We got to the airport in plenty of time, had breakfast, made our way, leisurely, to our gate... We were supposed to start boarding at 535am and leave by 6am. It's currently 615 and no one is yet on the plane. The first officer came out and told us that last night when this plane got in the front smoke detector had gone off. That starts a chain of paperwork, apparently. Well, currently our plane is considered out of commission until that paperwork is completed. Michael is switching our connecting flight to the 1115 flight instead of the 9am flight. The woman at the gate didn't think we'd make our connection, so now we're not going to have to worry about trying to rush to make it.
I guess the good news is that we're not spending 12+ hrs, overnight, in an airport, with no promise of a seat on a flight. We're also not over 5 hours delayed with our children, waiting for our once-in-a-lifetime vacation, missing our first day at our theme park. We'll get into Orlando 2.5 hrs later, but, overall, it's the best issue we've had. I'm so over flying. I'm having plenty of anxiety every time this happens. It appears every airline is an issue. American made me so mad I'll never fly with them again. I don't care if they are the most affordable. I was irked with Delta in Atlanta, but they found a big plane and got us on our way, so that meant big points for me. I appreciated them helping get us all going. Now we're on United and it's 625am and we already know we're missing a flight. It just really sucks. I'm glad we're driving to the Atlantic Coast this summer. I'm already dreading our flight to Kalispell for our National Park trip in 2023. Who knows what will go wrong that year??? Ugh. Flying sucks. So over these stupid airlines.
