When the Snow Comes
to Cover the Ground
Adventures in a Marshmallow World

It was going to be a quick trip to Manhattan, nominally to attend a program information session at NYU, with an extra day in town, since the cheapest flight-and-hotel package available on the usual travel sites was barely more for a two-night stay in Midtown than for just one night.

Fully aware of the risk that in the event of bad weather, flights scheduled late in the day leave travelers open to cancellation with no hope for a same-day rebooking, I opted for a late flight out of LaGuardia on my final day in order to have the maximum time in New York.

And everything went as planned, right up until an hour before I was to leave for the airport, via public transportation —no extra expense— on my already purchased MetroCard "Fun Pass," when I got a text message that my flight had just been canceled.

I'm still trying to figure out what lesson, if any, I learned from the 36 extra hours —and two motel nights in an airport-area motel within walking distance of nowhere— of protracted doubt and uncertainty I spent in the New York area thanks to the Nth big snow-and-ice storm to mess with air traffic last December. One thing had led to another : cancellations, rebookings, change of airports, more cancellations —and trying to find somewhere affordable to stay amidst the merry-go-round of uncertainties.

As I read stories of travelers stranded at airports coast-to-coast, on Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses, however, my sorry saga seems minor, indeed, but questions remain :

Was the fatal flaw my decision not to purchase optional fifty-dollar "Trip Protection" offered by the travel website I used —which included travel delay coverage? The policy would've added about ten percent to the basic cost of the trip. Checking the weather —a few days out, obviously— and factoring in both the reliability of forecasting and what seemed the worst-case probability of an extended delay, I chose not to buy it.

All considerations aside as to why —in the old glass-half-full-half-empty cliché— half a glass, be it full or empty, is the default [an assumption designed simply to facilitate the parable : Why not simply a full glass?], let's look at what went right.

• I knew the territory. I had some idea of my options. I didn't have to rely completely on the patronizing, helplessness-inducing pronouncements of hapless customer service representatives. I had a fully charged cell phone. I was persistent, more or less politely so, depending, in pursuit of a solution.
• I didn't have to sleep on the floor anywhere. The motel I found once I'd managed to get an alternate flight was [relatively] cheap and offered free shuttle service to the airport 24 hours a day.
• I wasn't expected back immediately by anyone. I was traveling alone and only had to worry about my own well-being.
• "Trip Protection" wouldn't have prevented any of these hassles, nor would it have compensated me for pain, suffering, whining and general neurosis —and I would've had to file a claim. Paperwork.
• And, wonder of wonders, the airline waived the fifteen-dollar checked bag fee on my return trip —without my even having to ask.

Doing the math, I see I spent roughly $233 out-of-pocket more than planned due to the delays, most of it on food and lodging. Other expenses included $20.50 for transportation via rail from Midtown Manhattan to [the ironically named] Newark Liberty Airport —from where I would leave instead of LaGuardia— and about the same amount for internet access to search for the extra overnight lodging and to book my first night at the airport-area motel. Subtracting the fifty dollar insurance fee and the waived checked bag fee, my net overage was $168. Yes, it would have been nice to have been reimbursed this amount.

Travel has its risks, even if the probability of running afoul of them is low.

And what, really, could I have done differently? Having scheduled either an earlier or later departure would've a.) cut short my visit to New York or b.) not necessarily spared me cancellations or delays this time, thanks to the persistently difficult and unpredictable weather.

Perhaps the experience will serve as a new benchmark of travel misery against which to measure future trips, which then will prove even easier and more enjoyable than they may otherwise have seemed. But a hundred and sixty-eight dollars does still buy a lot of marshmallows.