|
2004-12-24 - 3:44 a.m. travelogue Started out early this morning in North Nowhere, on my way to spend Christmas with my parents in South Nowhere. Of course you have to connect through a hub - can't fly from Nowhere to Nowhere direct. I was kind of bummed that I'd be spending nearly 3 hours in an airport on my layover, but what can you do - making the earlier connection would have meant a 200% increase in the price of the ticket. So I'll sit and wait a bit. As it turned out, my first plane was about a half hour late, and I'd never have made that earlier flight anyway. So I was feeling all "see, this was best after all" as I got off my plane and went to the food court. Now, as I was getting off the plane, there were people standing there with connection information. Since my flight was 2 and a half hours off, it wasn't on any of the video screens, so I was told where my gate would be, flight is on schedule, etc. So I went and got something to eat and sat down. Since I don't ever trust any information until I get a couple confirmations, the first thing I did, before I ate a bite, was to get out my cell phone and call to reconfirm the flight information. And what a good thing. Not 10 minutes after a human had told me I was "all set" (I should have known better at that phrase alone), I heard the information on the phone that my flight was cancelled because there was no flight crew available. GREAT. I'm not blaming anyone for the cancellation. The crew may have been stranded somewhere in the midwest where they're getting eleventeen feet of snow at the moment. That happens. But if the information has been available for long enough to have the automated phone center updated, why don't I know about it? Why weren't the people meeting our plane informed, and why did I not get a call about it, like I'm supposed to when my flight times change? Sheesh. I tried to call the reservations center and see if I could rebook from there. Busy signal after busy signal. So I decided the people at the phone center were probably just about exactly as busy as the people at the customer service centers in the airport (which is to say, WICKED busy) so I ate my lunch quickly and went over to stand in line. An hour later... seriously... I got up to the front of the line. My cancelled flight had been due to leave at 4. There was a flight at 6, one at 9, and one at 10. All completely full. I gave the guy an alternate city, about 50 miles away from South Nowhere, where my parents live. They could pick me up there if they had to, and I know my dad would be glad to do that given the alternative of having me spend the night in the airport, five hours away. In fact, I have no doubt that if I couldn't have gotten out, he'd have driven the five hours to come and get me. I'd have made him let me drive back though. Anyway. So I give the very nice and really trying to be helpful airline guy my alternative city. There are two flights going there - one leaving at 7 and one at 8:30. The 7pm one - completely full. Which is to say, that as I stood there at 2:45 pm, the only flight going within 100 miles of my desired destination with an available seat, didn't leave for nearly 6 hours. Sigh. And did I mention that through all this, today was a very bad ankle day, and I had shooting pains in my foot almost constantly, even when I was just sitting there? Ugh. Very Helpful Airline Guy put me on standby for the 6pm flight directly to South Nowhere, said that if that didn't come through, I could roll that over to standby for the 7pm to Near Nowhere, and that he'd book me in as confirmed for the 8:30 flight, so at least I'd be on that one for sure. Assuming it didn't get cancelled, of course. He didn't say that, but it's always implied. The good news: because I'm a very good Amazing Racer and had the foresight to call and find out at 1:45 that my 4pm flight was cancelled - long before it went up on the screens - I was way ahead of all the other poor people on the flight who were minding their own business and trusting their information. I was #2 on the standby list for the 6pm flight. From now on, believe that I'll be calling to get the information on my connection as soon as my first plane lands and we're allowed to power up the cell phones. Oddly, with all the traveling I've done, I'd never been on standby before. You hang out and wait for all the real passengers to get on the plane, and basically you hope some poor slob somewhere isn't going to make it to the gate on time. Maybe they got delayed and are back in their own previous airport, or they didn't get there early enough and they're trapped at the security checkpoint, or something. Anything. I got very lucky. By the time they were boarding, there was a standby list of 22 people. They ended up having room for three, and luckily I was still #2. My suitcase? Who knows. Didn't make it in tonight on any of the flights to South Nowhere. I hope it will arrive in the morning so I don't have to run out on Christmas Eve and buy a new toothbrush and deodorant and all that crap. Not to mention there are three gifts in there that I need to wrap up for tomorrow night. Not to mention also that I'm sitting here wearing one of my mom's nightgowns, and the same underwear I had on all day, and I'm so not looking forward to putting the same clothes back on tomorrow. But. While I was waiting in line to get rebooked, I met the most charming young man. He was on his way to Slightly North of South Nowhere and was dealing with long long delays and looking for something faster. He was willing to go to any city within two or three hours' driving distance of where he needed to be, and had multiple bookings with rental car agencies in several cities, complete with the godawful one-way dropoff charge, so that whatever city he could get to, he'd be ready. His dad was having brain surgery today. He was trying to get home to be there if his dad woke up after. Hoping his dad would be able to recognize him if he did wake up. I would not begin to claim I had a bad day. God bless you and your dad and your family, Kevin. my mood - |
|
|
Recent ramblings: |
<==