Barrett Lane was on his way from Washington, D.C., to one of his college best friend’s wedding in Thousand Oaks, California, when his flight was delayed ahead of July Fourth weekend.
The 34-year-old transportation project manager and his husband had flown into Newark, New Jersey, where they were supposed to change planes, when their United Airlines flight to Los Angeles was pushed back four hours because of a maintenance problem.
Several more delays later, the couple boarded the plane Wednesday night along with other passengers, and sat at the gate for three hours.
The airline eventually let them deplane, and the flight was pushed back until the morning. Hotels were full, so the couple slept on cots on the airport floor.
“I think I maybe slept like an hour total,” Lane told USA TODAY. By the time the flight finally took off the next morning, it had been delayed more than 14 hours.
