Great photos! Sorry it was such a nightmare to get there.

I applaud your perseverance and glad you had a good time. I'm surprised the airline didn't offer to deliver your bag to you in Santa Fe.

That sounds brutal.

Fun — oh, this was funny. Our bags traveled on Delta, our original flight. But we humans actually ended up arriving in ABQ on American. Because of that, Delta said American was responsible for our luggage… even though said luggage was locked in the Delta baggage claim office. Seriously.

Glad you did make it, esp for NYE!

Just do you know, I had the worst travel snafus of my life in October, also out of Logan. I think there are construction issues there causing cancellations etc.

Ugh, what an awful experience.

Love the photos!

@Sueb20, well, I congratulate you on getting all the refunds due to you. What a bummer to have to drive back to Albuquerque to get your luggage, but at least it made it to Albuquerque and wasn't lost in the ether somewhere.

Sounds like it was a nightmare!
So happy that you ended up having a great time once you arrived at your destination. Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Ugh. My favorite glitch is that they gave you two more seats on the just in case flight they punished you for. THANKS!
We haven't had a travel complication in such a long time. I hate to even mention it because I know I am tempting fate.

OMG. Y’all are a tenacious bunch. I would have thrown my hands in the air and gone back home and back to bed.

Your pictures are fantastic! Real camera or iPhone?

Ugh…I try not to fly after the 20th until the new year unless it’s up the coast to San Francisco and even then it can be iffy. Glad you had a good time. I haven’t been to Santa Fe since the 90’s ☹️

Glad you made it - what an ordeal! And lovely photos 🙂

My sister and family were visiting and had a flight home on Saturday that was delayed by hours and they missed their connecting flight in Dallas, and then all wound up sleeping at the gate there - didn't get home until Sunday - minus my niece's suitcase. I understand many flights were delayed or cancelled because of the military operations going on over the weekend.

Glad to hear the visit was a success after all those snafus. Its a miracle that you met up with your luggage. Hope the trip home was uneventful.

Be glad you’re not stuck in Puerto Rico with no idea when you could get home.Love your pictures!

ded, it is a miracle that their luggage made it to NM! I rarely check a bag, no matter how long the trip. I'm a worry wart and it's just one less thing to worry about.

What a nightmare Sueb! This is why my DH hates flying anywhere these days. I love your photos and am glad you enjoyed the rest of the trip with no issues.

If we had been going for a weekend, we likely would have given up — but this was a week-long (uh, supposedly) trip and we were meeting up with two other couples.

Bb, just my phone pics. DH is the one with the real camera.

On the way home, of course we were a bit worried but we had only one connection. First flight was delayed by 15 min., not a big deal. But a strange man was talking to (really talking at) DH while we waited at the gate, just saying odd things. He was clearly very drunk. He finally moved on and we looked at each other and said, you wanna bet he’s sitting next to us on the plane? But we never saw him board the plane. We are about to take off and the pilot says, sorry folks, we need to go back to the gate…WHAT. Not again! Turns out Drunk Guy was on the plane and yup, they had to remove him. And looked like they also had to clean a restroom. Ugh. We did make our connection in spite of the delay, because our second flight was also slightly delayed!

Glad I am not flying again until next month, and it is direct.

Wow - what a mess. Makes me glad I'm no longer a frequent flyer.

Oye, what a saga!

Was the drunk guy at least dressed up nice, because sloppy dressing is what’s wrong with travel, and was he working out, more than just his elbow, in the airport?

Once they gate checked my elderly Mum’s carry-on because they ran out of overhead space. She went to Oklahoma (deliberately) and her luggage went to Puerto Rico. It didn’t catch up to her until day 4 of a 5 day trip.

Wow, what an ordeal. I’m glad the trip ended up being great. Beautiful pics!

Thanks for the pics! Glad you had a nice time, and that the refunds from the nightmarish travel weren't held up.

Oof! As I was reading I was worried you were going to be on one of the last flights into NM at night. If you miss it, you’re stuck wherever you are (for me, usually DFW). I’m glad you were able to maintain a debree of humor and that you enjoyed Santa Fe. I’m in ABQ. If anything goes terribly wrong while you’re here, please reach out to me if I can help.

