An 11 hour delay; an overnight diversion; and more: my long trek to Australia lasted at least 54 hours that spread over four days — with a little help from the International Date Line.
An 11 Hour Delay; an Overnight Diversion; and More: My Long Trek to Australia
The title of this article was originally Middle Seat Again on My Longest Flight Yet? Almost… as I was to ask if I actually sat in the middle seat again on my longest flight yet in the economy class cabin aboard a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft which operated as American Airlines flight 7 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Brisbane.
The answer originally would have been yes; but I lucked out in one way and not in another way. Let us start from the beginning of the long journey.
Day 1
We were walking into the Club ATL lounge at the international airport in Atlanta when we received the news that the flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Brisbane was delayed by ten hours and ten minutes due to the effects of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. I tried every possible way to be rebooked on a different flight — social media, telephone, text, and even with an agent in person — but I was out of luck.
The flight from Atlanta to Dallas-Fort Worth was uneventful. After leaving the airplane, I waited in line at the service center for once again trying to change the itinerary to alternate flights — but not only was that attempt unsuccessful, we were also denied vouchers for food, lodging, or anything else. We did get our boarding passes for the flight, which was scheduled to depart at 7:00 in the morning.
We wound up going to the Club DFW lounge. I showed them my Priority Pass membership card. They graciously accepted us and allowed us to stay until they closed. Although it was not exactly a meal, we were thankfully able to get some sustenance while I attempted to work in the quiet surroundings with entities within our itinerary that were affected by the significant delay.
Once the lounge closed, we sat in club chair seats adjacent to the lounge on the second floor that were reasonably comfortable but had no convenient electrical outlets. That was where we spent the night. Booking a hotel room was possible — but it was also expensive; and we would have had to awaken at 4:00 in the morning at the latest to arrive at the gate in time for the delayed flight.
At one point, I went downstairs in the empty terminal to find an outlet so that I can continue working. We basically did not sleep for those few hours that night.
Day 2
The Club DFW opened the next morning at 4:00; so we were once again able to work while having more sustenance. We had no idea what a long day were were about to have. This day was not supposed to exist in our lives, as we were to skip it altogether had the flight not been delayed by ten hours and ten minutes.
We eventually boarded the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner airplane, which operated as American Airlines flight 7 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Brisbane. We were hoping to salvage at least the first day of our trip. I was assigned to a middle seat in the middle section of the aircraft to travel greater than 16 hours to Brisbane — just as I sat in the middle seat for 14 hours aboard an Airbus A350 airplane that was operated by Delta Air Lines from Los Angeles to Sydney. This flight to Brisbane was to be the longest flight on which I have yet ever experienced. Imagine having to deal with sitting in that middle seat in the middle section for greater than 16 hours — plus the time prior to departure…
…but fortunately for me, the aisle seat to the left of my seat remained empty when the boarding door closed. I was thrilled — and quite relieved. What a pleasant surprise!
The airplane departed 17 minutes later than scheduled.
Hot towels were distributed by the members of the flight crew before breakfast was served approximately one hour into the flight. I would have rather had dinner, as that would have been served aboard the airplane had it departed at its original scheduled time. The choice was either fruit or eggs.
The fruit consisted of two half strawberries, a half slice of grapefruit, two slices of orange, three thin slices of pineapple, and a block of honeydew which still had part of the rind on it. That was uncomfortably crunchy, as the rind was the same color as the remainder of the honeydew.
Scrambled eggs were drenched in a very buttery sauce which became somewhat tolerable with lots of salt and pepper added to them; a tiny slice of some kind of ham; and a large hash brown that was easily the worst hash brown I have ever tasted, as it was dry, pasty, and flavorless. I never thought anyone could actually ruin a potato until that moment.
Served with either meal was a cup of chobani vanilla greek yogurt, a small bag of loose granola made from oats, and a blueberry pomegranate granola bake.
For a flight of greater than 16 hours and almost 8,500 miles, I did not consider this a meal.
No water was handed out to passengers between meals by members of the flight crew; but an assortment of snacks were available at the rear of the aircraft during the flight — including Biscoff cookies; lightly salted baked green pea snacks from Harvest Snaps; strawberry yogurt granola bars; and small bags of miniature pretzels.
The bulky adapter to my laptop computer would slide out of the electrical outlet on the back of the seat in front of me, as it was too loose. The adapter had to be held in place — and even then, it would sometimes work with my laptop computer. None of the three electrical outlets would firmly hold the adaptor in place.
Approximately halfway into the flight, a vegetarian Halal ratatouille Stromboli and salted caramel gelato were served — and they were both much better than breakfast.
In fact, a flight attendant offered passengers a second Stromboli; and I happily accepted, as I needed that after that poor breakfast hours prior.
The salted caramel gelato was not overly frozen; so it was the perfect temperature for consumption. A plastic spoon was included inside the lid of the container.
After passing Hawaii to the south, I looked at the interactive flight map and noticed a sharp curve in the flight path towards Honolulu. I initially thought that this was a glitch — until one of the pilots announced the news that we did not want to hear: the airplane was being diverted to Honolulu. Apparently, the headwinds were strong enough that the pilots did not want to take a chance of running out of fuel before arriving in Brisbane.
No one knew what was going on for a while. After the airplane landed, we waited for a gate. We were required to complete agricultural forms and not bring any fruits or vegetables off of the airplane. We were eventually informed that we would get vouchers for a hotel room and food via e-mail message from American Airlines.
Apparently, we were staying in Honolulu overnight. So much for salvaging our plans at the beginning of our itinerary.
