The Twilight Zone of Travel – Missed Connections: Prague to Frankfurt (Lost In Transit #1)

I have a proposal for a travel book that someone should write, the only requirement is that it not be me. Writing this book would mean spending time in some of the most mind-numbing places in the world. Places that are the very definition of neither here nor there. Places that help travelers understand the meaning of lost in transit. As I write this, there are thousands of people all over the world suffering from the experience. This happens every day, but I have yet to see a single book written on the topic. Maybe that is because missing a flight connection and being put up at a hotel close to the airport is an experience most travelers would rather forget. Or maybe because the airline covers the bill, stranded passengers feel they should be grateful for spending a night on someone else’s dime. Whatever the case, the experience is one of the strangest imaginable. If there is a twilight zone of travel, then this is it.

Grounded – An Excursion In Futility

There could be worse things than an environment covered in concrete. One where delivery trucks and aircraft equipment emit piercing levels of industrial noise. There could be worse things than getting stuck in a hotel filled with legions of irritated passengers silently hoping that their rebooked flight leaves the next day. Another twenty-four hours of this accommodation is a fate too horrible to contemplate. Yes, a book really should be written about this experience, how to endure and overcome it, but that book will not be written by me. I do not have more than a handful of these travel traumas under my money belt. They weigh heavily on my memory. The most memorable of these unsatisfying experiences I try to forget. That is a conscious decision. Dredging up the details tends to leave me depressed. Nevertheless, I shall try to relate in detail the specifics of this excursion in futility. This will likely be the first and last time I put it into writing mainly this is an experience I do not care to repeat.

The whole thing started with a flat tire. In my experience, this is rather common. AAA, tow trucks, and tire tools are the usual remedy. That is unless you are pulling away from the gate on an aircraft operated by Lufthansa at Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague on an otherwise blissful morning in mid-April. I was at the end of a two-week trip that had taken me to Prague, Bratislava, Ljubljana, and several other cities over a just as spring was beginning to blossom across East-Central Europe. For two weeks I had overcome an abscessed tooth, noisy neighbors at hotels and hostels, logistical issues, and any number of minor inconveniences to have a highly successful trip. This already had me planning future adventures abroad. I was self-satisfied because everything had gone according to plan. The only parts of the trip left were two flights, a short hop from Prague to Frankfurt and then a trans-Atlantic journey from Frankfurt to Chicago. I had a couple of hours in Frankfurt to make my connection. That should have easily been enough time if nothing went wrong. At least, that was what I wanted to believe. The reality would be very different.

Flight Risks – Going Into A Tailspin

I was getting ahead of myself before I even left the ground in Prague by wrongly assuming the flight would go off without a hitch. This had a great deal to do with my very high opinion of Lufthansa. The few times I had flown with them, the service was fast and efficient. The conditions in coach class were much better than on other popular commercial airlines. The process from boarding to disembarking was organized with Teutonic efficiency. This engendered in me a blind belief that Lufthansa could do no wrong. I thought that everything they did, from aircraft maintenance to food service, put other airlines to shame. Based on prior experience with airlines and flights I should have known better. Lufthansa is prone to the same problems as other airlines.

And how could they not be? As demanding as I can be about problem-free flights, I do understand that every flight that goes off without a hitch is a minor miracle. There are hundreds of passengers and thousands of moving parts. Teutonic efficiency only goes so far when up against the odds that eventually something is bound to go wrong. The best any passenger can hope for is that it turns out not to be life threatening. Arriving on time and making connections is not a matter of life and death. That is a fact that many who fly, including myself, tend to lose sight of.

Making multiple connections in a single day while flying from East-Central Europe to the heartland of America is all too often a recipe for problems. I know from experience. For instance, one time on a trip back from Berlin, the plane was moments away from touching down in Rapid City, South Dakota. I could see the runway despite a snow shower. The wheels were out and then suddenly the pilot turned the plane upward. There would be no landing on this evening due to poor visibility. That sent me on a wayward journey that included spending part of the night in a field outside the airport terminal in Bismarck, North Dakota. Getting back from Berlin turned into a multi-day odyssey. The domino effect from the abortive landing sent everything into a tailspin, but at least I arrived alive.

Second Guesses – Feeling The Inevitable

Experiences like that one stayed with me. They made me second guess air travel. I wondered if the same things happened to others. Of course, they did, but I wanted to believe they only happened to me. Little did I know at the time that the Berlin to Rapid City odyssey would be one of many more flight problems in my future. This was something that lurked in the back of my mind. I would try to never acknowledge it for fear that doing so would make another occurrence possible. This was foolishness, but the “once bitten, twice shy” syndrome would stay with me. When a problem arose in Prague, all I could think of was here we go again.