Trying to Fly Home: A Comedy of Errors
So, as y'all may or may not know, I went out to Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks to spend time with the lovely glashund and attend Anthrocon. The con was great! I met Mercedes Lackey, and got to watch ursulav try desperately not to fangirl herself to death at same! I did some solid minion-ing, and hung out with friends, and everything was lovely.
Then I tried to fly home.
Let me tell you, internets, the sort of things I go through at airports are NOT helping my travel anxiety. Original plan is Pit > Chicago > Seatac, but the first flight gets canceled as a thunderstorm so severe they EVACUATE THE CONTROL TOWER decides to sit on top of the Pittsburgh airport. There were also tornado warnings. I may have taken my second Xanax of the evening when that happened.
So, okay, I need to be switched to a later flight, because obviously I'm missing my connection now, so when the storm is over I do just that and get a flight for 5-ish AM through San Francisco. Talk to mmsword on phone, give him flight numbers, all that good stuff. Not very long after that, he calls me back to inform me that he tried to check on my San Fran flight, but it's been CANCELED. Buh?! So, unable to find a human being working the ticket desks, I poke one of the kiosks about my flight. I've been bumped AGAIN, to another Chicago flight around 8 AM, which the machine helpfully informs me is overbooked, so someone might need to volunteer to take United credit in exchange for their ticket.
Clearly the only sane response at this point is hysterical laughter, at least if you've gone without food and sleep as long as I have, and have taken two Xanax.
I go back to glashund's house with him, stuffing some food into myself and taking a brief nap before I need to head BACK to the airport. Other than the TSA trying to be mildly insistent that their "new" body scanners are TOTALLY FINE, FOR REALS when I opt out, the trip to Chicago goes okay. The flight FROM Chicago to Seattle is delayed by two hours and has its gate change at least once, but I made it home!
If I never have to fly again, I swear, I will be DELIRIOUSLY happy.
Then I tried to fly home.
Let me tell you, internets, the sort of things I go through at airports are NOT helping my travel anxiety. Original plan is Pit > Chicago > Seatac, but the first flight gets canceled as a thunderstorm so severe they EVACUATE THE CONTROL TOWER decides to sit on top of the Pittsburgh airport. There were also tornado warnings. I may have taken my second Xanax of the evening when that happened.
So, okay, I need to be switched to a later flight, because obviously I'm missing my connection now, so when the storm is over I do just that and get a flight for 5-ish AM through San Francisco. Talk to mmsword on phone, give him flight numbers, all that good stuff. Not very long after that, he calls me back to inform me that he tried to check on my San Fran flight, but it's been CANCELED. Buh?! So, unable to find a human being working the ticket desks, I poke one of the kiosks about my flight. I've been bumped AGAIN, to another Chicago flight around 8 AM, which the machine helpfully informs me is overbooked, so someone might need to volunteer to take United credit in exchange for their ticket.
Clearly the only sane response at this point is hysterical laughter, at least if you've gone without food and sleep as long as I have, and have taken two Xanax.
I go back to glashund's house with him, stuffing some food into myself and taking a brief nap before I need to head BACK to the airport. Other than the TSA trying to be mildly insistent that their "new" body scanners are TOTALLY FINE, FOR REALS when I opt out, the trip to Chicago goes okay. The flight FROM Chicago to Seattle is delayed by two hours and has its gate change at least once, but I made it home!
If I never have to fly again, I swear, I will be DELIRIOUSLY happy.