As we walked off the plane, I raised my right hand up and muttered under my breath: I solemnly swear to never ask you to book us a red-eye flight ever again.
Bryce probably gave me an eye roll. I don’t know, I was too tired to notice.
We flew from Seattle to New Orleans on a red-eye flight. Several months prior when we booked it, it seemed like a logical and smart decision. Just the two of us were flying for my friend’s wedding so it seemed “fine” without a toddler in tow. Four-and-a-half hours of sleep is enough if we sleep the whole flight, right? Right?!
When your flight isn’t long enough
The airport on a Thursday night at the end of September was pretty deserted. Once on the plane and situated in our seats, the flight attendants started making their rounds and the pilot made a brief announcement about our departure, the weather, etc. I thought nothing of it until I heard that our flight time would be less than four hours because of head winds (tail winds?)
Getting less than four hours of sleep now did not seem ideal.
I was envious of the few passengers who were equipped with eye masks on, neck pillows situated properly and ear buds in place. Can some people’s bodies just handle red-eyes well if they prepare well enough for them?
Needless to say, Bryce and I did not sleep well. (And, yes, I am well aware that even if the flight time had been the full 4.5 hours, we still would not have slept well.)
“What are we going to do?” I asked Bryce once we landed.
From the start, we didn’t really have a plan on what we would do during the day we arrived into New Orleans. (The wedding was the next evening.) We figured we would go straight to the hotel and have them hold our bags and then find a park bench to nap on. The last time we took a red-eye flight was from Seattle to Montreal for a vacation (many years ago, before having a kid) and I was so sleepy I had to nap on a park bench. I remember being so exhausted and not being able to keep my eyes open.
Stormy to the rescue
We were in no rush to get to the hotel. It was like 6 am local time. We figured out the bus situation quickly and found the bus we needed to take into the city quickly. There were a few (what appeared to be) swing shift airport workers already sitting on the bus, as well as a man in a Saints football jersey. That man ended up being the bus driver. I guess they don’t have a strict dress code for bus drivers.
It wasn’t even quite 7 am when we shuffled into our hotel. A cheerful front desk agent greeted us as we gave her our info and explained we arrived on a red-eye and just wanted them to hold our luggage until our room would later be ready in the afternoon.
“Do you have any plans today?” she asked? Bryce responded that we just planned to walk around “and explore.”
I scooted away from the desk to a corner while Bryce continued talking to her. I had a small suitcase and there were some things in my bag that I wanted to stuff in the suitcase so I wouldn’t have to carry around extra weight all day.
In the middle of unzipping and reorganizing my belongings, I hear her ask Bryce if we’d like to do an early check-in. He responds but I can’t hear in detail. But, he is laughing and smiling so I close up my stuff and head back to the desk to figure out what is happening.
By early check-in, my new favorite person, Stormy, meant early check-in right in that moment! We wouldn’t have to wait at all! She explained that there was an early check-in fee. It was only $75. (I think in my exhausted state, I would have agreed to pay triple that amount to check-in at 7am!)
We thanked her multiple times and were on our way to our room.
“Stormy is my hero!” I said to Bryce. “She saved our day!”
We drew the curtains, turned off the lights and took a nice long nap not on a park bench.
And, when we woke up about five hours later at noon, we felt refreshed enough to walk to the river front and around the French Quarter before heading to the welcome happy hour for some pre-wedding festivities with the bride and groom.
Earlier in the afternoon as we enjoyed beignets, I had a brief moment of relapse where I said maybe red-eye flights aren’t that bad. But, then I remembered that not every hotel will have Stormy to your rescue.
otter travel more 