04-16-2026 Walk

Well, this was a crazy, frustrating travel day, maybe the craziest ever. We got up early, packed our stuff into the car, and left home around 6:45. Ran into just a little traffic until we got into LA. But we were early to the area near LAX, so we stopped for breakfast at a Norm's. Food was okay, I ate my huevos ranchers and half of Ann's French toast (turned out to be a good plan), had made full-strength coffee for the drive up, so I was caffeinated. We got to the airport parking garage around 9:50, so we made great time. Right on the shuttle, a United rep helped figure out why my ticket wasn't showing TSA pre-check and fixed it, and we got to the gate with lots of time to spare. I ended up walking through Terminals 6, 7, and 8, just to pass the time. On the plane, and this is where the fun began. Before we were scheduled to leave, the captain let us know that there was a mechanical problem with the plane that they were fixing, so maybe a minor delay. Not too long after, he got on again and said it would take longer than expected. That's when I told Ann we should get off the plane and start figuring out out to rebook our flight. The gate agent, Jill, took some time to get us on a Alitalia flight that left really soon, but check-in was closing soon and it was in the International terminal. I was able to get Ann checked in but not me, and we missed the bus to that terminal. So we walked back and asked the gate agent what to do. I was really anxious by this time. She said to get to the gate and plead our case, so we hoofed it back to the shuttle bus stop only to just miss the shuttle. I was carrying my bag as well as Ann's, and I tried to get the guy to let us on the bus, no luck. We weren't going to make that flight, so we again walked back (I was walking quickly to get a better place in line) to the original gate. She tried for about 15 minutes, off and on, to find us a flight, without success. So she told us to have a seat, and Ann started checking SkyScanner for flights. She found a Turkish Airlines flight that looked promising and went up to show it to the gate agent. Voila! After about 10 minutes, Ann came back with a reservation code but no tickets. We walked all the way over to the gate, but there was no Turkish Airlines agent. When I tried to check in online, after a few attempts we got a troubling message that this flight was going to be canceled. Yikes! Checked online for flight status, and all looked good, so we decided to walk down to the ticket/check-in area for Turkish Airlines. Turns out you can just walk downstairs in this terminal (I have no idea why not), so we had to walk back to Terminal 4, where the shuttle bus had dropped us, exit the terminal, and walk from the outside back to the departures area for the International terminal. Took us about 15 minutes. We found our way to the Turkish Airlines check-in counters, and I got in line for Economy class, while I asked Ann to see from one of the Business class agents (shorter line) if we were in the right place. That agent (Maheshi) was able to convert our reservation code into two tickets and check us in. Whoohoo! Back through security, with a very short TSA Pre-check line, and to the gate. We had burgers (not bad) using the meal voucher from United to cover 3/4 of the cost. I also got a sandwich for the flight, since it was unlikely I could get a vegetarian meal on the plane. Still, it was better, much better, than it might have been. I was already resigning myself to at least one night in LA or San Francisco before we would be able to get on a plane. Very late arrival in Rome will cause some issues, but I don't think there will be anything money can't solve.