Thursday, August 24, 2006

My colleague, Tudor Williams, and I finished our work in a suburb of St. Paul and headed for the cab that was supposed to be waiting at 4:30 p.m. He showed up at 5:05 p.m., which worried me since it was raining and my US Airways flight to Phoenix (where I was connecting on to SFO) was scheduled to depart at 7 p.m. and my courtesy call from Orbitz indicated it was on time. Fortunately, there was no line at all at St. Paul security, and I got to my gate in time to find a weather delay had the flight rescheduled for 8:45 p.m.

I stood in line to find out about rebookings. I could get to Phoenix but no further, I was told; there were no later flights to San Francisco. What about through Vegas? I asked. Nope. How about flights to Oakland or San Jose? Nope. What about a Northwest flight to SFO? All oversold. Could I get my boarding pass for my new 7:05 a.m. flight the next day? Nope, you’ll have to get that in Phoenix.

So I booked a room at the Phoenix Airport Hampton Inn and headed back to a restaurant to have a beer with Tudor. Later, we strolled over to the Northwest lounge (my Priority Pass card got us in). I was able to relax a few minutes before heading back to my gate, where the new departure time was 9:45 p.m. I shrugged and headed back to the Northwest lounge, sat with Tudor (whose Northwest flight to Vancouver was scheduled to leave after midnight), then wandered back to the gate.

I decided to try one more time to get my boarding pass for Friday morning, which would let me get to the hotel as quickly as possible and get an extra 20 or 30 minutes of sleep. As I waited, I heard the agent working out a flight for the passenger in front of me—to SFO via Vegas! I asked if I could do the same and noted that I had been told no such flight was available. the agent said nothing. I thought it might be that the Vegas-SFO flight was delayed, but that wasn’t the case—it was due to depart at about midnight, so I had plenty of time to get there and make that flight.

I was lucky to get on the Vegas flight, since both computers at the gate froze up and the agent couldn’t print me a ticket. However, a ticket was awaiting me in Vegas, where the flight was (of course) delayed from Chicago. I’m sitting in the terminal now, waiting for a flight that is now due to depart at 1:50 a.m. It’ll be 5 a.m. earliest before I walk through my front door.

I should have just stayed in the hotel in Phoenix; I would have gotten home only four hours later.

Who ever said business travel is glamorous?

Posted by Shel in • Cabs • Planes
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