Adventures in Air Travel

Note: these two entries were written longhand on my trip back to Orange County from Minnesota. Also note that there is some rather blue language, which I am not going to edit.

MSP ---> DEN

Our flight was originally scheduled for 7:10 PM Central time. When I checked online about the status, it said the flight was delayed to 7:40 PM. So we left later for the airport than originally planned. At 7:40 PM we did not even have a plane at the gate to board yet. I started to freak out in the airport (quietly to myself, anyway). Somehow we got a plane at the gate and boarded. We were able to pull away from the gate by 8:10. The original schedule had a 1:06 layover in Denver. But the flight is leaving one hour late. Now I am totally freaked. Captain just came over the PA system and said the flight takes 1:37, according to my calculations we have already missed our plane in Denver.

I fucking predicted this when I actually thought about the itinerary. I so wish the flight had been overbooked and they had asked for folks to take the first flights out in the morning. We would have stayed another night in the Twin Cities. I am certain we will be spending the night in the Denver airport. We are so fucked. And I am so upset.

DEN ---> SNA

Okay, I freaked a bit much on that last leg of the flight. I also forgot about Mountain Time, so we did not miss the plane. There were 5 of us on the MSP flight that needed to be on the flight to SNA. The flight attendants had us raise our hands and told everyone else that they needed to let us off the plane first. That totally rocked. Frontier airways rocks. No tray table ads!

We ran the three gates to get to the new plane and they had just finished up the pre-boarding (because of my hip, I always pre-board), so I was able to get right on the plane. Razor thin margin of error. We are now settled in on the new plane. A huge bolt of lightning just hit nearby, so we will be delayed leaving the gate. As it is, we are cutting it really close to be able to land at SNA due to the curfew. All planes must land by 10:55 PM. No exceptions. All later planes are diverted. Fucking Newport Beach NIMBYs. At least we will make it home tonight, and will not be sleeping in the airport. I hope if they divert us, they choose to divert to Ontario or Long Beach, rather than LAX.

Oh good, we are finally pulling away from the gate. Flight attendants are being instructed to sit down for takeoff! And now the complete douchebag accross the aisle from me has pulled out his cellphone and started making phonecalls. AFTER everyone has been instructed to turn off and put away all electronics. RULES asshole! (This same prize - later in the flight pulled out a laptop, an iPod, his crackberry, AND a portable DVD player and set it all up on the three seats in his row.)

We landed at 10:53 PM. Just barely made it. That crew was AWESOME.