Adventures in Air Travel

I arrived at the airport on Wednesday afternoon to have my makeup remover thrown away, simply because it was 0.6 ounces over the limit, then have two of my bags x-rayed twice, and my suitcase searched through and rummaging through my underwear. Fantastic my private items out in public in Salt Lake City.

When I finally made it to the gate, I sit down, open up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows only to cringe at the latest announcement: my flight is delayed "indefinitely". What does that mean?! Apparently there were thunderstorms looming in Dallas, wreaking a bit of havoc at the airport. Best-Case scenario: flight leaves a little late. Worst-Case scenario: flight gets canceled. Having already experienced a canceled flight to Dallas because of the weather, I didn't want it to happen again. But what can you do when you are left at the mercy of the ticket agent behind the desk? Not much, but hope that he or she is in a good mood. Thankfully, our ticket agent (never got his name) was in an excellent disposition considering the circumstances of grumbling passengers.

Luckily, at the next update time of 4:30 (the flight was scheduled for 4:10), the ticket agent reported that the FAA had scheduled our plane with a departure time of 5:56, meaning that if all went well we would board the plane between 5:00 and 5:15, push back, and wait for our designated departure time. I was crossing my fingers, while thoroughly engrossed in the final adventures of Harry Potter.

We boarded the plane around 5:20, and for the first time, I had seen a flight that was nearly 1/2 empty. Each row had at least one open seat, so I don't really understand why they charged me $100! for a flight change with so many open seats. Oh well, I digress. I had heard on the way on the plane that they would be feeding all the passengers due to the delay, however, I had already purchased a sub from Quizno's. I was a little miffed. As I sat and we took off into the sky, and held on for dear life through the bits of turbulence, I felt like anything but hungry. Thankfully, as we crossed through the clouds, the ride evened out, and I regained my appetite. Turns out they never meant to feed those left in coach; I must have misunderstood. I was glad I bought the sandwich.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and tried to sleep the rest of the flight. Good news from the cockpit: we would be landing early! Yay. However, once we actually did hit the ground, we taxied for about 15 minutes, and then sat. The captain announced that due to the numerous flights that were delayed because of the weather, we'd have to wait for the gate we were assigned to be vacated. It would be another 15 minutes or so. Great. I tried my hardest to read the content in the American Way magazine, but that was hardly engaging. Cent and I texted back and forth, wondering if I was on or off the plane or what. Nearly 20 minutes later we finally budged towards the gate. Sheesh. Then, to my utter dismay, we sat about 30 feet from the gate. After another ten minutes, the captain told us there was "no reason we should be waiting" but that the ramp staff wasn't there to help park the plane! What?! We finally pulled into gate A24, and I was finally liberated!

Gotta love travel.