I've been flying long enough in my life to understand issues happen, but some just seem like above and beyond ridiculous. As I'm sitting here in Denver International Airport (rather than being in London today), I feel like I have to share this experience.

This trip started yesterday in Boise with the initial flight to Denver. Everything was on time and boarded with no issue. After the plane was completely boarded we were informed that there would be a few minute delay while some hydraulic fluid was bled off (apparently it was overfilled on the previous flight). Ok, just going to be a few minutes. An hour later we were still sitting in the same spot "waiting on a mechanic". Note, it was nearly 100 degrees in Boise yesterday and they had to shut down the A/C on the plane to do the work.

The flight attendants assured everyone on the plane (67 of us) who had connecting flights that we were all fine. Nearly an hour and a half late, we finally left Boise. We were supposed to have a 45 min layover in Denver. The pilot assured us that it was an 1.5 hour flight, not the 2 hours listed and he was going to make up time in the air.

Guess what, you can't make up that much time. 3/4 of the way through the flight, my family and I got notifications that we had been rebooked for our flight to London - the FOLLOWING DAY. Yep, almost 24 hours later.

Upon arriving in Denver, the gate agents handed us a card with a barcode. Contact Customer Service, we can't do anything. Of course this had been the customer service that we had been trying to contact for the past hour on the plane.

Next up, let's get our bags and figure out the hotel situation. This is the part where I suggest always packing a change of clothes in your carry on. Because the bag was checked it is in a "secure holding area" waiting on the next flight. They can get our bags but it will be 3-4 hours to get them to us (at this point it is 10pm).

My son luckily had started calling United Customer service and finally had someone on the line. Yes, we'll get you to a hotel, and give you 1 meal pass each. Reminder - this is for 24 hours. At least they finally caved and gave us 2 meals each.

Another hour on the phone with customer service, our 3 upgraded seats that were together are now 3 random seats in the back of the plane. After talking with a supervisor "Bob" was able to get us back together, but still 10 rows further back that we were - I hope we still get the upgraded meals.

I've heard a lot of nightmares from people over the last 24 hours, so I feel pretty lucky that it could have been worse - the hotel had a line out the door with people whose flights were cancelled or missed like ours.

That being said, the staff at the hotel last night were great (Best Western), the one United staff member who genuinely wanted to help at the luggage counter (who did give us "survival kits" with water bottles, toothbrushes, etc), and the staff at McDonalds last night as we were getting our dinner finally just as the lobby was closing.

London, I guess we'll see you a day late!