You remind me of a friend who went to her hometown of Allentown, PA from Pittsburgh — usually about an hour flight. Well, there was massive fog east of Pittsburgh to the coast. Could not land in Allentown, so they tried Philadelphia. No luck. Tried Syracuse. No luck. Finally, my friend’s plane landed in Baltimore where the passengers were bused to Allentown. That hour flight ended up being about 18 to 20 hours.
From then on, whenever my friend would fly to Allentown, I would joke that I hope she didn’t have to stop in Havana first.
Been from the East Coast to Alabama, via Salt Lake City. That was the worst. Other than, maybe, getting stuck in a snowstorm in Little Rock, Arkansas. There ain't much in the airport, in Little Rock. Especially during a heavy snowstorm, in the middle of the night.
Most all of the flights I took connected via Atlanta (if I flew Delta) so to go North, more often than not, I needed to fly South, first. :-)
Contrast that with flying the company jet. It was wonderful. Get on the plane, no security, get off the plane, have a car waiting to pick me up. Only rule was that I needed to arrive before the ranking management (in my case, usually the CEO) because when she got there, the plane left. THAT was travelling, though I shudder to think of the cost.