Sorry to hear about this — it’s kinda every traveler’s nightmare. I always think “what would my parents do?” in these scenarios — they’re smart folks but don’t know “the game” so to speak. At least you’re a well seasoned traveler that knows how to get around and deal with travel adversity.

unfortunately EWR is an airport that runs near capacity on a good day. All it takes is one thing to go wrong and it snowballs fast. In your case, the broken airtrain and the lack of staffing (which I guess is to be expected on a holiday) combined for a bad day. EWR is my home airport and I usually play the “how late can I arrive?” game when I’m on less-urgent biz travel and such. But when it matters, when it really matters, I’ll be there 3 hours before a flight. Thankfully it’s got a nice Polaris lounge and UC, so depending on where I’m headed, I’ve got somewhere to wait. Heck, if I’m thinking about it, I’ll use it as an excuse to book a reservation at Classified.

So yeah, it’s not pleasant but given that a) it was an important holiday trip for you; b) you know you have paperwork snafus frequently; c) you were dropping a bag; and d) it’s a holiday at EWR …. That’s a solid calculus for “get there really early.”

Lesson learned.

I also wanted to say thank you for taking it in stride. I’ve seen enough DYKWIA meltdowns over the years to really appreciate it when I see folks who handle things calmly and with their wit about them. So thank you!!