Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Our flight

Let me tell you about our flight.

We were just in Portland. A second cousin got married and Yummy and I attended. We flew out via Phoenix and were supposed to return the same way. But the connection was a bit tight. Our US Airways plane landed on time. But there was a US Airways plane sitting at the US Airways gate of the US Airways terminal. By the time we got the gate pulled up our connecting US Airways flight had been boarding for 10 minutes. Everyone gets up and gets their bags and goes nowhere. Before opening the door the US Airways flight attendant suggests that they let the people with tight connections off first. Would have been helpful 5 minutes before. Our connecting flight has been boarding for 15 minutes. We get off and make a dash up one hallway and down another. We got there and the door was closed. Wasn't one of those situations where we got there just as it closed. It had been closed. And we were the second people from our flight to make the gate.

So we went to customer service. They tried to help, but apparently the fact that US Airways wouldn't hold the US Airways flight (which left about 1/3 empty) for the people coming from a US Airways flight that was only late because of another US Airways flight wasn't US Airways fault. They couldn't use their beloved alliance to get us home in a reasonable time via another airline. And they don't have east-bound flights between 3:00 PM and 10:00 PM because of the time change. After at least 20 minutes we got a flight to DC via Boston. All the other flights were full because of some vague storm that caused a lot of rerouting passengers. So our 2:30 flight was now an 8:55 flight that would eventually get us in DC at 7:20 AM and home at about 8:45 AM.

So, it's 6 or 7 hours to our flight. Lets wander the airport for awhile. See if there's a restaurant with seating that isn't just a bar with chicken wings. We found it, but at the furthest part of the airport that could be reached without leaving security. And we had ice cream.

Of course, our luggage had to be rerouted, too. Actually, it didn't since it made our connecting flight. It made it to DC, but by the time we got there it had just been dispatched to Boston. It returned to DC a few hours later.

I would normally needed to have been at work at 7:00. A recovery day would have been totally excusable. I got a couple of hours sleep before having to make a 2 hour drive that should have been a 1 hour drive to get to a meeting that I missed. I still got the grand tour and discussed what I needed to know.

Then I drove another hour to a co-worker's house to get her computer to take to the office to show the property people tomorrow (or today) so they can see them and touch them before moving them to different property books. Tomorrow (today) I'll take them and her back home.

Can I haz sleep now?

2 comments:

lacochran's evil twin said...

Yeesh. Airline travel seems to get worse and worse. I scratched Delta off my list about a year ago for similar negligence with a "who cares? not us, that's for sure" attitude.

wstachour said...

Airline travel has become city bus service.

I think every mode of travel, when new, is introduced as an expensive luxury for the rich and / or coddled. Then the masses stamp their feet and things gradually move downscale. What was once a luxury is now expected, a Human Right.

The last vestige of dignity has been pounded out of air travel by pajama-clad families and drunken, groping business folks. I dread most trips.