and it teetered on a bust. I love to travel and wish I could afford to do more of it, but one tradition I have been able to keep the last several years is a trip to visit my old friend Joanie each winter at her second home in Ventura, CA. I had made flight reservations for yesterday, and Joanie and her daughter Jen would pick me up in Santa Barbara.
BUT...when I woke up early Saturday morning, three texts greeted me from United that had come in the night. My flight out of the Quad Cities was delayed about 45 minutes to give the crew adequate rest time. I'm certainly not one to ask a pilot to fly on too little sleep, but a second message pointed out that this may cause disruption to my connecting flight.
I checked, and sure enough, I was scheduled to land in Denver at 11:18 and my Santa Barbara flight would take off at 11:20. Every year that I've made this trip, the landing gate has always been at opposite ends of the terminal from my next flight.
There was a number to call to change flights if necessary, and after a half hour on hold with the most god awful music, a nice fellow told me I should change connections. The only later flight was at 7:00 in the evening and would arrive in Santa Barbara at 9:13. Eight hours later than the original time frame--eight hours to be spent in the Denver airport. But it is what it is. I made the change, and notified Joanie. Good to go.
BUT...our flight made better time than usual and landed 15 minutes early. Still not enough time to make my original schedule. So I trekked from B55 to B63 where my rescheduled journey would continue. I sat down to think about what I wanted for lunch.
BUT...during the flight when my phone was turned off, I had received a text from United that my original 11:20 flight was delayed until noon and would be taking off from B39. There was still time! I hurried back down the concourse and got there as they were loading the plane. I finally had a chance to speak to the gate agent, explained the situation, and after several minutes on her computer, she said I could change back to my original flight.
BUT..it was too late to get my checked bag retrieved so it wouldn't arrive in Santa Barbara until 9:13. I decided to go ahead, contacted Joanie, and got on the plane. We arrived on time and they were there to greet me.
BUT... It took over an hour to make sure my bag hadn't arrived with me and fill out the necessary information to get it delivered to Ventura. They said that would probably be mid afternoon the next day, but I was skeptical and resigned myself to making do for possibly a couple of days.
BUT...in the middle of the night my phone rang. A man with a heavily accented but pleasant voice wanted to check the house number. He works at the Santa Barbara airport but lives in Ventura and was delivering my bag plus two others on his return from work!
SO...once I adapted my watch to two hours gained from time zone change and one hour lost for daylight savings time, I am up and running and ready for the week!
BUT...when I woke up early Saturday morning, three texts greeted me from United that had come in the night. My flight out of the Quad Cities was delayed about 45 minutes to give the crew adequate rest time. I'm certainly not one to ask a pilot to fly on too little sleep, but a second message pointed out that this may cause disruption to my connecting flight.
I checked, and sure enough, I was scheduled to land in Denver at 11:18 and my Santa Barbara flight would take off at 11:20. Every year that I've made this trip, the landing gate has always been at opposite ends of the terminal from my next flight.
There was a number to call to change flights if necessary, and after a half hour on hold with the most god awful music, a nice fellow told me I should change connections. The only later flight was at 7:00 in the evening and would arrive in Santa Barbara at 9:13. Eight hours later than the original time frame--eight hours to be spent in the Denver airport. But it is what it is. I made the change, and notified Joanie. Good to go.
BUT...our flight made better time than usual and landed 15 minutes early. Still not enough time to make my original schedule. So I trekked from B55 to B63 where my rescheduled journey would continue. I sat down to think about what I wanted for lunch.
BUT...during the flight when my phone was turned off, I had received a text from United that my original 11:20 flight was delayed until noon and would be taking off from B39. There was still time! I hurried back down the concourse and got there as they were loading the plane. I finally had a chance to speak to the gate agent, explained the situation, and after several minutes on her computer, she said I could change back to my original flight.
BUT..it was too late to get my checked bag retrieved so it wouldn't arrive in Santa Barbara until 9:13. I decided to go ahead, contacted Joanie, and got on the plane. We arrived on time and they were there to greet me.
BUT... It took over an hour to make sure my bag hadn't arrived with me and fill out the necessary information to get it delivered to Ventura. They said that would probably be mid afternoon the next day, but I was skeptical and resigned myself to making do for possibly a couple of days.
BUT...in the middle of the night my phone rang. A man with a heavily accented but pleasant voice wanted to check the house number. He works at the Santa Barbara airport but lives in Ventura and was delivering my bag plus two others on his return from work!
SO...once I adapted my watch to two hours gained from time zone change and one hour lost for daylight savings time, I am up and running and ready for the week!
RSS Feed