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Well, at least I don't have DVT. Yet.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008 — posted by Sarah
Today's trip to Vancouver for DocTrain West started harmlessly enough. An 8 a.m. flight out of Raleigh/Durham (RDU) left pretty much on time. Matt and I were on-board; Sheila is booked on a later flight.But then, a thunderstorm hit DFW (at 10 in the morning??) and so our plane circled Waco for about an hour.
When we landed at DFW, it was 10:58 a.m. The outbound flight to Vancouver was scheduled to leave at 10:55 a.m. I figured the storms probably delayed the outbound flight, too. They did...until 11:05 a.m. And you know what, you can't make it from gate C35 to gate D20 in 7 minutes.
So I called the nice people at American. They offered me the next nonstop flight, six hours later. Ugh. Oh, and my lovely preselected, UPGRADED seat on the previous flight? No? How about maybe an exit row? Nope, not that either. So, sit around in DFW for six hours and then another four hours in a lousy seat? Ick.
Off we go to visit the nice people at the Admirals Club and see if they can help. They took my (original) boarding pass, did some typing, and then looked puzzled. "Hmmm. The system doesn't think you're in this seat." That would be because the plane left without me. See, I'm standing right here and the plane is up in the sky with my seat.
Lots more tapping. Eventually, we rebooked onto a flight to San Francisco (SFO) with a connection onto Alaska Airlines up to Vancouver. The agent assured us that checked bags would be pulled and would get onto these flights. We wanted to believe her.
DFW to SFO was uneventful. Got some decent seats, but sadly no upgrades.
Arrived in SFO, changed terminals, had to re-clear security (booo, pet peeve). Wandered down to Alaska Airlines.
And then a miracle occurred. They announced that four first-class seats were available for a nominal fee, first-come, first-served, and we were standing less than 10 feet from the podium. Wooo!
I was quite impressed with the operations at Alaska Airlines. Cheerful, happy, and competent.
So finally, we arrive in Vancouver, where the sun was shining (!), six hours later than scheduled.
Last stop, baggage claim. Watch the carousel turn. Look for baggage. Don't see it.
Meanwhile, the DFW-YVR flight arrived at about the same time. On a whim, we checked it, and sure enough, there were Matt's bags.
Things could be worse. For starters, I don't have DVT. Yet.
Oh, and I'll probably get extra miles from my cross-country jaunt.
And Sheila? Last I heard, she had been rerouted from RDU-DFW-YVR to RDU-STL-SEA-YVR with arrival moved from 7 p.m. to "around midnight."
Labels: travel
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