When Travel Plans Blow Up, Literally

This morning, I was supposed to be excitedly making last minute arrangements and plans for my flight tonight from New York to Venice, Italy. My fiance and I have been looking forward to this trip for months. It was to be our first return visit since first falling in love with Venice three years ago.

Instead, however, I have spent the morning at the computer constantly checking on my flight status and airport closings. And a short while ago I got the official word that our flight to Venice had been canceled - another casualty of the Icelandic volcano eruption.

Like tens of thousands of other travelers, my vacation plans have been placed in jeopardy thanks to Eyjafjallajokull, that volcano in Iceland with the near unpronounceable name. According to news reports, the first eruption happened on March 20 but did not cause much disruption to air travel. The massive disruption began on April 14, when ash began to spew forth and cloud the skies of much of Northern Europe. Flights have been canceled and airports shut down in what has been described as the biggest disruption of airspace and air travel since 9/11.

I had been watching the news of the volcanic eruption every day since then, worried about the implications for our trip. Of course, no one wants to risk death for the sake of a vacation, and volcanic ash can be a very serious threat to air safety. Volcanic ash, made largely of silicates, can melt when ingested into a jet engine, causing the engine to stall and fail. Definitely not worth the risk and no responsible airline would take it. So I waited and watched the predictions of where the volcano's ash cloud would travel and when. Would Italy be spared? Would we get lucky after all?

My hopes began to fall when the night before our flight, I saw that evening's flight from JFK to Venice had been canceled. Some reports were saying that the airport would re-open by midday on Saturday, however, giving me some hope that we'd be able to get off the ground. But at just past 8am this morning I got the Iceland travel alert - my flight was canceled, and Marco Polo airport in Venice was entirely shut down. I immediately tried to reach my airline, Delta, by the phone but was actually hung up on due to "high call volume". I tried to use their website to re-book an alternative flight but no options appeared available, not even for flying out of alternative airports such as Newark, Philadelphia, or BWI in the coming days.

I tried calling Orbitz, whom I had booked my flight through. They were entirely unhelpful unless I wanted to completely cancel my reservation, which I was not ready to do. Even if I can get our money back on the flight, I have a non-refundable rental apartment booked for our stay, and am looking at losing my entire $1,600 on that if we don't go at all. Not to mention my fiance had a meeting booked for two days while in Venice that will cost him over $2,000 if he cannot make it, unless the entire meeting gets canceled as well.

Two hours later, and now I am at least on hold with Delta - where I have been for over 40 minutes already. It is my hope that I can at least get to Venice somehow by Tuesday or Wednesday to salvage some of our vacation trip. Even if we can get to Europe in some form or fashion and make the rest of the journey by train, I'll take that option.

My lesson learned? Next time I'm traveling overseas, I'm buying travel insurance. Because at least as bad as losing our vacation will be the possibility of losing nearly all the money we had invested into this trip. One never thinks a volcano is going to ruin your vacation, but for tens of thousands of travelers like myself, that's exactly what is happening right now.