Arrrggghhh

It seemed so simple...

• 5:30am flight from Dayton to Charlotte - two and a half hour layover
• 9:30am flight from Charlotte to Dallas - two hour layover
• 1:10pm flight from Dallas to Houston - and done at 2:28pm

Looks like it should all work out just fine. There's enough time to grab a meal in Dallas, enough time that even a few delays shouldn't be a problem. Heck, The Girl even dropped me off at Dayton at 4:20 - tons of time to make it through security and onward to the gate. Dayton's a nice little airport. Things should be beautiful.

Should...

The flight from Dayton took off on time right at 5:30. At 5:40, however, the pilot came on and told us we were returning to Dayton because of mechanical problems. Little delay. His words were that they didn't yet know whether it was a little glitch of a significant problem. Could be a quick check or an hour to get it fixed.

We sat on the tarmac for ten or so minutes and got told it was a significant problem, at least an hour to fix. We got off the plan and were given cards to call US Air's customer service number in case we had connections that would be missed.  At this point, we weren't looking at taking off until 7:30, probably missing my connection to Dallas. The customer service folks were nice and helpful and even eliminated a connection...

• 1:01pm flight from Charlotte to Houston - longer layover in Charlotte but only one connection - better! - done at 2:31pm

7:30 became 9:00 became 10:00 became a cancelled flight to Charlotte, so on the phone again (1-888-200-9865 - I have it memorized at this point.) Grab a bagel and an apple from Starbucks. Luckily there's an easy enough work around:

• 12:05pm flight from Dayton to Charlotte - eighty minute layover
• 2:50pm flight from Charlotte to Houston (get in at 4:23pm - ninety minutes late, not too bad)

Still workable. I'm coming to love the Dayton airport. Interesting carpet.

The only problem is that I don't actually have a seat on the 12:05 flight from Dayton. I'm on standby, and they're hoping people will take their $275 incentive to get bumped.

Predictably, nobody took the incentive. I'm on the phone again.

• 1:21pm flight from Dayton to Philadelphia - forty minute layover (tight, tight)
• 3:30pm flight from Philadelphia to Charlotte - an hour layover
• 6:20pm flight from Charlotte to Houston - done at 7:55 (now five and a half hours late)

It's 12:20pm. I've been in the Dayton airport since 4:30 - other than thirty minutes on the plane and tarmac. Grab a chicken sandwich and fries from the little bar. Not a bad sandwich.

Oddly, I made the 1:21pm flight. Of course, it didn't take off until twenty minutes late and took more time to get to Philly than it should have. So I deplane at 3:20pm to make my 3:30pm flight. Things'll still work fine if the connection's close. I'm taking off from gate A20. We're getting in to...F terminal.

It's a bus ride from F to A. I get to A20 at 3:46.

I'm on the phone again.

• 1:21pm flight from Dayton to Philadelphia - this one's already happened, made it out of Dayton
• 6:00pm flight from Philadelphia to Chicago - layover ninety minutes
• 9:15pm flight from Chicago to Houston on Continental - done at 11:43pm (nine hours late)

I take a walk from A20 to C25 and sit down. C25 is a huge area. It's got tons of space to spread out. So the gate gets moved to C19 which is small, cramped, and hot.

Thanks, kids.

The Chicago flight starts boarding at 6:00...for a 6:00 take-off. It's a huge plane with relatively comfy seats.

We leave the ground at 6:40.

They make up most of the time in the air, and we get in only ten minutes late somehow. I head to the Continental gate B4 to make sure things are kosher because I had a boarding pass printed by US Air for a Continental flight. The gate's moved to B2. I check in with the gate agent who says, "Oh, you're the one. I saw we had somebody on this flight without a ticket."

Without a ticket?

Somehow US Air entered things wrong, and the gate agent said she had to get me a paper ticket. She's on the phone this time. She heads to an office, prints me a ticket, and I'm straight on the plane.

Seats are a little tight.

Then my neighbor sits down.

She's...um...well...she's a little plump.

Let's just say that quarters were a bit cramped.

Let's say she had her seat, a quarter of my seat, and a quarter of the seat on the other side, too.

I wish I had a more story-arc appropriate ending, folks. The last flight was cramped and packed, but we actually got into Houston twenty minutes earlier than scheduled. I got a shuttle to the hotel, and the hotel folks gave me a key that worked just fine.

So, after getting up at 2:30am Saturday to get a 5:30am flight, I landed in Houston at 11:30pm Saturday and made it to my hotel at 12:40am Sunday.

Why, yes, I do love flying, why do you ask?

PS - In case you were wondering, I'm in Houston to help teach a Material Science camp for ASM.