Canceled flight delays my meeting with new niece

I know many of you have been asking (offline) for more blog updates. It can often be a challenge when we hear no new news ourselves! We're still waiting on a court date, we're considering our travel plans, and we're waiting on news of when the Mayo Clinic pediatricians will get to see our son. Our doctor has sent her recommendations to our agency, and we've been assured that that will be shared with the Mayo docs.

In the meantime, many of you may know that I'm a new uncle! My brother and his wife had a beautiful baby girl just a few months ago. A Sagittarius, just like me, so you know she's going to be awesome. Our son is about 6 weeks older than her, and we look forward to seeing the two of them grow up as cousins. So before things get too crazy on our end with imminent travel to Ethiopia, I want to meet my new niece.

So a couple of months ago I planned a trip to visit my brother (and sister) in NYC for the Presidents Day weekend. My parents were going to visit the same weekend so the whole family could get together, but they got the weekend wrong (confused presidents birthday for presidents day OBSERVED). They ended up going the weekend prior. As for me, I was going to take a red-eye on Thursday night, work from my brother and sister-in-law's place in Long Island City, and then hang for the weekend.

I show up at the airport on time (930 for a 1035pm red-eye), but should have checked for weather delays. rain and wind in the bay area put the incoming flight about an hour behind schedule. I settle in, run into a friend of a friend who is on the same flight. We chat. We wait. The plane lands near 11pm and they announce that one of the flight attendants fell ill on the way here and is on the way to the hospital. So they are short staffed and scrambling to find a sub. A difficult proposition given that JetBlue's nearest reserve city is Long Beach. It's after 11pm and most flights are in. Finally at 1140pm, they announce that the flight is CANCELED because they are short one flight attendant to legally get off the ground. BOOO!!!

There's a mad scramble at the gate as people try to reschedule their flights. I try to get rebooked, but it's a holiday weekend and they can't get me to my destination until Saturday afternoon. Whatever! That would make my trip too short, and if I wanted to extend it, I don't know that I'd have any luck because it is a holiday weekend and everything is pretty booked. so I decide i'll put off my trip for a month.

There's a catch. JetBlue refunds my points (made my flight reservation using points), but to reschedule for one month later the flight will cost me 50% more points!!! It's totally BS, but it seems there's no away around that. So I'm filing a complaint with JetBlue because their $50 credit voucher is at least $100 short of what I'd need to reschedule a flight that they had to cancel. AAAARGGGG!!!

Anyway, I haven't yet booked the flight. trying to work a few more things out, but I expect to meet my niece around my sister's birthday. Double bill! We hope we'll be much closer to a court date or actual travel by then.