#airline delay

My plane was delayed for over an hour, so I did what any sane person would do.

I had a major travel fiasco flying back from vacation this weekend. My flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues, so I was placed on standby for a flight an hour later. I miraculously boarded the plane at the last minute with a first class ticket… well not so miraculously. It turns out the guy whose seat they gave me was actually on the plane, he had just managed to get on without scanning his ticket. So I had to get off the plane and wait another 10 hours before I finally got in the air.

After this, I looked up airline policies - some based on something called “Rule 240”, which is no longer in effect but would’ve required the airline to compensate me hundreds of dollars. I also read posts by people who had gone through similar fiascos and had gotten some compensation from the airline. I thought about what I was entitled to and how I could take advantage of this situation to get all I could.

But in the end, I rejected that whole way of thinking and asked only for a meal voucher (and even at that, I felt a little presumptive). I almost certainly could’ve gotten a lot more, but that would’ve required me to play the victim, to dwell on how I had been wronged. But that’s not who I am. That’s not how I handle these situations because material gains are worthless in comparison to the rewards of consciously choosing contentment and integrity.

Had I chosen victimhood, none of the airline’s concessions would have satisfied me anyway because I would be focusing on everything that’s wrong with my current situation, and because satisfaction does not come from getting things. Satisfaction is a choice. If we choose the constant pursuit of what we don’t have, we are choosing constant dissatisfaction. No amount of goods or services will fulfill us as we chase ever-shifting desires. We will only be satisfied when we choose to be content with what we already have.

This is the truth that our culture of rights and entitlement is completely missing. We are constantly encouraged to “stand up for yourself”, “demand what’s yours”, and “get all that you can”, but this attitude is fundamentally destructive, not only to relationships and society as a whole, but to our own personal happiness.

The way of the cross is the only way to life. Paradoxically, it is in laying down our rights and entitlements that we gain what we truly desire. In dying to ourselves, we enter into life.

The end result of my fiasco was a 12-hour layover with my laptop, free food, and free WiFi. This was an excellent opportunity to post photos from my vacation and catch up on emails and to-dos from my week off. Honestly, I was probably more productive than I would have been at home. I also found a public piano to play a song on, which was delightful. All-in-all, it was a good experience.