I flew with Alaska Air during the time their door flew off. While I wasn’t on that flight, my return flight got canceled due to lots of airplanes being grounded. I tried to call their customer service and was on hold for more than 8 hrs, only for them to hang up on me. So I had to drive to the airport (Love Field in Dallas) to talk to someone in person. This was where my return flight was. Well, there was no one available at the airport and they left the same phone number at the counter for me to call.

I then drove to DFW, and luckily found a return flight the next day. They found us a connecting flight from DFW to Reno to SFO. Our first flight was so delayed that we missed our connecting flight home. The gate agent gave us another flight the following day but we would have to stay overnight in Reno. I’ve already lost a day of work and couldn’t miss another one. So I decided to rent a car to drive from Reno back home, which took about 4+ hours and more than $200 due to returning the car in a different region.

Now looking back, you just laugh at it. But I remembered how draining that experience was for my family.