When I was 16, my parents allowed me to visit my BFF who recently moved to Pittsburgh, PA. I was excited about being able to travel without my parents. How hard is it to fly? All you do is follow your ticket information. Gate B40, layover for an hour, Land at your destination. I had one layover that didn't involve a gate change and all I had to do was wait on the plane. Everything went perfect, I landed in Pittsburgh safe and sound.
Except it wasn't Pittsburgh.
Here's what happened:
After the layover, we were in the air for awhile and the flight made an intercom announcements about mechanical difficulties, they would be landing and we needed to switch planes in Detroit. Despite being a minor, despite my passenger information saying, "deaf passenger-- reads lips," there were zero attempts made by the airline employees to personally relay the information to me and make sure I knew what was going on. I didn't ask questions because it wasn't an expected complication. Surely airline employees would talk to a minor if there were any news to share? Talk about assumptions gone wrong.
We landed in "Pittsburgh" and I observed multiple passengers head towards another gate, "Hmm, that's odd." but I rationalized, "they must be flying somewhere else." My BFF and her stepmother weren't waiting for me at the gates (which was allowed before 2001) and so I figured they were running late. I searched for signs to see which airport I was in because I was suspicious about my location, but I thought: wouldn't someone have told me what was going on?
Back then, they made intercom announcements for which airport you were in. I couldn't find any signs telling me where I was, no gigantic advertisement welcoming me to wonderful Detroit. The only signs I could find were for luggage pickup. I reached the luggage area and saw a handful of people waiting. This also struck me as odd. It was a tiny plane but there should've been more than 10 people flying to Pittsburgh from Southern California. After the last person grabbed their luggage, my bag was no where to be found. I was alone.
I walked around to search for any type of information/guest service booth, which wasn't easy to find. I ended up going to a lost luggage booth.
"Hey uhh, which airport am I in?"
"Detroit."
"Detroit?? I'm supposed to be in Pittsburgh"
(gets information) " That plane already left. You're just going have to get a hotel and catch a flight tomorrow"
"Um...ok...how?"
"What do you mean how? Call a hotel--wait, how old are you?"
"I'm 16"
"Oh! I see. Give me a minute and we'll get this fixed."
Even if I had a cell-phone, I wouldn't have been able to talk to my parents. I could've called them, but they wouldn't be able to say anything back to me. I had to rely on an airport employee to make all the phone calls for me. Everyone eventually knew what was going on and where I was. Once communication was settled, I was taken to the kids room at the airport. I wasn't the first, only, or last kid to end up needing to stay at an airport overnight (canceled flights or missed layovers). The next day, the airport made sure I got to my gate even with the snowstorm postponing flights.
It was an embarrassing experience because I wasn't happy with the complications that occurred the first time I ever traveled alone. I should have been able to travel solo without relying on anybody else.
Nowdays, that's definitely true. There's digital information about flights, what airport you're in, what time it is, if a flight has been delayed/canceled/postponed/moved to another gate, all that stuff is right in front of you inside airports. Just look up for gigantic television screens and you're good to go.
Despite all the modern day annoyances of getting through an airport, with all the increasing use of technology for personal and business purposes, I prefer traveling today compared to a decade ago.
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