Years ago on a flight(SEA-NRT), we took off and about 20 minutes into the flight the pilot said a "temperature" light was coming on. For safety reasons, they were going to dump fuel and go back to SEA. After 2 hours sitting at the gate, pilot stated that everything was fixed and we would be departing again. Before departing the captain stated that he will update us on arrival times once we get in the air. Takeoff #2 went fine. This time expecting to hear the usual announcements, I hear "This is captain XXXX, have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?". "The same light is coming on, so we will once again dump fuel and land again at SEA". This time we stayed on the plane for about 30 minutes. The captain said that a part would need to shipped overnight, therefore we would staying in SEA(Doubletree) with a $25 dinner voucher, $10 breakfast voucher, amentity packet and an overnight pack. With about 350 or so people heading to awaiting buses, we decided not to wait so we took a short cab ride to the hotel. While standing in line for a room, 3 buses pull up filling up the lobby rather quickly. After dumping our bags, we decided to go ahead and use our vouchers in the hotel restaurant. While giving our order to our waiter, I told him we were distressed passengers on SEA-NRT and expect to get a ton of people here shortly. He looked distressed because due to a slow day, the manager had sent 2 waiters home early. By the time we finished, the manager was waiting tables along with the hostesses. Hang on it gets better!!! We woke up at 5a.m. for a 7:30 departure. When we got to the lobby, we were told the flight was moved back to 11a.m. After breakfast we went back to our room for CNN, Regis and Sportscenter. This time we all boarded for our 11a.m. flight. After being seated, we were told the flight would be delayed 1 more hour. FA comes on a few minutes later and said that there would be delay in fixing the plane and for us to deplane. This time there was another plane that was getting ready to depart(same flight #,24 hous later) and that they would try to accomodate all first class passengers first,then Plats, then Golds. I was a lowly silver and was left to fend for myself. The FA said that another plane was being flown in from MSP and would be here in about 4 hours for those who did not get on the flight at the neighboring gate. By the time I got back to the gate area, there was already a line of about 50 people. My mom walks cane-assisted, so people were passing us in the walkway. Once there, I called the 1-800# and got myself booked on the flight. My seats went from bulkhead to 2 middle seats in the back of the plane. As I reached the boarding gate, there was still a long line. GA said that if you did not already have a boarding pass for this flight and on board you were losing your seats. Now panicking, I rushed to the front and explained to the GA that I just got off the phone with NWA with 2 middle seats. This was a snowbell chance in ^&*%, but I told her that I had bulkhead on the previous flight and asked if there was any chance on an aisle seat or better for my mom only. She said my seats were given away. She quickly grabbed 2 boarding passes and told us to quickly board. I grabbed my mom and began our slow descent to the plane. Not paying real close attention to the row number, I saw that my mom had C and I had D. It was 2 seats upfront(my first flight ever upfront across the Pacific).All ended well after a 24 hour delay, bags were delivered the next day to my uncle's house in Ofuna,Japan(2 hour train ride from Tokyo). Great job by NWA. Received miles for both days(SEA-NRT).
Sorry for the long post, moderator feel free to delete or move.