Off to Washington D.C!

Blog 1 - Off to Washington D.C!

Wow, the journey is starting! I’m writing this on the three hour flight from Dallas to Washington DC (IAD) to attend the YES Abroad National PDO. It’s been a pretty fun but rough trip by myself. From Honolulu every month during sophomore year for PAAC GLP, Paris a week ago, going to DC now, and then next week departing to India for my 10 month journey; I can say I’ve travelled a good amount. With that being said, this trip has definitely been pretty fun all thanks to late flights and standby reservations to DC. So this is how it started...

I boarded the plane from Kona to Dallas on time, super excited as I had a whole row to myself and a TV, just eagerly waiting to depart. In 10 minute increments, the pilot updated us on the situation with storage under the plane, saying that we would be leaving 10-15 minutes later. An hour past and we finally got the good to go! A movie and six hours later, we landed in Dallas at 7:15, missing my 7:15am flight to DC. With that, there was assistance at the desk right when we got off the plane. They confirmed me on the 12:30 flight, making me arrive at 4:30pm instead of 9am, there were multiple flights before that so I was determined to get a seat on standby. After visiting another assistance in a different terminal, they added me onto the standby for Washington DC Reagan (DCA)... While waiting for standby results, I talked to this lady from Alabama, going to DC to raise awareness for her organization on civil rights and equality. She shared her frustrations on being on standby on every available flight to DC when it wasn’t her fault, American were the ones who cancelled her original flight the night before. My name was called as there were two open seats, and I was number 2 on the list of over 10 people. The ticket lady was working on my ticket when a businessman in first class showed up, taking his seat back, meaning that there was no more room for me.

When I finished discussing my options, I was added on standby to the other flight to DC Reagan. After cruising the airport as I had an hour to spare, I meet the poor people lady again, and then we really started to chat. I got to know her as Queen, and she explained to me why she was going to DC, with her movement on civil rights and justice for Poor African American Families. She pulled out her Facebook and showed me pictures about all of the rallies she put on/ participated in. This time, nobody was able to board the plane, it was 100% booked.

We were standing in line with a ticket lady at the counter to get us to DC. The lady I’ve been talking to was very tired as she’s been in Dallas from Alabama since last night, having problems with transportation to and from the airport and hotel after her flight to DC at ~8pm was cancelled that night. The lady said Queen was going to be put on the standby for the next flight. I felt bad as she was not used to flying, and she was at the airport since 5am waiting on standby on every flight to DC. She managed to explain this to the lady and said that she was not able to confirm a ticket on her system but that she needs to go to the assistance counter. I did that previously, having my seat confirmed for the flight I am on right now, so I said that I would help her.

The unfortunate lady was getting very tired so they called a wheelchair and I went with her to the assistance booth. We encountered the same lady I dealt with earlier, very nice. Queen told me to explain everything to the ticket lady, in which I did, and fortunately there was one available seat on the next flight to DC Reagan, in which she was confirmed on. Her ticket was given, and then it was my turn. The wheelchair person took her and before leaving she asked how old I was and upon telling her my age, she was like “nahhh, you gotta be at least 24, definitely”. She then gave me her Facebook info and went off on her way. The ticket lady got me a seat on the flight so I was going to be able to take reassured that I would board this flight.

I got some Chick-Fil-A and a couple minutes after I boarded my flight to DC. With all that effort, I’m still on the same plane that I was rescheduled on, but happy I gave that effort as I met Queen. Her motivation to create change for her/our overall community inspired me and became the best part of my trip, and hope she continues to succeed in her mission. I am probably missing some fun activities at the PDO by being on this later flight, but I wouldn’t want to have it any other way!