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chaos in international travel leads to a boon

the journal of Michael Werneburg

The recent geopolitical chaos in the Middle East resulted in a strange outcome for me.

I was scheduled to leave Bucuresti today at 17:10 and would land in Doha at 22:00. Because my scheduled flight to Tokyo was at 07:30, I wouldn't be landing in Tokyo the next day at almost 24:00 (as Friday becomes Saturday), I would have to stay in a hotel that night. But despite having ten hours in the Doha airport tonight, I had no accommodation that night.

So, I reached out to the travel agent by email to request some kind of accommodation. The travel agency called in a panic, I mean relentlessly calling until I picked up. While attempting to book a capsule hotel in Doha, they discovered they couldn't find a flight in my itinerary for Tokyo. Along with countless flights through the region it had simply been deleted. Not cancelled, no notification, just gone.

So they scrambled to get me onto a 02:40 departure, which means I arrive about five hours sooner than expected. Early enough to take the train back on Friday evening. But because this plane is landing in Narita instead of Haneda, I have to trek across the city on the Narita Express and the Musashino line. Yet, I'll still get home ten-twelve hours sooner than expected.

These are "first world problems". People in the afflicted countries are dying, after all.