My trip from Perth to Los Angeles in September ended up as a 46-hour journey across the world.
Despite flying hundreds of times during my decade as a travel journalist, I still found myself in a turbulent journey from beginning to end.
This dreadful experience also reinforced several lessons about air travel in the current messy era of travel.
One, always hold airlines to account. Two, never use third-party flight booking websites.
And remember that, no matter how badly an airline lets you down, that is not the fault of the customer service you are dealing with.
It all started in the middle of the night on Aug 31. In Perth, after being woken by my crying toddler son, I checked my phone and saw a shocking e-mail.
Philippines Airlines had just cancelled my flight from Perth to Los Angeles, via Manila, less than four hours before I was heading to Perth Airport.
Desperate to book a seat on its next flight out of Perth, I called the various hotlines of Philippines Airlines, but received no answer.
Eventually, its WhatsApp service responded and booked me on a Perth-Los Angeles flight for the following day on Sept 1.
That night, as I was about to sleep, I received another disturbing message from Philippines Airlines. Now, the Sept 1 flight had been cancelled.
Once more, I spent hours trying to contact the airline’s staff. Finally, I was told that its Perth aircraft had a mechanical issue and it could not guarantee when it would be able to fly me out of Perth.
At this point, I would have aborted the trip had it not been so hugely important, both personally and professionally.
First, my brother was waiting for me in Los Angeles for our once-in-a-lifetime experience of self-driving across nine states in America.
Second, I had meetings in the United States with three senior editors, including one appointment at the Washington, DC headquarters of National Geographic, for which I have contributed for several years.