29 Ağustos 2010 Pazar

Air Travel -- Fun or None?

One short delay and one long one from Denver to Maui via San Francisco

I have a refrigerator magnet showing a woebegone Charle Brown saying, "Someday, my ship will come in, and with my luck, I'll be at the airport."

Just call me Charlie Brown.

Dateline: San Fransciso International Airport, May 15, 2009, 4:15 pm. PDT

United Flight 415 - DEN-SFO

Boeing 767, fully loaded,departed from Denver 40 minutes but landed in San Francisco on time. So far, so good. We arrived at Gate 87, which is the same gate our Maui flight was departing from. Hooray, we thought. They can't lose our luggage -- assuming it was on our plane to begin with.

United Flight 37 - SFO-OGG

Boarded aircraft, scheduled to depart at 1:1o p.m.. Sat and sat and sat. Captain announced a "small drip" from the left engine cowling. Mechanics going to check it out, and "we should be on our way shortly." Hah!

Flight attendants passed out water and started the movie. Then we were told to get off the plane with all our carry-ons. They didn't say, "change of aircraft," but that is what it turned out to be. We moved from Gate 87 to 85, where eventually, a smaller aircraft pulled up. United started prospecting for volunteers to leave tomorrow (free roundtrip ticket, free hotel in San Fransciso). We're going to a wedding tomorrow so couldn't accept.

Rescheduled Flight 37 was supposed to depart at 4:00, then 5:00 and now 5:30. It is supposed to arrive in Maui at 7:40. United still needs to offload 14 people and asked for volunteers willing to "leave in 20 minutes" for Honolulu and transfer to an interisland flight from there, arriving in Maui at 9:00-something p.m. And bags would not be transferred but would be waiting at the airport. In theory.

Right now, I have a confirmed seat on Flight 37, while my husband -- according to the status monitor -- is #12 on the list awaiting seat assignments. If we only have one seat, I'll give mine to him and try to join him tomorrow. It's his brother whose wedding we are going to.

Just call me Charlie Brown.

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