Saturday, June 18, 2011

Traveling Misadventures

When people ask if I like to travel I say, "I like to be other places. There is nothing about traveling that I like." The flight to and from Washington D.C. certainly illustrates this point. As we all know, the charge for bags has turned the passenger area into a cargo area. I was seated, reading my book, waiting for the plane to take off, when a flight attendant and passenger tried to put a bag into the cargo hold above my head. They dropped it and a corner of the bag along with its wheel slammed into my face and knocked off my glasses. I hardly received a sorry from either of them. This was a Delta flight, about the only choice we now have from the Twin Cities and this surely isn't a good example of customer service!!!

One time when flying to Hawaii, the flight attendant from Northwest asked me if I would mind changing my coach seat for one in first class and even gave me a voucher for my inconvenience!! After having a bag slammed into one's face, somehow I think at least a free drink might be offered!

The flight back was another adventure. I had a flight that was to leave a bit before 7 PM, but went to the airport early, so that I could make the walk to the Metro without any threat of rain. When I checked in I got the news that the flight was delayed an  hour, so I took my sweet time, and enjoyed a nice dinner, too. When I got back to the gate area, the flight was now marked for 9:30. It was obvious something was up because there was a huge line of people waiting to re-book their Delta flights. One monitor said the flight was to leave from Gate 21 and the other one said it was to leave from Oops! Really, that is what is said. I began to believe the monitor over the head of the re-booking desk so went to Gate 17 when it said it would leave from there. Some time later the gate was changed to 21, and then back to 17. We finally left at 10:30 from Gate 20. We were the last large group out of this part of the airport. We were given no explanation at all for the chaos going on. I think if passengers had some idea of what was happening, they could go with the flow a bit more.

We got into MSP at 11:40 PM at Gate G -22. That puts me about half way home, except I can't obviously get out of the terminal there. The moving sidewalks weren't working, so it was a long hike to the main part of the terminal. Then we found the nearest access to the baggage level was closed and we had to walk to the opposite side of the terminal to go down and then all the way back again to the carousel where our luggage was to arrive. This is the first time ever that my bag has gotten to the luggage area before I did!

It was also soaking wet -- this time from rain not from vodka. I took a taxi home and had the driver take me into the garage, so that I could stay out of the rain.  I dumped this beside the laundry area, went downstairs and gathered up all my mail, and crashed into bed.

There really is nothing about travel that is fun!

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