While on summer, my mom decided to do a family trip. We had all planned out and had arrived at the airport three hours prior to our flight, as airlines recommend. After waiting for three long painful hours for the actual flight, we found out that our flight had been delayed two times. Since I couldn’t do anything about it, I sat down and watched closely at what was happening around me and discovered that there are seven stages almost everyone goes through when the flight gets delayed.
1. Disbelief:
The first stage and the strangest one knowing that this kind of thing can happen due to bad weather. When the passengers find out that the flight has been delayed, nobody can believe it. Airlines kindly ask that you make it to the airport with a reasonable amount of time prior to the boarding time and most people kindly follow the rules, so when you hear this kind of news, it's not something you believe at first, but, such is life.
2. Questioning everything
After receiving the news, all sorts of questions start to pop up. Is it going to be delayed again? Does the plane have any kind of damage? What if the flight gets canceled? If you have a rental car on hold, is the rental place going to be open at the time of arrival? You start feeling more and more intrigued.
3. Desperation
Right when you understand that the flight has been delayed, congrats, you’ve made it to the desperation stage. It's kind of normal if you ask me. It's horrifying just thinking about the long hours of wait time ahead and the uncertainty if it's going to happen again or if the flight will end up getting canceled. It's like if you were imagining the worse scenarios ever, like if the whole trip is going to get ruined by it.
4. Anger
Now this is where it gets good. All of the sudden, after a reasonable amount of time, you start to get really pissed. Something completely understandable. Your whole schedule falls apart, you get really hungry, the hours slowly pass by and you find nothing else to do to entertain yourself. It's that time of all the stages where you have already listened to your whole playlist.
5. Frustration
Finally! It's time to board the plane, but oh! Wait, when you look at the monitors on the counter, you find out your flight has been delayed once again… There is a big chance that does not happen, but it is common that once your flight is delayed it happens again. That’s when frustration really starts to hit you. You get frustrated because you won’t make it to your destination on time, and if the flight is at night, it’s even worse because everything in the airport is closed and you end up having nothing to eat or drink.
6. Tiredness starts to take over
After hours of waiting, your body starts to get really tired. You get sleepier as time goes by, uncomfortable enough to keep the angry attitude going, you get cold and start to get irrelevant. At this point you just want to jump on a cozy bed and rest. This is the stage where you just can’t handle life anymore. It sounds dramatic until you've actually gone through it.
7. Acceptance
Lastly, all there is to do is accept the fact that you have to wait. Your only option at this point is to pray for a miracle or wait patiently at the gate. It’s been hours already, but you know complaining won’t resolve the issue. This last stage becomes a waiting game. Although you are not happy about it, you sit and wait.
