We all know that challenges and unforeseen circumstances can take place, especially during the holidays, and we should do our best to work around them. Today was no different.

My spouse and I originally had a flight from MCO to LGB connecting through HOU, however, due to an emergency that the OG captain had, we were delayed about an hour in MCO at 6AM waiting for a replacement Captain.

One finally showed up and we were in the air by 7:30AM.

After 20 minutes of waiting for the replacement captain inside a fully boarded plane, I got the FA’s attention about our connection flight to LGB, and the FA realized that we weren’t going to make our connection. FA spoke to the gate agent who spoke to us directly with positive alternatives, and we took the most logical approach they offered, which was MCO to HOU, then from HOU to BNA to LGB (Yes we did go backwards, but we made to our destination just a few hours from the posted time we were supposed to. The other options had us arriving at LGB at night, and we didn’t want to spend the whole day traveling with the time difference between all of it).

To the contrary, our bags went on a different route, but made it to LGB from a PHX flight that landed literally 5 minutes before our BNA flight arrived.

Long story short, be nice to the SW team as they’re doing their diligence to get you to your destination especially during the business season. And be flexible if things don’t go as planned.