The Adventure That Was My Traveling This Past Weekend

Have you ever had one of those trips where nothing seemed to go right?  I'm usually very lucky where this is concerned but over the weekend, I had the worst travel experience I've ever had.

I was on a work-related trip in Lexington, Kentucky.  Sunday morning, I got a text from the airline saying that my flight from Midland to Houston was cancelled because there was no crew.  They put me on standby for the last plane out.  Unfortunately, that also meant I had to check my luggage.  The woman at the gate pointed at me and in a mean voice said, "You're not going!"

I go to the customer service desk.  You know those long, winding lines for the popular rides at Six Flags?  That's what this line was like.  It took me 30 minutes to get to the desk.  Then they wouldn't give me a hotel voucher because they claimed it was "weather related."  I tried to argue that, no, it was because there was no crew available.  But it was no use.  I was stuck at Bush Intercontinental Airport at 11pm.  I had not eaten since 11am.  Luckily there was a sandwich place still open.

I got out my trusty Mac and booked a room at a hotel with a free shuttle.  I was booked to come back to Midland on Monday, leaving at 12:35pm.  Great.  I can deal one night with no luggage.

I got up Monday morning and received a text from the airline.  "Update:  Your flight to Midland has been delayed and now departs at 2pm."

A second text later:  Your flight to Midland now departs at 3:35pm.

A third text:  Your flight to Midland now departs at 1:50pm

A fourth text:  Your flight to Midland now departs at 2:55pm.

A fifth text:  Your flight to Midland now departs at 3:20pm.

A sixth text:  Your flight to Midland now departs at 3:45pm.

When I finally got back to Midland, I thought, "this is great, these people will be waiting at the carousel.  I'll just go to the ticket counter and get my bag that arrived last night and be ahead of the game."

Nope.

They made an announcement that they would not be using the baggage carousel.  What?  I've never heard of that!  Instead, they made us line up at the ticket counter, brought the bags out one by one and called each person's name.  You guessed it:  I was one of the last ones called.

I will say this, with the exception of the mean lady at the gate Sunday night, all of the airline people were extremely nice.  Even the ones at the customer service desk that had to deal with all of the cranky passengers.