Flying Lessons

So my flights back from San Francisco were even worse, which caused me to learn some lessons. They made me check my bag at the gate because I was in the last boarding group. When I got on to the plane, there actually was overhead space so I wish I'd just carried my bag onto the plane anyway. As we taxied onto the runway I dozed off, exhausted. But when I woke up quite a bit later, I was disturbed to notice that we hadn't taken off. And an hour had passed. And I only had an hour and 15 minute layover in Denver.

Turns out, the crew had improperly loaded the luggage onto the plane, and apparently there was too much weight and it wasn't safely distributed, so they had to redistribute things. So we taxied back to the gate, me sitting on hold with United all that time, and when I finally got an agent she could not understand my English very well and took forever to retrieve my record because she couldn't make sense of my confirmation number. Only to find that there were no more flights to be booked on out of Denver that night.

But! We made up a lot of time in the air, and when we landed, there was still 10 minutes before my next plane was to take off. Also, the gates were close, only about 5 gates apart. I was the first off the plane and I ran my little heart out to the next gate, only to see my plane sitting there, not yet having left the gate, but the doors had closed and the gate agents wouldn't let me on no matter how much I pleaded.

It is harder to just miss your connection, knowing that 5 minutes would have made that crucial difference. I couldn't get back home until the next day, and my bag was MIA.

I have a friend in Denver. I've only really gotten to know her this year, but I had her out to my town a couple of weeks ago for the writing retreat, and we've gotten together at conferences. So I called her and ended up staying at her place. She and her husband were so nice, feeding me, giving me wine, staying up talking, providing me with pajamas and a toothbrush. I couldn't have been luckier. It was a silver lining to be able to spend an evening with them.

Lessons learned:

1) Always have my toiletries and a change of clothes in my backpack. I always do this when I check a bag, but I don't do it when I carry a bag on. More and more these days, they'll make us check our bag anyway before getting on the plane, and if that happens, get those glasses into my backpack! I had to sleep with my contacts in.

2) A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush. Get booked on another flight as soon as possible, especially when the issue is crew error rather than weather. Remember that they often lie about delay times.

3) Carry pain meds. I am too old to sit for 13 hours on planes without having problems with my knees and back. (God that's sad.)

4) Carry a crapload of cash. I had a $90 taxi fare that night.

5) Never fly United, and never fly through Chicago. This is a lesson I've already known and I've typically stuck with it, because it never goes well. I made an exception this time and paid the price. Every time in the last 8 years I've done it, I've either lost a bag or missed a connection or both.

6) Friends make everything worth it. Seriously, how lucky am I to have such great people in my life? In the end, the other stuff doesn't matter.

I am going back to the bay area in April, so let's hope that I will remember these lessons!