The Tim Gunn Approach to Travel

My wife and daughters love Project Runway, so I've found myself playing video poker while on our family room TV Tim Gunn repeats his mantra, "Make it work!"

When air travel is involved, those are words to live by. Concerned that we might miss our train from Civitavecchia to the airport, Julie and I skipped one last breakfast with the kids aboard Navigator of the Seas. Despite carrying our luggage off, we missed the first round of shuttle buses but decided not to splurge for a taxi all the way to the airport. Taxis refused to take us the short distance to the train station. We were on the first bus that came back for the second round of shuttles to downtown, upon which we waited while the other two filled up and departed moments before us.

Off the shuttle bus, we followed the herd pulling their rolling bags along sidewalks and over crosswalks until we reached the train station about eight blocks away. At the ticket window, a sign announced a train strike. Another red flag, but we were allowed to buy tickets to Rome connecting to the Leonardo Express. I assume the ticket sellers must have been management, forced to fill in for striking union workers. We validated our tickets to Rome and hoped that management could also drive the train.

Our train to Rome was late, and no one checked our tickets, but otherwise the trip went fine. In Rome, we validated our tickets to the airport, and on that more expensive express route, a manager did check our tickets.

Despite running later than we hoped, we were at the airport with enough time to catch our scheduled flight. When we checked in, we learned the flight was delayed by four hours, which would make catching our connecting flight in New York impossible.

To make a long story short, they gave us a meal voucher, which bought a plate of pasta painted in a thin red coat of ragu, an orange and water. We had a deck of cards as well as some interesting books, so we settled in for the wait, eventually buying a chocolate brioche and cappuccinos on our own dime. There were unnecessary delays as we boarded, culminating with the pilot announcing that they had not, on a plane four hours late, yet cleared customs after we had boarded the plane.

American Airlines apologized for the delay and wisely bought drinks for the passengers, although they didn't announce the latter. When the stewardess came by with a drink cart, I asked if a rum and Diet would be complimentary, and she said, "Yes." Julie said she wanted one of those. I said, "Make it two," and after serving Julie hers, the stewardess gave me two of them. Smile. Watching movies and relaxed by the unexpected happy hour, it was a good flight overall.

Most of the passengers were fretting about their connections, but Julie had checked her Blackberry at the airport and knew all flights to LAX that night would be long gone by the time we arrived, so why not make the best of it?

Why not indeed? We landed and found they had booked us on a flight the next day on American at noon, connecting through Chicago, and despite the fact that we would be comped two meals, transfers and a hotel, we refused. We asked about the JetBlue nonstop leaving at 4 PM, and the American Airlines rep managed to snag us two seats. We would have made Tim Gunn proud, because that meant that instead of spending the next 24 hours essentially in transit, we could fit in a visit with our granddaughter Emma and possibly catch a glimpse of her working parents Gina and Laszlo, who live in the Big Apple, while still arriving home at about the same time the next day. We would "Make it work!"