The good news is that it sounds like your trip was worth the hassle. Love your photos, especially the metal sculpture of the willow? tree. Hope the refunds came easily - sometimes that can be a nightmare in itself.

What a nightmare! I bet you almost had to laugh at the plane returning to the gate on your way home due to Mr Drunkman. ;D

Sueb (or anyone else here), have you to gone to the Wiford Gallery-Canyon Rd on your visit? It's my favorite and we have bought three of their wind sculptures for our outdoor landscape. Every time we go to Santa Fe, I want another-but too many would be overkill for our city lot.

See links below:

https://www.wifordgallery.com/pages/lyman-whitaker

https://www.wifordgallery.com/collections/lyman-whitaker-copper-wind-sculptures

Yes! In fact we chatted with them and took a card, and might be ordering one. I wanted one when we were there 6 years ago, too, so I think it is time. We have a spot just outside our dining room window that would be perfect. I want the desert flame, which to me looks like a big tulip. (The model that is actually called Tulip is similar but smaller.)

We have a few smaller copper sculptures (to make up for the lack of actual flowers in our shady, dry yard) but nothing this big.

They were very nice to talk to there! We have the Bean Pole, Double Helix-Horizontal and the Element Series-Earth. I bought each one at different times. It is SO HARD to go there now, knowing I don't have any more space for one, except in our front yard-but afraid it could get stolen, since it's copper.

I've seen knock-offs, but none compare.

They are beautiful!

Add me to the list of people who admire your travel persistence. I would have cried "uncle" pretty early on and missed all the fun and cool scenery. Lovely photos!

ps - why are we serving so much alcohol to the flying public???

ps - why are we serving so much alcohol to the flying public???

You think that’s crazy, on American Airlines people in the exit row seats get free alcohol. So the people agreeing to help in case of an emergency, may have been served alcohol before said emergency. 🤪

We were wondering the same thing; like, is the airport bartender who’s serving this guy not noticing how drunk he is? Or maybe he showed up to the airport already drunk, who knows.

Once I sat next to a guy on a flight who had 3 cocktails during a 2-ish hour flight. He actually seemed fine but I wondered if the flight attendant would cut him off at some point?

HH, that is really bonkers!

On a long flight , I saw a guy be served many drinks. He reached up for the call button and I saw his wife slap down his hand. 😆 But he reached up again and summoned the FA. I think the FA did cut him off at that point. Fortunately, he didn’t get obnoxious about being cut-off. Perhaps he was used to it. 😆

Oh boy. I saw this post but was holding off reading it.

That was wild, but glad your trip was so nice and those pix!!

We've become much more fans of direct flights where possible ( of course not always is that a possibility) but for some international, we'll drive to Newark NJ ( give or take 1 1/2 to 2 hours) airport over Philly ( give or take 30 minutes) because of airlines, direct flights, and significant $ differences.

Now that I think back, I 'd say maybe 1 out of every 3 or 4 trips has a glitch, but of those, only 2 or 3 ( over 40 plus years ) can still bring back the pain and frustration. One of the worst was flying back from Portugal with a stop in Toronto which sounded innocuous.... I will never fly through that airport again.. ever.

We'll be heading to Arizona hopefully in a month or two and happily it seems we can get direct flights easily from the closer airport......... The rest remains to be seen.

Wow, what an ordeal! From your pics it looks like it was worth it.

@salonva I've noticed that about Philly not having direct flights. We were looking at taking the kids/grandkids to Mexico. We always use Newark, but they live outside Philly so I checked flights from there (we're right in the middle of the two airports). No direct flights from Philly to Cancun! Like what? The kids would have had to come here and spend the night before the flight. Turns out they can't go this year (they have to travel to Colorado to visit son-in-law's family), and DD is a teacher and can only travel in the summer. Our week in Cape Cod with them, and probably 10 days in Colorado and that's already a good portion of her summer. Hopefully next summer.