There were a couple surprises this morning when I went to greet a Make A Wish family at the Albany International Airport.
The first was when I went on the United Airlines site to check the status of the last leg of the family's flight back from their tropical break. Apparently, the flight number had been changed. The one in the family's original itinerary was for a United plane to Chicago, not to Albany.

I ended up calling Premiere Limosine, an awesome local company that provides transport for the kids and their families to and from the airport and usually in one of their luxurious limosines which is a great surprise for them. I knew Premiere had to pick up the family but they had the same problem I did since they had the wrong flight number. Eventually, after checking the flights into Albany International, we found the right one (mainly due to Premiere's help on their 24-hour phone service which was greatly appreciated, especially being Easter morning and all).

Kinda made me wonder how often flight numbers change and why. An obligatory online search found this as one answer, citing mainly airline mergers and continuous changes with the industry, but I'm sure there is more to the story and might do a future post on it when I learn more.

Since I knew the family had a long trip back (as well as a long trip over) with multiple layovers, I had a feeling there might be a delay along the way and was 100 percent sure that they would not arrive on time.

My second surprise of the day was that they were on time. Infact, they were early.

So, I have to give the United folks kudos for that since they got me home to my family on a holiday on time and the Make A Wish family home with plenty of time for Easter celebrations, following some jet-lagged rest anyway.