What I did the other three hours

kw: travel notes, mishaps

I have to hand it to the Customer Service folks, at American Airlines: they did a fine job straightening out the mess. Kudos to them all.

As it happened, on the way from Philadelphia to the Ontario, CA airport, I had a four-hour layover in Dallas. After an hour wandering around photographing the floor art, I had a bit of lunch and read a while. Then I decided to check my flight. I had noticed, when getting on the Skyline train, that there was a lot of wind. It was a portent.

I went to the gate my flight was to leave from, and asked if the flight was still projected to be on time. I was told it had just been canceled a few minutes earlier, and the screens were not updated yet. The flight was on a S-80, a somewhat small jet, and jets that size were all grounded because of a windstorm that had come up. My flight was canceled, the next one to Ontario was also canceled, and my next chance to get there was the 8:20 pm flight, if there was space.

I was advised to try to get on a flight to Orange County, the John Wayne Airport. For that, I'd have to go the opposite terminal. This required, if I didn't want to walk the skybridge, the longest Skyline trip that is currently possible. Luckily, it only takes ten minutes.

At the new gate, I was told I could indeed get on one of the flights to John Wayne. They could not guarantee whether my luggage would get properly transferred, however. I soon found out why. The clerk clicked keys for a couple of minutes, handed me a boarding pass, unlocked a door and took me right onto the plane. It was a flight that had been delayed for a mechanical problem to be fixed, and it took off ten minutes after I was on board. The clerk said as she left, that the baggage claim people at JW would take care of me.

Fortunately, she was right. I got to Orange County without trouble, and went right to the BC office. The clerk there said my bag would probably be on the 8:30 flight I'd decided not to wait for, and suggested we use the normal claim procedure. The earliest I might get the bag would be just after midnight. She gave me an overnight kit (toothbrush and toothpaste, razor and cream, and a few other amenities), and sent me to the car rental counters with suggestions how to get a good "out one airport, in another" deal.

I did get such a deal without problems, and for less than I'd been expecting to pay. After checking into my hotel, I went to the nearest Wal-Mart and bought the smallest quantities of underwear and socks I could find, and a $12 shirt. That was the right decision. I gave the night desk at my hotel instructions to wake me if the bag came in, and went to sleep.

I awoke at 3am and called AA's baggage claim people. They said the bag had been found and would be delivered after 8:30 am. Though I was on East Coast time, I managed to get some more sleep. Just as I was leaving for my first conference meeting (in my $12 shirt, but no suit), the courier called to tell me he'd deliver the suitcase before noon. I connected him with the hotel people and went my way. When I returned about 1 pm, there was my bag. The mischief the weather had done, several competent people in a row had undone. Now I can get on with the conference.

And why didn't I post earlier? I used up a lot of my laptop's battery editing the photos at the Dallas airport. But I could not get a free wireless connection. Then when I got to my hotel in California, I didn't have the charger cord (it was in the missing bag). Now, after the first day of the conference, I have a bit of time to get these two posts out before I crash for the night. I expect I'll sleep well! Thank God, and thank all the people who helped me the past thirty hours.