The first rule of airline travel...

is don't get on the plane if you can't handle delays.

We were supposed to leave Dulles at 12:30pm on Monday for a flight to Toronto.
From there, we were going to catch a 4:50 flight to Tel Aviv.

Well, our 12:30 flight didn't leave Washington until 7pm.

This was after 2 weather delays, 3 different captains and 3 different first officers (they "timed out"), a missing passenger after we deplaned and reboarded, a few refueling incidents, and a few other false starts.

By the time we got to Toronto, our bags were not available to us (they were checked through and apparently in some warehouse at the airport), pretty much every hotel was filled up (due to storms), United's supposed 1k Premier service team was unavailable to help or offer vouchers, and the 5 of us ended up in a Marriott 8 miles away in a room meant for 4, having done our dinner shopping at Walmart.

We were *this* close to sleeping on the floor of the airport, but we made it and (hopefully), will be on our way to Israel tomorrow.

I will say that I was thrilled at how Team Finland responded to the adversity, with a great attitude.

And now, we get to hang out in Toronto for 17 hours.