This was a doozy.

Scheduled for a Monday morning flight landing in Chicago at 1pm, I received a series of texts from Lufthansa rescheduling me through London (3 hour delay) and then Rome (6 hour delay) – all due to a storm that was forecast to hit Northern Europe the next day.

Knowing my chickens (as the Italians say), the last thing I wanted to do was get stuck in Rome, and so I began calling Lufthansa offices in order to better understand my options. Italy : no answer. Germany : no answer. US : no answer. UK : no answer. After 4 hours total hold time I gave up and the next day left for Rome…

As predicted, my arrival in Rome was greeted by another text informing me that the flight to Munich was cancelled, and that Lufthansa had no other way to get me to Chicago that day.

The lounge couldn’t help, the call center (which answered this time) couldn’t help, and so I joined the long queue at the transfer desk.

The final trip (downgraded to a middle seat at the back of the plane), was Genova – Rome – JFK – LaGuardia – Chicago. Arrival at midnight for a total delay of 11 hours.

Fortunately the view from my bedroom was spectacular when I woke the next morning…