Mom and Philip Travel Saga

The plan: JC, Zach, Donovan, and I would drive to Saas Fee Monday morning. Mom and Philip were to fly from Austin to Dallas to Paris, and take a train from Paris to Saas Fee, expected to arrive Monday evening hopefully by dinner time.

What actually happened: JC, Zach, D and I arrived as planned, well a bit later that planned but still early enough in the day. The flat we’d rented turned out to be absolutely adorable with a fantastic view of the mountains just above us. We figured Mom and Philip were on the train headed our way, and were excited to see them soon.

Then we got a phone call from Philip. They were in Dallas. The flight to Paris had been cancelled, not sure why, but they had been put on a different flight going to Zurich that would take off later on that day. So they got to hang out in Dallas for 8 hours (at least Cristina’s around so they went out to lunch with her) and then were scheduled to get to Saas Fee Tuesday morning.

Then, 5 minutes before boarding on their flight to Zurich, that flight got cancelled, due to some mechanical problem with the plane. After waiting in line for a while, things seemed to get sorted out and they were put on a different flight set to leave the next morning. At least they got a hotel and meal voucher for the night.

I don’t know what else happened the next day, but instead of getting on that next Dallas- Zurich flight they wound up on one flying to JFK and then to Zurich, with a nonexistent layover. They raced through the airport to make their flight and arrived in Zurich, finally, a day delayed (we met up with them here on Tuesday afternoon)… and sans baggage. They were told their bags would arrive on the JFK-Zurich flight the next morning (Wednesday), and then be shipped over to Saas Fee arriving Thursday.

We were thus surprised to see a delivery attempt by the post office on Wednesday morning. Zach and Philip went to the post to pick up the bags, and found there was only one there (which had arrived via London, somehow). Mom’s bag is still MIA, over a week later. She's been told they "found" it in London and were gonna send it to Zurich, but then it never got there, and well, yeah. I'm sure they'll get it back eventually, but probably not while they're out here.

Luckily they’ve been in good spirits about it all, but, um, holy cow… What a travel nightmare. At least they have a super-cute grandbaby to play with here to make it all worth it. ; )