I never sleep well before a flight. I was up tossing and turning around 4am this morning. When the alarm went off at six, I was wide awake, a little queasy, and ready to go.
Thankfully, I have the good sense to check my flights online before I go to the airport. That’s how I learned that my 9am had been delayed until 11. I picked up the phone and called AA. “I won’t make my connection,” I told them. “No problem,” the agent replied, you’ve been rerouted through O’Hare. “Oh ho ho no, that won’t do at all,” I said. “What else you got?”
That’s how I ended up on the same itinerary, two hours later. All fine and good, right? Wrong. At boarding time we learned that our plane was broken, “everyone please form a single file line at the podium, we’ll get you all rebooked as quickly as possible.”
When this happens to you, you must hightail it to the check in desk in the arrivals terminal, even though it means you have to clear security again. Why? The line is WAY shorter out there and the agent less short tempered. Take note.
The agent offerered me any number of unacceptable options. “How ’bout a four hour stop over in Denver?!” she said, brightly. I did not say this: “What, are you high?” Nope, I kept my calm and asked her to keep looking. Which is how I found myself on the third itinerary of the day, leaving Seattle at 130 pm. That’s right. I was up at 4am for a flight at 130 in the afternoon.
You know what’s not the least bit funny about this trip? That it’s paid for with the voucher I got when my flight to NYC was diverted to O’Hare because the plane was broken. AA, what the hell? I’m really happy not to fly on broken planes, but could you, you know, fix them before selling me a ticket on them?
I have this weird anxiety that I’m going to do all my business travel on an endless voucher from AA. They’ll compensate me yet again for things gone wrong, I’ll use the voucher, things will go wrong, I’ll get a voucher… it will be a never ending airline purgatory.
I wish I’d flown Alaska.
rofl.
not at your misery, just at your comic, wry, re-telling.
glad you (finally) made it to Austin.
I never sleep well before flight as well. I always wake up a couple times during the night and stay awake before the alarm go off. so stressful…
I’m not glad to hear about your travel woes, but on the upside, your stories might be the basis for a great screen play.
Travel safely (if you can manage it).
Bummer for you. If America Airlines is on Twitter, I hope you gave them what for and added this link to your complaints!
Have fun at SXSW. Glad you made it safely to your destination.
OMG! Have you seen my Twitter stream the past two weeks? Don’t even get me started on AA. I just went on a business trip to Miami which started last Sunday. Got to Honolulu International Airport for my 9:30 p.m. flight to LAX. DELAYED DUE TO MECHANICAL ISSUES. One hour later, we’re on our way. Arrive in LAX LATE. Then we board our AA flight from LAX-MIA, pull out of the gate, taxi for a bit, then get word that we need to return to the gate for a “fuel pump issue.” We sit for a while, then finally told an hour later it’s good to go. Arrive in Miami LATE.
Had a great business trip to Miami. No problems there. And no problems on my return flight from MIA-LAX yesterday. But the LAX-HNL leg had problems again. The same flight that we just arrived on that was supposed to take us to Honolulu, was now out of service with “mechanical problems.” Guest what DELAYED AGAIN! When all was said and one, I finally arrived in Honolulu at 7:35 p.m., one hour LATE.
I was 3 for 4 with delayed flights this trip. I won’t even go into the food (lack there of on some flights) and rude service they also provided us.
I was thinking it’s just me, but it seems to be a growing industry trend. I agree that mechanical problems are serious business, and it’s better to be safe then sorry, but seriously…don’t these guys take care of their airplanes? I’m almost willing to give up free soda and juice for a plane that will depart on time…almost. 🙂
Have fun at SXSW and looking forward to following the fun online.
Geesh … at least you guys got *on* an AA flight. I’m still looking for an AA replacement ticket …
Wow. I rarely fly and had to last week to Atlanta. I am soooo glad I didn’t have to go through that, I was stressed enough. You handled it well!
AA from Cancun to Seattle via Dallas on Friday:
Delayed in Cancun not once, but twice. first time due to possible mechanical problem with wings. Cleared but delayed again whilst maintenance log went missing. Then flight delayed again due to oh, loss of power. Delayed again in Dallas. no gate for us. After tearing through the airport after clearing customs, i finally arrived at Seattle gate to discover, oh, flight delayed. some lost time made up on flight but alas, no luggage upon arrival in Seatac.
how much do i hate AA???? a lot.