The Joys of Flying are Without Number

The title is stolen from a cartoon. The sentence continues with a colon and then the number 0. Friday January 9, 2015 I had an AMS council meeting in San Antonio. The meeting was 2:30-10PM so I decided to fly in that morning and then out the next morning. The Monday before my flight, Delta emailed me through Orbitz to say that I was rebooked on a 7:10AM flight, which then entailed getting up at 5AM to get to the airport on time.

I got to a coldy and rainy San Antonio without incident, and except for having to pay $20 for two enchiladas and a beer at an almost deserted river walk eatery, all was well until about 4PM when I was bored and checked my email.

Hi RICHARD,

Unfortunately, US Airways 1983 to Charlotte Douglas (CLT) has been canceled. Please contact Orbitz at 800-656-4546 to reschedule your flight. Provide your record locator: AP1101013JY4VWS6 when you call.

I snuck out of the meeting and called Orbitz and called them. Each of the calls ended badly. The first one said “you called the wrong number.” I got transferred to another number and disconnected. On a second try, after four minutes on hold, I got someone who told me “that’s not your record locator” and I got disconnected. After I retrieved the booking record locator, I tried a third time. The person said she couldn’t help me but would transfer my call, and I was once again disconnected.

Since the flight was on USAir I called them. A helpful woman told me that I had been rebooked on an American flight that left at 8:50AM went through Dallas and got to RDU at 2:30PM. I thanked her profusely, went backed to the meeting. We finished up business at 6:30 had a couple of glasses of wine and dinner then a final discussion 8-9.

Tired but happy I went back to my room and watched some golf. After a while I decided I should check on my flight. I logged on to American, navigated to my flight and there it was: they had replaced my return on Saturday January 10 by one on Sunday January 11. This was upsetting because I didn’t have a hotel reservation or a change of clothes for the extra day. After a couple of calls, first to American and then to USAir, I had a flight leaving at 12:45 Saturday and arriving back to RDU at 6:53.

Though it was now 10PM I went down to the bar for a couple of glasses of wine to soothe my jangled nerves. I ran into SAMSI director Richard Smith who told me that San Antonio was expecting freezing rain, which is why all the flights Saturday morning were cancelled.

Saturday morning I slept in until 6:30. I opened the curtains to see my magnificent view of the Denny’s across the street and the freeway in the background. Very light rain and 35 degrees. Oh well, at least I didn’t have to set my alarm early and rush to get to the airport. I did some work, and some time later sitting in the San Antonio airport, I wrote this.

I am happy to say that the rest of the trip went well and I got home about 7:45. When I got to Dallas an checked my email, I got a note from the ever helpful Orbitz saying that my flight from Charlotte to RDU was on time. Not sure why I should care since the flight from San Antonio to Charlotte was cancelled.

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