Sometimes nothing can be done when bitcoin network is under spam attack. Yesterday we had over 160k Unconfirmed transactions.
Recommended fees can be calculated in various ways. Some times they seem to be doing well, where your TX confirms within 2 blocks, but some times (like happened with you as well) it still isn't enough to nurse greedy pools. In order to attract attention from with greed filled pools, you'll need to include a higher than recommended fee. If I see that my TX needs 50K satoshi as fee, I change it to something like 80-100K satoshi. It all depends on whether or not you need it to confirm fast.