So I'm heading home from Boise and think I'll get to the airport early and fire up my laptop to do some adjusting on APoS. Had an early lunch at Panda Express, again (don't judge me), then turned in my car and went to check in my bag at Southwest...and turned out I'd been bumped till the next morning. My Boise flight was running too late for me to make my connection in Denver, so they just moved me to a 7am flight on Friday. And I get to pay for my own hotel room. Not one word from them prior to this.
Fortunately, I had worked up some alternatives for just this situation and remembered there was an American flight to Buffalo by way of O'Hare. So checked with them, got a seat and canceled the Southwest flight. Cost an extra $90 and I didn't have time to do anything except get to the plane and find my seat, but it would get me into Buffalo hours earlier than SW would.
Except...then we sat at the gate for half an hour past our departure time. Some problem with the reservation system. Which makes no sense. Still, I had my book to read...and while I was changing planes at O'Hare and only had an hour and 25 minutes between landing and that flight taking off, to start with, I could make it okay.
Except...when we landed at O'Hare, we sat on the tarmac for an additional 15 minutes waiting for a gate. At the end of one terminal. Then I had to be at a gate that was two terminals over and past the security area. No time to grab dinner or a drink or anything. I barely had time to pee, which I absolutely had to do. I made it 1 minute before they'd have locked me out, followed by three other people who were racing to make the connection, too. And American's attitude? Good thing you rushed; you'd have missed the flight.
This is not the first time I've had to hurry between connections, but it's gotten worse. That's part of the reason I don't like to travel, anymore. I'm not able to just enjoy it. It's always hurry-hurry-hurry, the schedules are crap, and the attendants are really apathetic.
Dunno what I can do about it, but I must say -- it does seem like we're regressing to this method of travel...
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