable as they are.
Regardless of this appeal for financial support, I remain committed to ensuring that at least 75% of all my travel writing will be free for everyone to read and share as a public service, including my feature articles and some specific targeted articles about travel advice to aid the public in their own travel endeavours. My commitment is to have in your inbox a delivery of one article every Friday at 12:00 pm CST, with a variety of travel-related topics to enjoy, including restaurant and hotel reviews, show events, and interesting travel and transportation topics not often explored.
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