Some fellow passengers started receiving their vouchers immediately. One of them was staying at a Hyatt hotel property. That sounded promising.
I did receive an empty apology form letter from American Airlines; but I never received the vouchers. Upon asking one employee of the airline, she condescendingly told us that we would receive our vouchers.
Those vouchers never came to me to this day — even as you are reading this article. Yes, I checked the junk folder of my e-mail account. Nothing. Nada. Rien.
As American Airlines has no service center at the airport in Honolulu, I had no choice but to wait in a very long line, which kept growing as I stood in it because only one person was behind the extensive counter attempting to assist literally hundreds of people.
While waiting in line, I tried every possible way to be rebooked on a different flight — social media, telephone, and text — I was again out of luck. Even hanging up and calling again — which usually works — failed.
Greater than two hours later, I finally was able to speak to a customer service agent of the airline. At first, she questioned whether the airline was giving out any vouchers.
Here we go again, I thought to myself.
We were eventually given vouchers for $25.00 for each of us for food. The lodging choices I was given consisted of three motel properties — all of which received negative reviews. “Look — I have been delayed at least 11 hours trying to get to Australia plus waiting in this long line just for these vouchers plus will be delayed another night. I stayed overnight at the airport in Dallas last night with little sleep. I have not eaten well in at least 36 hours. I would like to stay at a decent hotel property, please.”
Thankfully, the service agent accommodated my request. I guess she could see that I was obviously tired and hungry at that point.
A food voucher of $25.00 does not go very far in Honolulu, where dining is expensive. At the hotel property, we only had two options: a pricy restaurant within the hotel property, that closed within the hour; or Olive Garden at the mall next door. Tired and hungry, we opted for Olive Garden. My rigatoni pasta with marinara sauce alone cost more than $20.00 before tax and tip; so I wound up paying the remainder of the check with my credit card before retiring to the hotel room to continue to sort out and salvage our travel plans.
Day 3
We awakened at 4:45 in the morning to check out of the hotel property and catch a taxi cab. We had to wait while commiserating with several other fellow passengers until the valet service could find a taxi cab company which would transport us back to the airport without going through a lot of trouble because no taxi cab company would accept the vouchers from American Airlines. We all squeezed into a minivan to get to the airport, whose exit off the highway was blocked due to police activity.
We eventually arrived at the gate, where the remarks for the flight showed the word tentative. That was not comforting. However, we did board the airplane. Most of us remained in the same seats in which we were assigned aboard the same airplane. Some passengers did not continue on to Brisbane. A few other passengers voluntarily switched seats with each other.
The airplane finally departed 31 minutes later than the scheduled departure time of 8:00 in the morning.
The only choice for breakfast was French toast. I despise French toast. However — like the way American Airlines ruined a potato with what they called a hash brown — the French toast was flavorless and mushy, according to fellow passengers who had the courage to eat this mess.
No one had any idea what was the glop that was sloppily plopped on top of the French toast.
Passengers who ordered special meals were out of luck, as none were able to be brought aboard the aircraft.
That American Airlines had the audacity to serve this excuse for a breakfast was what I consider to the point of obnoxious — both in terms of quality and quantity. If the airline did not serve Honolulu as a destination, I might understand this — but it does.
Unfortunately, the last meal that was served was arguably the worst one yet: some type of turkey and cheese conglomeration that was on a soggy roll and swimming in some sort of orange oil.
It looked awful; it smelled awful; and it felt awful.
Served with this abomination of a sandwich was a cup of slices of mandarin oranges and a bag of Maui Style kettle potato chips.
Day 4
The airplane crossed both the International Date Line and the Equator, which propelled us into the future in the southern hemisphere. The turbulence finally abated for the most part.
After the airplane finally landed at Brisbane Airport, we then caught a flight to Melbourne, which was not the flight that was originally scheduled before out itinerary was disrupted. In fact, that flight was changed several times. Because we arrived late in the evening, we scrambled to get to get the rental car so that we can get to the hotel property in time to eat dinner.
The restaurant at the hotel property was closed; but they thankfully did send room service up to the room.
Final Boarding Call
The situation became so absurd that everyone knew about our flight: personnel at the airport, agents of the Transportation Security Administration, the people behind the front desk at the hotel property — and even the hosts at Olive Garden. I actually thought I was witnessing the meltdown of American Airlines while I was standing in line with hundreds of inconvenienced passengers at the airport in Honolulu.
American Airlines Flight 7 became infamous — thankfully, on a temporary basis. The experience may not seem like much now; but it sure felt significantly worse while I was enduring it.
The first time I ever boarded an airplane for a flight was with American Airlines; so there is a feeling of nostalgia for me…
…but after this experience, I was left wondering what happened to this legacy airline. With several notable exceptions, American Airlines really dropped the ball on this trip and could have taken simple and inexpensive measures to at least improve what was a bad experience overall.
Please do not misunderstand me: American Airlines certainly had no control over inclement weather, which in this case was Tropical Cyclone Alfred; and I appreciate that they erred on the caution of safety…
…but the missteps that worsened what was already a bad situation are what I plan to address with American Airlines. I also incurred hundreds of dollars worth of costs that I should be able to recover if American Airlines refuses to compensate me for what happened — but that chapter of this story has not yet concluded.
I also ate very little food aboard the airplane during those flights. If not for the snacks that were available in the rear of the aircraft, I would have gone hungry during the long flights. The meals should have been more substantial — even for the economy class cabin — and of better quality.
Overall, the entire experience felt like that American Airlines simply gave up trying…
All photographs ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
