This week marks my 5th year as a fulltime-employee at Microsoft, starting July 16th, 2013 after finishing my studies.
The last 5 years has tought me a lot, not only working fulltime on various products, fully owning features, fixing livesite issues, see Microsoft go through an immense transition to a more open company embracing open source and the DEVOPS approach.
It also allowed me to realize a longtime goal, moving to the US to work out of Microsoft Corp. HQ in Redmond.
Living abroad has it's pro's and con's
Moving to the US was pretty easy for me personally, as the internet has opened up for a plethora of communication options, such as Skype and Facebook Messenger, allowing me to communicate with friends and family back home.
Unfortunately, sometimes life takes an unforeseen turn - and being abroad can be extremely hard in such situations.
As such an event unfortunately took place, I am currently writing this blogpost out of Copenhagen Airport - waiting for my flight back home to Seattle after a short week back home, attending a funeral of a loved family member - a family member I had a great conversation with during my wedding in November, and have fond memories of especially while growing up as a kid.
Awesome service in a tough situation
When the news broke last week, I was searching for flight tickets to go back home - flying last-minute across the Atlantic is incredibly expensive with roundtrips easily reaching $3500+
Researching a bit online, I noticed that Delta offers (bereavement fairs)[https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/special-travel-needs/bereavement.html] - allowing family members to fly home to partake in funerals without breaking the bank - Only thing I had to do was to get information about the deceased and the church from which the funeral would take place, and within 20 minutes Delta had arranged for my flight back home.
I can't express my gratitude in such a situation enough, it is not really about the money, it's about an airline and support staff that takes care of humans in tough situations - at the same time allowing for extreme flexibility with the tickets, allowing me to rebook the flight any time.
I noticed multiple American airlines offer this service, but unfortunately none of the airlines I usually fly offer this - and as such this is not the last time I fly Delta or other American airlines.
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