Sometimes I beat around the bush with my subjects. This time, there should be no mistaking the hate I hold in my heart. AmericaWest, the airline of hate, should fall off the face of the earth (after letting all passengers deplane).
I’m currently in Boston. I have taken some time off work–including missing a lunch with our company CEO–to be here. Monday I worked all morning. It was a day of meetings, and I ran home to pack and head to the airport for my red-eye flight. My parents picked me up at 6:45pm, and I got to the airport about 90 minutes before my flight. I checked in at the curb, and cruised to the gate with my iPod and new book. We boarded the plane on time, and rolled out onto the runway. And stopped. And remained stopped.
The captain gets onto the intercom and tells us that some dohickey on the wing won’t go down, but “it’s not necessary for flying.” Oh that’s reassuring. However, we can’t take off when it’s in the “up” position, so we head back to the gate. We’re told it’ll take about 20 minutes to fix, which causes me to do math (ugh) and realize that I will be cutting it very close catching my connecting flight in Vegas. The minutes tick by, and they deplane about half of us because we’re not going to make our connecting flights. GAH.
I wait in line for 90 minutes to get a new flight. There were a few folks who got to take a direct flight to JFK on another airline that evening, but everyone else was stuck. Including the incredibly annoying girl who kept whining (out loud) that OMG her friends were driving down to meet her at The Cape and OMG whine whine bitch moan, rinse, repeat. I managed to remember that Bryan is generally nice in these situations, and gets more than he asks for, but exactly what he expects. So I finally get up to the counter to be re-ticketed (and by now they’ve deplaned everyone), and I am falsely understanding and empathetic toward the ticket lady. (I am lucky to start with the horse-faced, gum-smacking, fake-nail wearing, Janice-from-Friends woman, but end up with the other, slightly less offensive woman.) I can’t get out on the 6:15am flight because it’s already been filled by the re-ticked people in front of me. So I agree to the 9:30am flight, 30 minutes in Vegas, then on to Boston. And because I was fake-nice, I got upgraded to first class (which is what I was going for, as I should be compensated for all this bullshit).
My parents come back to pick me up at 11pm. I go home, surprise the dog (who knows that suitcase = not coming home, yet there I was), get a few hours of sleep, and am up again first thing to go back to the airport. Due to a small act of an unknown travel diety, my flight out of San Jose left on time, I made my connection in Vegas without a hitch, and arrived in Boston around 7:50pm EST. AW’s suckage continued though, as I stood around for 40 minutes waiting for the luggage to start coming out of the carousel.
Happily, for $1.25, I took a bus and hallelujah to the MBTA (aka The T) and made it to the hotel quite easily in under 40 minutes. (Bryan took a cab and it was $30 after tip, and took 25 minutes. I think my deal was better.) Also, I missed dinner with Bryan and the guys, which worked out fine, as both Bryan and Greg got minor food poisoning at the restaurant, whereas I got to have some Uno’s pizza and a tasty beer after my travels.
So here I am in Boston. It is a lovely city.