The Plane Ride to South Africa

These past few days, I’ve been on three full planes; one of which did not take off, one of which was a routine flight, and one of which I got upgraded twice. This is the story of the three-day plane kabunkule.

On Thursday, June 5, I left my house in Raleigh, North Carolina. The plan was to get on a flight to New York, hop a flight to Paris for a 10-hour layover for playing, then pop onto a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. This should have been super easy, but suddenly, there was terrible weather in New York. There was lightning on the runway, so I didn’t get my baggage for another three hours. The flight got delayed one hour, then another, and then it was canceled. After I got my luggage, I returned to my house and slept until 10 AM, which was relieving.


At 1 o’clock, I left for the airport to get on a flight to Atlanta and Johannesburg. I could get on the Atlanta flight OK, but it was delayed when we landed, and I had to rush to my plane for Johannesburg. I had booked economy, but I used one of my global upgrades and upgraded to premium select. Right before we took off, I got upgraded again to Delta one. The flight was 15 hours, and it was very relaxing in business class. I had a delightful time and would do it again any day.