Finally returning home after a canceled flight and a multi-hour mechanical delay in Montego Bay

It has been a crazy 30+ hours. My spouse and I were set to return home from Jamaica on Wednesday. Everything seemed to be normal until the inbound flight from Atlanta started to show delays. No big deal, we stayed in the airport club until they started boarding.

Inbound plane arrived to MBJ, deplane/cleaned and boarding started just about two and a half hours late.

Whole flight boarded, then we sat. And sat some more. The boarding door never closed. We were in first class and we saw some discussions, then the look on the pilot’s face as he got ready to make an announcement.

The pilots and crew didn’t have enough time remaining to make the return trip to ATL. They were working with central to have a new flight plan to take us to Orlando, swap crews and finish the flight to Atlanta. Clock was ticking, we got our new itinerary notifications, but still we sat.

Then we got the flight canceled notice. And by that time there was no way any of us were getting home yesterday.

To Delta’s credit. They managed a plane full of passengers all stuck in Jamaica very well. We were all (flight crew included) rebooked onto a new flight code, same plane for the next day (today) at 11. They escorted everyone through immigration, got us onto busses and into rooms as a nearby all inclusive.

They had us come to the front of the resorts at 7am to get back on busses to the airport where we could check back in.

Bags checked, through security and we all loaded up on the plane around 10:40, looking like we were going to be on time with the second try to get us home.

But the flight door never closed. We didn’t have to wait too long before our poor captain had to come back out and tell us there was now a mechanical issue with the plane. A computer required for the flight was non-functional and needed to be replaced. They already had a replacement on the way on the next inbound flight from Atlanta that was scheduled to land around 3. The flight was delayed now until 5:30pm. Six hours after the rebooked flight from the canceled flight the day before.

The two of us, and a small number of others managed to get seats on the 1:35 flight to Atlanta. Our 13 yo son is flying to ATL unaccompanied from his grandparents. We need to be there to pick him up. We had purposely scheduled to come home a day before him to avoid a situation like we were faced with.

We were a bit panicked when the delay was first announced today. We would not get there before him. My wife got on the phone with a global ticketing agent and I got on the phone with the unaccompanied minor team and we were able to figure out how we could ensure getting back before our son - we gave up 1c seats, sat separately on the earlier flight and are about to land and they UM agent moved our son to the later flight into Atlanta.

As I write this, the original plane we were to be on has been delayed again by another hour. I really hope those other passengers get home tonight and don’t get stuck another day.

I am thankful for all the agents, both on the ground and on the phone, that managed us all through this. The lead flight attendant gave my wife her email as we were getting off the plane if the phone agent wasn’t able to help, she wanted to step in and help too. She didn’t have to do that, but she saw a person in a crisis moment and reached out.

For us, we will put in for a fare change refund, but didn’t know if there was any other credits we should pursue.

I always thought having to stay ‘on vacation’ an extra day because of a flight issue would be great. But the reality does not match expectations.