Travel Fun

Well... don't we love winter time travel. Last week I was in Dayton for meetings and was scheduled to leave on the 13th at 7:35PM with CO... Well they canceled that and the only way I knew, was that they offered to check me in online for my flight NEXT MORNING! I promptly called my office travel agent who found out that most flights to Dayton or Cincinnati were canceled but I could rush to the airport for 3:40PM to Cincinnati.

Well, I took my car and raced to the airport just to find out at 3PM around boarding time that the crew was not there (although the plane was). They told us to check back after 6PM when the crew arrives.

I think you guessed it right - the crew showed up but the plane was gone by then. And finally we were supposed to go around 7PM but they couldn't get the plane to the jetway as another one was blocking it - finally we took off at 8PM or so. Interesting afternoon working at the Continental lounge.

On my way back - CO was going to be at least 2 hours late and I needed to make it in time to NY for Friday night event. Delta was kind enough to offer a seat for $700 (yes, can you believe it? One way CinCi to NY - it's under 2 hour flight!). I managed to befriend a CO agent and explained my dilemma and she was kind enough to push me to the delta flight for FREE! Talk about great service there! Finally, the DL flight was just 1 hour late and I made my commitment only about 45 minutes late so life was saved for now.

This week I've been to Seattle (and writing this sitting on the floor at the Seattle airport). I was supposed to fly back yesterday with CO... well, they canceled it. And all the flights east coast were full. So they gave me a $12 meal voucher and a hotel night in the middle of nowhere and re-scheduled to next morning Alaska Air... yep, you got it - my Alaska was canceled this morning too! What's wrong with these travel agents and airlines - they have my email and cell phone - can't they text, call or email when these things happen? Why is it always client's problem to fix their issues?

Anyway, I was stranded with a fellow traveler who called his agency from the shuttle bus and found out that AA was likely to take off and had seats. So I called my travel service and got a one way far for $400 to JFK and it seems that we're only about 1 hour delayed at this point in time... wish me luck.

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