Trials and Tribulations....



It's never easy to fly out of Buffalo in the winter, but this  time was a real struggle !  We were booked on Delta leaving a 9 am on Wednesday, February 7th.  On the afternoon of the 6th, we got an email canceling our flight...at the time, we were at Spectrum/Time Warner "cutting the cable", so all was not lost...

We went to the airport and spoke to several Delta agents.  One suggested that we fly out that night (the 6th) and spend the evening in the lovely JFK airport...been there, done that...no thanks.  They booked us on the 5:45 am flight on the 7th.  We got up at dark o'thirty and arrived at 4:15 am only to find that THAT flight had also been canceled !  Noooooooo !  The next available flight was to Laguardia at 11:20 am...we'd have to take a cab to JFK.  The Delta people were less than helpful...

We booked the flight, checked our bags and hoped for the best.  Unfortunately, Delta seemed to think that all of their morning flights would eventually be canceled, but they weren't sure when.

We walked over to the JetBlue counter and booked a flight to JFK leaving at 8 am...no problem !  Of course we had to pay the price for a same day/ last minute flight, but the agents there were very helpful and assured us that we would, indeed, be leaving Buffalo that morning.  We returned to Delta, retrieved our checked luggage, argued and finally got our money refunded, walked back to JetBlue and checked our bags...all before 6 am !

Since we had saved up air miles on American to fly business/first class, we were able to take advantage of the Admiral's Club at JFK.  What a treat after a stressful and early morning !

bottles and bottles of champagne !


a beautiful lounge experience...lots of food, and open, self service full bar...peace and quiet...













happy, happy, happy !


But wait, there's more....

After spending a wonderful, relaxing day in the Admiral's Club, we boarded our 6 pm flight and waited for takeoff...and waited...and waited....

Apparently, the ventilation/a.c. system wasn't working.  An hour later, a mechanic came aboard (with a paperclip ???) and we were on or way...or were we ?  The captain announced that we had lost our ground crew...another hour passed by...the captain then announced that he would wait another 10 to 15 minutes, but we might not be flying that night.  WHAT ???  Without another announcement, we were suddenly moving - 3 hours later, but we were moving..woohoo !

finally !!!


The flight was very rocky...lots of turbulence, the crew was less than genial, the food less than expected, but it was all worth it when we touched down in Milan, Italy !

Our next flight was on Ryan Air to Catania, Sicily where we picked up our rental car and drove about an hour to our home away from home - The Lemon Tree.  The owners, Karen and Diego, had arranged a home cooked dinner for us - it was amazing ! Fresh pasta, sausages, wine, and a delicious mini cassata cake for dessert.  It was such a welcome relief after almost two days of stressful travel.  We slept like babies that night, and awoke to the beautiful views from our Lemon Tree apartment.  It's great to be back!














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