This morning I woke up an hour after my plane from Burlington took off. By the time I finished scrambling around throwing things into my suitcase my flight from Newark to San Diego was in the process of boarding…
dumb, dumb, dumb!
I forgot to set my alarm. Well, forgot isn’t the right way to put it. When I’m really tired some minor flaws creep into my reasoning.
Around 12:30 last night I was lying in bed reading, dozing, reading, dozing… at some point I looked at my clock in a half-awake daze and noticed I hadn’t set the alarm for 5:30 like I needed to. “oh, I’ll do that later… right before I go to bed” I thought. Five minutes later I was out cold and didn’t get up until 8 this morning.
Down side is, I won’t get into San Diego until 7:30 tonight, so I won’t have the afternoon to relax in slightly warmer weather, and it might delay (or possibly put the kibosh on) a little doper get-together planned for 8 tonight.
Up side is, they didn’t charge me any money to change my flight, and now I’ve got hours of Straight Dope time without being at work and having to pretend I’m doing something else.
A few years ago I was on my way back to the US from England via Canada (bloody cheap flights). The airline informed me I would have to clear customs in Toronto as well as in Frisco (2 country transfers = 2 customs)… joy of joys. NOW I know this isn’t true…
I cleared Toronto okay.
Get on plane for Frisco… flight runs late due to weather or some such. Finally arrive in Frisco. Go to collect bags… 1 had disappeared… wait half an hour or so for all the bags to be unloaded. Go to the bag claiming bit… wait another half an hour for some dimwit to finally tell me 'why do you need to clear customs again? Didn’t you already do this in Canada?" Yes, but I was told by the airline that I had to do this again. He laughs at me, wipes his eyes and informs me that my missing bag is on its way to its final destination… a flight leaving in 10 minutes from a tiny shed out on the runway… BUGGER…
I take off running with bags in tow… pushing people out of the way… all the frantic horse apples you’d expect… Passing the United desk I ask if it’s running late (praying to hear yes)… told no but the doors have just closed… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
I lived in a very small town, single runway… this was the last flight into town. When was the next one? 6am the next morning
Having just flown from Heathrow to Toronto to Frisco… to then miss the last flight because some twit told me incorrectly that I had to clear customs twice??? I was NOT a happy camper.
It was nearing midnight by this time. Ring the friend who was going to be picking me up (supposedly) in half an hour to let her know the situation and… lose it. I bust into tears… In the middle of Frisco International… on the phone… Blubbering…
Get off the phone and the manager who was closing up the United counter comes over and asks if everything is okay. I tell him my sob story through tears and snivels. He hands me a hanky and says that he’ll see what he can do.
I clear the tears and he says that he has managed to get me a room at a nearby hotel for a few hours kip. I tell him I can’t afford it but he says it has been taken care of. I cry again… But manage to get a few hours kip before catching the next flight at 6 am.
Bless that guy!!! I never got his name, but he was an angel
NO extra costs or anything either here. I was quite lucky.
